Fontana Unified will start the 2025-26 school year, welcoming more than 30,000 students back to campus on Wednesday, Aug. 6. The new academic year marks the beginning of a new era for O’Day Short Elementary School — previously known as Randall Pepper Elementary — as it officially opens under its new name in honor of the O’Day Short Family, which is remembered for breaking Fontana’s color barrier 80 years ago.

The O’Day Short Family purchased and built a home on a 5-acre lot at Randall and Pepper avenues in Fontana at a time when African-Americans were forbidden to live south of Baseline Avenue. The family received threats of violence before their house was set ablaze on Dec. 16, 1945. All four members of the African-American family — father O’Day, mother Helen and children Carol Ann and B

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