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Coachella Valley Unified Board of Education

11 meetings on our record, 9 of them from the past year and 2 with unconfirmed dates · typical meeting 2 h 03 min · 16,046 students · 7 members on our roster

Latest · Sep 24, 2026
Coachella Valley Unified board motion on after-school site lead hours failsPlay 2:41:45
Newest meeting we have
Sep 24, 2026 · District's board page ↗ (it may list later ones)
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Also on the board: Alena Callimanis, Trustee · Jocelyn Vargas, Trustee

Watch the board’s yearA decision it made, its hours, its busiest night at the mic and where its time went, each with its source
Recent meetings

What the board took up lately

Board meeting · 2 h 53 minThursday, September 24, 2026Coachella Valley Unified board motion on after-school site lead hours failsSpeakers: Thomas Tortez, Valerie Garcia, Trinidad Arredondo, Joey Acuña Jr. and 1 more
Play 2:41:45
Board meeting · 2 h 42 minThursday, September 10, 2026Coachella Valley Unified board approves unaudited actuals and long-range facilities master planChronic absenteeismBudget cuts and layoffsEnrollmentReading and test scoresSpeakers: Thomas Tortez, Valerie Garcia, Trinidad Arredondo, Joey Acuña Jr. and 2 more
Play 1:59:46
Board meeting · 1 h 53 minThursday, August 13, 2026Coachella Valley Unified board adopts revised phone-free school day policyBudget cuts and layoffsEnrollmentPhones in schoolSpeakers: Valerie Garcia, Trinidad Arredondo, Alena Callimanis, Jocelyn Vargas
Play 1:37:57
Board meetingThursday, July 23, 2026Budget cuts and layoffsPhones in schoolSpeakers: Thomas Tortez, Valerie Garcia, Trinidad Arredondo, Joey Acuña Jr. and 2 more
Watch
Who does the talking

No one member stands apart on the Coachella Valley Unified board: 5 of the 6 members we rank could rank first

Minutes speaking per full board meeting · 9 board meetings, Mar 26, 2026 – Sep 24, 2026 · talk time only, never tone or stance

A ranking, with its marginEarly readLess of this board's speech is named so far, so its ranks are wider. Each rank is a 90% range across 9 resampled meetings, so "2nd–4th" means the data can't place them more exactly. The ranges may widen as we name more of the speech.
Coverage: about 68% of members’ speaking time named (56%–88%)

Minutes = time we heard them speak per meeting, from the speech we have named so far, so each is a floor: at least that much.

Runs the meeting
—Thomas TortezPresident · Coachella Trustee Area No. 3 · runs the meeting, not rankedShare12.9min, at least8 of 9meetings heard, of those while seated—runs the meeting, counted apart0.1questions asked per meeting, at least
Members · ranked by minutes per meeting
1st–5thValerie GarciaVice President · Coachella Trustee Area No. 1Share8.2min, at least8 of 9meetings heard, of those while seated28%of the members’ talking · 10%–46%1.2questions asked per meeting, at least
1st–6thTrinidad ArredondoClerk · Coachella Trustee Area No. 1Share5.6min, at least9 of 9meetings heard, of those while seated19%of the members’ talking · 11%–29%1.1questions asked per meeting, at least
1st–6thJoey Acuña Jr.Trustee · Coachella Trustee Area No. 1Share5.3min, at least8 of 9meetings heard, of those while seated18%of the members’ talking · 11%–28%1.9questions asked per meeting, at least
1st–5thAlena CallimanisTrustee · Coachella Trustee Area No. 2Share4.9min, at least9 of 9meetings heard, of those while seated16%of the members’ talking · 10%–27%0.9questions asked per meeting, at least
1st–6thJesus GonzalezTrustee · Coachella Trustee Area No. 2Share3.1min, at least5 of 8meetings heard, of those while seated10%of the members’ talking · 6%–22%0.2questions asked per meeting, at least
3rd–6thJocelyn VargasTrustee · Coachella Trustee Area No. 4Share1.9min, at least6 of 9meetings heard, of those while seated6%of the members’ talking · 4%–18%0.3questions asked per meeting, at least

Minutes speaking per full board meeting held while seated; a meeting they missed or stayed silent in counts as zero · bar = minutes named so far · line = our margin: members whose lines overlap may sit in either order · talk time only, never tone or stance · Hamlet

Meetings on our record
All 11 meetings on our record
Clips

What Joey Acuña Jr. said on Jul 23, 2026

Gonzalez is correct, it is a fluid situation, and with what's happening in our own communities with all the immigration things, and these are things that never were anticipated anticipated before when we started some of these policies for phones. And yes, it is important.Joey Acuña Jr.Trustee · Coachella Valley Unified Board of Education · Jul 23, 2026Watch the full meeting from 59:54
On the map · Phones in school

June 25, 2026

The board discussed phones in school.

Its first meeting on phones in the year we read; phones came up at 3 of its meetings. A faint dot on the map: we had read too few of its earlier meetings to call it new.

Watch the filmOpen the meeting
Meeting time

Where the board's meeting time went

Public comment20%15%–26%
Budget and finance7%3%–12%
Ceremony and recognition6%2%–11%
Safety and discipline0%0%–1%

    The two readers didn’t agree on 14% of the time; it counts toward no topic, so every share above is a floor.

    Not shown: facilities, closures and enrollment, curriculum and instruction, student services and special education, labor and personnel, governance and policy, routine business, other subjects, whose checks haven’t passed

    Public comment

    Of the 11 meetings on our record, we counted public speakers at 11; 10 had at least one. The busiest, on Jun 11, 2026, heard from 18.

    18 on Jun 11, 202618 speakers9 speakers6.5 a meeting on average
    Attendance

    The roll call at 9 of the 11 meetings on our record: the ones where we could read it

    Roll-call attendance, member by meeting
    MemberSep 24Sep 10Aug 13Jul 23Jun 25Jun 11May 14Apr 30Mar 26
    Trinidad ArredondoPresentPresentPresentPresentNot recordedPresentNot shownPresentPresent
    Valerie GarciaPresentPresentPresentPresentPresentPresentPresentPresentPresent
    Joey Acuña Jr.Not recordedNot recordedNot recordedNot recordedNot recordedNot shownNot recordedNot recordedNot recorded
    Jesus GonzalezNot recordedPresentPresentNot shownNot recordedNot recordedNot shownPresentNot recorded
    Thomas TortezPresentPresentPresentPresentNot recordedPresentPresentPresentNot recorded
    Alena CallimanisPresentPresentPresentPresentPresentPresentPresentPresentPresent
    Jocelyn VargasPresentPresentPresentPresentNot recordedNot shownPresentPresentNot recorded

    PresentNot shownNot recorded

    Federal district ID 0609070 · student count from the federal 2023-24 count · meeting videos posted by the district