Editor’s note: this article was originally published in CalifiorniaCourier.news on January 26, 2026.
The Orange Unified School District’s newly-hired “Chief Communications and Strategy Officer,” in her previous position at a large Inland Empire school district, was in charge of implementing a radical “equity” program based on Critical Race Theory and dubious theories like “implicit bias.”
Jacqueline Perez was hired in November 2025 on a unanimous vote of the progressive-controlled OUSD Board of Education, with a total compensation package of $266,153 (which includes a $3,500 doctoral stipend). Perez came from the Riverside Unified School District, where she was Assistant Superintendent for Equity, Access & Community Engagement.
In 2024, a teacher union-led recall campaign flipped the Orange Unified School District Board of education from a conservative majority to total progressive control. Many voters feared the new majority would take the district in a more liberal direction.
It would appear those fears are justified.
In the wake of the George Floyd riots of 2020, the Riverside Unified School District leadership fully embraced the radical, BLM-driven zeitgeist of that time. Perez, as the district’s DEI chief, spearheaded a program to turn district teachers and staff into “Equity Champions.” At the RUSD Board of Education’s September 15, 2020 meeting, Perez enthusiastically presented her Equity Champions program. It is clear from her presentation that the program was premised on the assumption that the RUSD was riddled with systemic oppression and marginalization, and that district teachers and staff themselves harbored secret racial biases that needed to be rooted out using various Critical Race Theory-based methodologies.
