The O’Day Short Family is honored with a large scale family portrait in the center of campus.
The O’Day Short Family is honored with a large scale family portrait in the center of campus. (Photo by Ipyani Lockert, Motivational Realizations).

BVN Staff

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On August 5, 2025, the Fontana Unified School District (FUSD) dedicated O’Day Short Elementary School, opening the 2025–26 year under a new name and a clear charge: to teach the full history of the land where the school stands. Formerly Randall Pepper Elementary, the campus now honors O’Day H. Short, his wife Helen, and their children Carol Ann and Barry, a Black family killed after a 1945 arson that followed their move into a neighborhood where Black families were not permitted to live at the time. The school district eventually bought the land and a  school was later built on the same site in 1950. 

A day before the first day of school, FUSD hosted a powerful, standing‑room‑only dedication ceremony on campus. In his remarks Board of Education President Adam Perez affirmed the depth of the district’s commitment. Superintendent Miki Inbody set the tone with a call to justice, stating “we are choosing remembrance over silence… justice over erasure.”

Historian and retired professor Dr. Daniel E. Walker, who once attended Randall Pepper Elementary, reflected on how far the community has come. “When I walked up here today and saw this school named after O’Day Short, I knew the distance this place, and our community, has come,” he said. Hardy Brown II, representing Black Voice News’ history initiative Footsteps to Freedom Underground Railroad Study Tour, congratulated Fontana for leading by example: “We can be leaders about unity and peace and bringing people together. I applaud Fontana today”. Meanwhile, educator Carolyn Tillman reminded the crowd of the ceremony’s broader significance, noting that honoring truth in history fosters stronger, more inclusive communities.


Dr. Daniel Walker, former student when the school was named for Randall Pepper.

San Bernardino County Board President Dr. Gwen Dowdy and community leader Hardy Brown II.

Speakers included student advocate Cyrus Moss, whose petition campaign sparked the renaming. Also on the program was City of Fontana Mayor Acquanetta Warren, FUSD Senior Director of Marketing, Communication, and Engagement Clarissa Trejo, and O’Day Short Elementary Principal Dr. Michelle Avila.

Dignitaries in attendance reflected broad community support: Mayor Pro Tem Peter A. Garcia; Council Members John B. Roberts, Jesse Sandoval, and Phillip W. Cothran; City Treasurer Janet Koehler-Brooks; San Bernardino County Board of Education Trustee Laura A. Mancha; FUSD Board Vice President Danielle Holley and Board Members Mary Sandoval and Marcelino “Mars” Serna; Student Board Member Ashley Suarez; and representatives of U.S. Rep. Norma Torres, State Sen. Eloise Gómez Reyes, Assemblymember Robert Garcia, San Bernardino County Supervisor Jesse Armendarez, and County Superintendent of Schools Ted Alejandre. 

The renaming effort was ignited from the ground up. In 2023–24 the school community dedicated the O’Day Short Family Unity Garden, and in March 2024 then-elementary student (now Southridge Tech Middle School student) Cyrus Moss submitted a petition that drew more than 150 signatures. The FUSD Board voted unanimously in September 2024 to rename the school effective this fall. At the ceremony, Moss urged classmates to speak up, telling peers their voices “can tear down walls.” 

The Short family’s story is central to Fontana’s racial history. After purchasing the land, O’Day Short received threats and even a buy-back offer to leave. On December 16, 1945, the family’s home was set ablaze; all four family members later died from injuries. An arson investigator retained by the NAACP determined the fire was set from the exterior; no one was ever arrested or prosecuted. Renaming the neighborhood school on that ground places historical truth at the center of daily learning for the children of Fontana. 


Former San Bernardino County Office of Education staff and community voice Carolyn Tillman.

Student leader Cyrus Moss and Dr. Michelle Avila, principal of O’Day Short Elementary School, accept accolades from Representative Norma Torres’ office.

The district has been deliberate in tying the new name to instruction and culture. By opening under the O’Day Short name, educators and students inherit a responsibility to study local history and practice inclusion in tangible ways. As Perez noted, this is a commitment to remembrance with teeth.

The path to the August 5 ceremony offers a model for student-led civic action. Moss learned the Short family’s story, organized a petition, and made his case publicly. That work was amplified by teachers and district leaders. Superintendent Inbody’s comments and the district’s framing position the renaming as part of a larger effort to tell the complete story of Fontana, including the painful chapters. 

Staffer Michelle Rochon in the O’Day Short campus multi-purpose room with a display that shares the Short Family story.

In district communications recapping the first day of school, FUSD placed O’Day Short Elementary’s new identity alongside other 2025–26 milestones, further signaling that equity and historical literacy are core to this year’s agenda. That connection matters for Fontana students. Telling the O’Day Short story on campus includes a memorial garden, archival images on walls in campus public spaces as well as the multi-purpose room.

Principal Avila emphasized building a school where inclusion is a daily practice. That charge can be advanced through grade-level projects on local history, partnerships with community historians, and engagement with families and city leaders who showed up in force on August 5. Those in attendance believe continued collaboration will help ensure the name O’Day Short is remembered and the family’s story is taught properly.