County Superintendent of Schools

Cali Binks has been a school superintendent for 17 years across two districts, most recently Yucaipa Calimesa Joint Unified. She started at community college before transferring to UC Riverside. She then earned a teaching credential and a master's degree in special education. She began as a first grade special education teacher in Fontana Unified. She then worked her way up through assistant principal, principal and deputy superintendent roles.

She says her top issue is preparing students for whatever comes after graduation, whether college, the trades, the military or the workforce. By her own account, she kept her district financially stable through the COVID-19 pandemic. She also says she cut chronic absenteeism and expanded help for English learners and students with disabilities.

She promises to focus on early reading. She says students who read at grade level by third grade are more likely to graduate. She also promises more career training partnerships with local businesses, trade unions and colleges.

Alejandro Alex Vara spent 34 years in the Rialto Unified School District, most recently as a principal and vice principal. They also served eight years on the Redlands Unified school board. They spent four years on a regional vocational program board and six years on the state board that oversees high school sports. They have also taught as a lecturer at Cal State San Bernardino.

Vara says their top priority is student mental health. They want schools to hire more counselors and rely less on suspensions and detentions. They say those punishments fall harder on racial minorities. As a Redlands board member, they say they helped expand computer science classes and added school resource officers for campus safety.

Vara promises to track the county's dropout rate. They say it runs around 14 percent, higher than the state average. They also promise more mental health staff, competitive teacher pay and more schools earning the state's top academic rating.