VUSD Board Elections 2022: Dr. Randy Villegas Elected to Trustee Area 6 Seat

By Ayla Ozturk

On Tuesday, November 8, 2022, Dr. Randy Villegas was elected to represent Trustee Area 6 on the Visalia Unified School District [VUSD] Board of Education.

Dr. Villegas was provisionally appointed in December 2021 after Christopher Pope resigned from the Board. “I didn’t hesitate to step up because I knew that I wanted our community to have representation,” he says.

Dr. Villegas has worked on political campaigns in the past, but this was his first time being a candidate.

He says, “It was a unique experience being a candidate for the first time I’ve worked on other political campaigns, but I truly am truly honored to continue representing Area 6 and VUSD.”

The Visalia Unified Teachers Association, the California Teachers Association, and the classified school employees association endorsed Dr. Villegas.

“I’m honored to have the support of our educators and our teachers,” he says. “But also of our classified staff, and that includes everyone from our bus drivers to our cafeteria workers, so I’m very honored to have the support of so many working-class families.”

The A-G requirements are the University of California [UC] and California State University [CSU] admission requirements.

Dr. Villegas wants VUSD to be the first school district in the Central Valley to fully align its graduation requirements with A-G.

“I truly believe that all of our students are capable of meeting A-G requirements,” Dr. Villegas says.

The Board recently added a third year of math to the graduation requirements. Dr. Villegas wants to continue realigning VUSD’s graduation standards.

“One of the reasons I joined this board was, as a community member, I was incredibly frustrated with the decision to not add a third year of math as a graduation requirement,” he says. “I’m very proud of the fact that we were able to change that.”

In addition to A-G alignment, Dr. Villegas looks forward to making ethnic studies a graduation requirement.

He says, “I’m really excited about the opportunity to expand courses like ethnic studies and make it a graduation requirement.”

Dr. Villegas is a political science professor at the College of the Sequoias [COS].

VUSD high school students can take concurrent COS courses for free. The only thing they have to pay for is textbooks and other materials.

There are also dual enrollment classes, meaning the college course is taught at the high school.

“I want to continue working on and expanding is expanding dual enrollment options at all of our high schools,” Dr. Villegas says. “I think it’s just a great opportunity that can save our families and students thousands and thousands of dollars.”

Dr. Villegas wants students to know that he is similar to them. “I’m the youngest person on the board right now, and I’m the only person under 30 years old,” he says. “I want to be a voice for students.”

He adds, “I was a major band geek. I did high school and drumline all four years, I did sports and athletics. I felt like education was an area where I was able to grow in so many ways.”

Dr. Villegas says he is here to serve all students, and the community, and to try to make students’ experience at VUSD the best he can.

He says, “I’m really big on youth and student participation. So if [students are] ever looking for ways to get involved, if [they] ever have any feedback, they can always reach out to me by email.”

Students can contact Dr. Villegas at rvillegas@vusd.org.

“I’ve had a passion for education my whole life. I knew it was really transformative for me and my own family. I wanted to make sure that we were supporting students here in Visalia Unified and making sure that they all had the resources and tools that they need to be successful.”

-Dr. Randy Villegas

Tags: area 6, randy villegas, rangers, Redwood, redwood gigantea, redwood high school, redwood journalism, redwood rangers, rhs, visalia ca, vusd area 6, vusd board elections 2022, vusd board of education