Q&A: Meet Orange Unified's New Superintendent

After years with interim leaders and divisions on its Board of Education, the Orange Unified School District officially has a new superintendent. 

Rachel H. Monárrez, Ph.D., started in her new position on July 1 . In May, the Board voted 7-0 to hire her for a three-year contract to lead the district that has about 26,000 students in preschool through 12th grade.

Dr. Monárrez is a Southern California native, earned her undergraduate degree from U.C. Irvine, and is bilingual in English and Spanish. This is her 32nd year in education and she most recently served as superintendent in Worcester, Massachusetts, a position she held for three years. Prior to that, she was deputy superintendent in the San Bernardino City Unified School District, and previously worked as an administrator, principal, and teacher at other California public school districts.

On July 7, Spotlight Schools was one of several news outlets invited to the district’s office to meet with Dr. Monárrez for a roughly hour-long session where she answered questions on the spot. The following is a condensed version of the interview that has been lightly edited for clarity and flow.

Priorities for the OUSD

What is the #1 thing on your to-do list as superintendent?

In her first weeks on the job, Dr. Monárrez said her top priority is to meet with as many people as possible including her executive cabinet, board members, district office staff, school site administrators and staff, teachers, students, families, and community members. 

“My questions are going to be: what are the strengths of OUSD, because I want to capture those. Where are opportunities for improvement, and what should I prioritize? All of that's going to get synthesized. Those are the same questions I'll be asking when school starts and I go out to bigger groups, because you want to honor the great things going on. You want to leverage those and build off of those and you want to address what's not working. You've got to give people that space to talk about it and start working on that, and then it's always nice just to have them help you prioritize.”

Dr. Monárrez has also released an “Entry Plan” outlining her priorities and a chart of people and groups she hopes to meet with. Click on it below or read it here in English or in Español.

School Consolidation

Faced with declining enrollment, as many school districts in California are experiencing, Orange Unified is in the middle of considering consolidating and possibly closing schools. The board discussed the issue at a June 18 workshop. Dr. Monárrez said thoughtfully implementing the consolidation is a priority. 

“I listened to the meeting, I heard the concerns of the community, I heard the questions from the board. … We are still in this … investigative phase. … I know the initial timeline was fast, and when I heard it, and then I listened to everything, I said, maybe we might have to pump the brakes a little bit. Not stop, but maybe go a little bit slower and take a look at things. So we'll be working with the board on how to approach this. I did hear very clearly they wanted a timeline on what this will look like and some additional data. …  I'll be going out and I'll be meeting with various groups … That's part of my entry plan. I anticipate hearing about the consolidation, and I want to hear because I want to have as big a picture and understanding as possible of what this will mean for the district.”

“​​I appreciate that … the district has taken a proactive approach to this, that we're not waiting until we're in a fiscal crisis to start figuring out what to do. Instead, we're looking at programmatically, what's in the best interest with children and staff running very small schools. As you know, it has some benefits, like, for a parent, it's great to feel that, like great kind of cuddled family feel, but the programmatic side of it is ... that we have to either create combos in classrooms or [run] classrooms very small, which has a fiscal impact overall, because we really don't have enough students to run that class at a middle school. When I heard that we have two middle schools that are at 400 students, that has great implications for what you can or cannot offer in a master schedule ... . How do we offer these great programs for children in that very important middle age group when we have schools that are so small? We would have to invest more resources, more staff in order to offer those programs.” 

Immigration Concerns

Stepped up immigration enforcement operations in Southern California have affected families in Orange County and in Orange Unified. What is your message to families?

Dr. Monárrez expressed sympathy with community members who were fearful due to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids. “I don’t blame them,” she said, and added, “Not only am I terrified, it disgusts me that this is how people are having to live in our nation. It makes me very sad.” 

In terms of OUSD, she reiterated that public schools enroll all children and the district will never collect information about the immigration status of a student or family member. She confirmed that district staff are trained in how to respond if federal law enforcement arrives on a campus and that protecting staff and students’ physical and emotional safety is most important.

“When it comes to immigration, our responsibility continues to be to protect children following the laws … the local laws, the state laws, the federal laws. … So we have the protocols in place in how to respond.  … So that's kind of the physical side of it, right? Like how we keep children safe physically. But it doesn't change the fact that there's fear, right? That's the emotional side of it. So I also asked, do we have, if a family is concerned or if a family has been separated, what do we have? … [Do] we have anything where we can give neighbors or whomever, support to the children so that they feel emotionally safe? And we do. We have a group of counselors that are on call. Our newest division, Student Support and Community Engagement, are taking the lead in this, and so they have a list of counselors, our own school counselors that have said, ‘you can call us if you need us.’” 

Views on Charter Schools

The current Orange County Board of Education has approved the expansion of charter schools, including some within the OUSD. Orange Unified also has oversight over two charter schools. What are your views on charter schools?

“We're going to say late 90s, early 2000s was when I started hearing about charter schools, and they were designed, really, to almost be an incubation space – this is the way I understood it – and I think it has great potential for what can be innovative for public schools. You don't have the same amount of bureaucracy or red tape. … They can work through some things, and we can learn from them, right? I still believe in that philosophy. My belief is whatever a charter school is doing, there's no reason why … a public school setting can't do it and we can do it better. And so we have to think about what's working, whether it's a charter school or a private school, but we've got great things happening in public schools, public education, and how do we message that? How do we get that out to our community, and how do we learn with our charter schools? … I think that we need to see them as partners in educating children, learn what's working with them, replicate and improve upon what they do, not try to close our doors to what's going on. The reason parents choose a charter school is because they believe this is better for their child, and what many of us want [is] what's best for our child. … So we have to understand that. I don't see [charter schools] as an enemy, but I'm also very realistic. We lose children to them, and then that impacts us financially, and then that's a different situation.”

Dealing with Divisions in the Community

Orange Unified has seen a lot of disagreement and division within its community in the recent past with several changes in leadership. During the Covid-19 pandemic and since, parents appear polarized, particularly about school policies pertaining to LGBTQ+ students. How do you engage with parents “who have this endemic fear that you're out to destroy their children?” (Question asked by Foothills Sentry) 

“I would say, first you create the space, right? So you go to them, and then you don't talk, you listen. … You ask a question, and you listen. … I'll start to take notes when I start to hear themes, and then I summarize it back out to them so that they hear that I heard. … But that's not enough. That's just step one. Then you manage their expectations, so I can work on this. We can work on this together.”

“My doctorate is in urban leadership, and it is [centered] around how do you create systemic change, transformational change, bringing community together, bringing all the partners together. Teachers are not the problem, they are part of the solution. Principals are not the problem, they're part of the solution, as are parents. I believe that I have the skill set to bring people to the table so that we can come to common agreements. We're not going to agree on everything, and that's okay. That's what a democracy is about. But will we be respectful to each other? Yes, we will, because our children are watching. And will we model that for our children? Yes, we will. And will we stay focused on our work [that] is about every single child, not this one over that one, every single child. We must — that's our job.”

“I'm bold and courageous for children. …  I believe in my profession so deeply. Public education, I believe, is a cornerstone of our democracy. I work with the adults to serve the children, right? So you'll hear me say, ‘It's about the people – the big people, and the little people.’ The big people have been through a lot, so we need to work on some healing and some trust building. And you do that by having these kinds of conversations, right? You do that by being authentic and genuine. You do that by saying, ‘Yeah, that's a mess over there. We're aware of it. Can't get to it yet. We're working on this.’ That doesn't mean we're not going to get to it. You hear the 'yet,' but, but we're aware. And then you keep working and getting things done, and you communicate how things are going.” 

In a related response, Dr. Monárrez addressed criticism she received online about old social media posts that were perceived as political. One critic was former OUSD Trustee Madison Miner. Miner lost her seat in a recall in March 2024 but continues to speak out about public education in her role as the Executive Director of the conservative organization, Protect Our Kids. 

Dr. Monárrez addressed the past social media posts this way: 

“There were two times, or two periods, when I think I wasn't in the best headspace, and maybe I didn't make the best leadership decision. That was my personal Twitter, but it is true that I used it primarily for work, and I shouldn't have combined the two, and it was an error, and I apologize, and then I'm going to leave it at that. I don't mind doing that, because I'm human. I make mistakes. ... Do I believe I'm going to win everybody over? No, and I'm okay with that, because as long as they know that I care about their child, they don't have to like me, but if their children are good in our schools, that's what matters to me.”

Artificial Intelligence

What role do you see for Artificial Intelligence in education? 

Dr. Monárrez warned that teachers will usually catch a student’s attempt to use Artificial Intelligence to cheat on assignments so they better not try to use it for that. Instead, she suggested educators and students alike need to test out appropriate tools to better understand how they can be implemented to enhance, not replace, their work and learning.

“When you're doing something school related, or not, that is … kind of monotonous, think about how you might be able to … use an A.I. tool to free up your thinking on something that's very low level, so that you can do something more creative. You can be more of a problem solver, because A.I. is not the problem solver. You can't take the human element out of learning. You just can't. So you've got to teach children how you can use this, and you've got to teach teachers, and you've got to teach principals. You've got to teach people, how do you use this tool to be more efficient and then therefore become a more thoughtful, critical problem solver to get things done. If you do nothing with [A.I.], then it will be used the wrong way.”

Message to the Community

What do you want the community to know?

“I include people in the decisions that impact them. Again, we may not always agree, but I am very much about being an inclusive leader, who listens, who engages, and is committed to children. And so I'm going to lean in, I'm going to listen, I'm going to stay focused on the purpose, which is to educate; to ensure that every child has optimal learning opportunities. That's my promise.”

Dr. Monárrez is set to attend her first school board meeting as superintendent on July 14.

A Pivotal Time for the OUSD

Dr. Monárrez takes the lead at Orange Unified after a challenging few years marked by a divided school board and changes in leadership. Here is a brief timeline of what has happened in the last few years.

• November 2022 – Parent Madison Miner beat longtime Orange Unified School Board Trustee Kathy Moffatt in the General Election shifting the politics of the board to a more conservative majority.
• January 2023 – New board majority votes 4-3 to fire Gunn Marie Hansen, Ph.D., as superintendent in a special meeting; Edward Velasquez named interim superintendent.
• February 2023 – Velasquez resigns; Assistant Superintendent Ernie Gonzalez named acting superintendent.
• September 2023 – Board majority passes a parental notification policy during a raucous meeting that is briefly adjourned; three trustees left the meeting citing safety concerns.
• March 2024 – Supporters of Dr. Hansen’s firing, trustees Madison Miner and Rick Ledesma, ousted in recall election. With support from recall organizers, former OUSD educators Sara Pelly and Stephen Glass, Ed.D., appointed to fill the vacated seats.
• November 2024 – Pelly and Dr. Glass win short-term elections for their seats. Two board incumbents that voted for Dr. Hansen's firing, Angie Rumsey and John Ortega, do not run for reelection; Sierra Vane, Ph.D., and Matthew Thomas ran unopposed for their seats. Ernie Gonzalez steps down as superintendent to take on another role in OUSD. Michael L. Christensen, a former leader at OUSD, is appointed interim superintendent.
• January 2025 – Faced with ongoing declining enrollment, the board and district begin the process of examining school consolidation and possible campus closures.
• May 2025 – Rachel H. Monárrez, Ph.D., hired as superintendent.

Update on other Districts with New Superintendents

Orange Unified isn't the only district with a new superintendent starting this summer.

The Santa Ana Unified School District board hired Lorraine M. Perez, Ed.D., as its top administrator. Dr. Perez took over the role from Jerry Almendarez on July 1. She last worked as the district's Deputy Superintendent of Educational Services.

“I remain deeply committed to ensuring every student receives a high-quality education that opens doors to opportunity. Together with our educators, families, and community partners, we will continue building strong academic programs, fostering innovation, and supporting the success of every student,” Dr. Perez wrote on a statement.

Dr. Perez takes over at a time of challenges for the district that serves around 35,000 students across 56 schools. In May, the school board approved layoffs of more than 260 district employees to deal with a $154 million budget deficit. There is also concern from residents of the immigrant-rich community as it deals with increasingly aggressive ICE raids and sweeps, protests, as well as the deployment of the California National Guard.

The Laguna Beach Unified School District hired Jason Glass, Ed.D., as superintendent at its June 9 meeting. Dr. Glass most recently served as vice president for teaching and learning at Western Michigan University, reports the L.A. Times. Dr. Glass was appointed to a four-year team with an annual salary of $435,000, according to the agenda. In November 2024, the board, led by outgoing President Jan Vickers, parted ways with Jason Viloria, Ed.D., who had been superintendent since 2016. Vickers cited "anticipated changes in the governing board" following the Nov. 2024 election as part of the reason for Dr. Viloria's release.

In a welcome message published June 11, Dr. Glass wrote, "There are real differences and perspectives in our community that we must bridge, but our differences are rooted in care, not conflict. Everyone I have met in Laguna Beach genuinely cares about this community and its schools and wants them to thrive."

Meanwhile, the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District is still looking for a new leader, according to its website. It has been without a permanent superintendent since Alex Cherniss, Ed.D., and several of his colleagues were placed on administrative leave by the school board in December 2024.  Earlier this month, the district sent out a survey seeking the public's feedback on a new superintendent. The district also hosted two Town Hall Meetings in June.