Fullerton Union High School added two names to its Wall of Fame on Friday, October 2, 2026, honoring a longtime district leader and a trailblazing school board trustee in a ceremony at the Fullerton Union High School Gym.

The 2026 inductees are Dr. Karl Zener, Assistant Superintendent of Administrative Services for the Fullerton Joint Union High School District (FJUHSD), and Dr. Vicki Calhoun, Class of 1982, an FJUHSD Board of Education trustee and the first African American elected to public office in the city of Fullerton. Family, friends, colleagues and district leaders filled the gym to celebrate two alumni whose lives have circled back to the school that shaped them.

Dr. Karl Zener: Coming home to lead

For Zener, the honor is personal. Fullerton Union is his alma mater, the place he returned to as a teacher, and the center of a district he has served for 26 years.

He began his career in 1994 as an English teacher at Edgemont Junior High School in Washington State. There he also chaired the English department, coached four sports, and advised the yearbook and newspaper.

In 2000, he came home to teach English at Fullerton Union. Over six years, he served as International Baccalaureate Coordinator, WASC focus group leader, mentor to new teachers and master teacher. His later path through the district included:

• Dean of Attendance, La Habra High School
• Assistant Principal, Sunny Hills High School (from 2007), overseeing athletics, activities and discipline, then guidance, IB, special education and alternative education
• Principal, La Habra High School (from 2011), where the school expanded Advanced Placement offerings, sent more students to four-year universities, and earned multiple Golden Bell Awards
• Executive Director, then Assistant Superintendent of Administrative Services, district office (from March 2019)

Today he oversees communications and marketing, activities and athletics, technology, and leadership development across the district. He holds a bachelor’s degree with honors in English literature and professional writing and a Master of Arts in Teaching from the University of Puget Sound. He earned his administrative credential and doctorate in educational leadership from Cal State Fullerton.

Presenters said his greatest impact lies in the people he has developed. Fullerton Union Principal Jon Caffrey once worked under Zener as a special education teacher and coach. Years later, when Caffrey was an assistant principal at Fullerton, Zener was a parent at the school. “He has been a mentor, a leader, and most importantly, a friend,” the tribute said.

“Let them celebrate you.”

Zener admitted he would rather recognize others than be recognized. But his superintendent and his wife, he said, had lectured him that afternoon: “Carl, let them celebrate you.” So he used his time to honor the people behind his career, because “nothing in my life that’s meaningful has happened by myself.”

He started with his three daughters. Emma, who drove down from Culver City, attended La Habra High while her father was principal, which he called the bravest choice of the three. She graduated from Smith College as a student-athlete, now works in marketing for Bank of America, and married her wife, Grace, three weeks before the ceremony. Middle daughter Sophie, a UCLA graduate and practicing therapist, and youngest Ellie, a senior at Chico State, are both Fullerton graduates. After watching Emma’s experience, he joked that they “wised up.”

The story that drew the biggest response began in a Fullerton Union Spanish class in 1987. A teacher moved a misbehaving Zener to the seat behind “the smart, beautiful girl in class.” That girl, Jen, has now been his wife for 31 years. An educator herself, she teaches grades 7 through 12 in an alternative high school setting.

“I’d say that seat change worked out pretty well for me,” he said. Looking at his name on the wall, he added that he thinks less about his career than about what the school gave him: Jen, his family, and the work he loves.

He closed by thanking colleagues, Superintendent Dr. Steve McLaughlin, the Board of Education, and fellow honoree Calhoun, calling it an honor to be recognized alongside her.

Dr. Vicki Calhoun: From the drill team to the dais

Calhoun’s story began in Fullerton’s elementary schools. She attended Maple Elementary until it closed during district integration efforts in the 1970s, then moved to Laguna Road Elementary. There she was the only African American student in her primary grade classes, an experience presenters said shaped her lifelong belief in belonging and access to a quality education.

At Fullerton Union, she spent three years on the drill team and was named to the winter formal court. She went on to captain the cheer squad at Fullerton College and serve as lead cheerleader at San Diego State University.

Her talent then took her around the world. Calhoun toured and recorded with artists including the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Fishbone, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam, and appeared on the Good Burger film soundtrack.

Presenters described her service as her most meaningful work. For more than a decade she has supported teen mothers and young people in difficult circumstances, helping with graduation, jobs and community resources. At a local community college, she has connected students from many backgrounds with higher education, and she helped bring back cheerleaders, homecoming and royal courts to build school spirit.

In civic life, she has served on:

• The City of Fullerton’s Community Development Block Grant Committee
• The Fullerton Public Library Board of Trustees
• Assembly District 87, as a delegate
• The Women’s Club of Fullerton, as vice president
• The FJUHSD Board of Education, including a term as board president

Her election made her the first African American to hold public office in Fullerton.

“Fullerton’s been good to me”

Calhoun opened by thanking the many familiar faces in the crowd. “Fullerton’s been good to me,” she said.

She credited her childhood at Laguna Road, and growing up alongside Latino friends on Fullerton’s south side, with teaching her to persevere and to see the world through many cultures. “I think about inclusion,” she said. “I love everybody, no matter what their backgrounds are.”

She was candid about her years at Fullerton Union. She was focused on activities more than grades, she admitted, until she began doing better in her junior year. One classroom moment stayed with her. In a sophomore English class, teacher Mr. Toms assigned To Sir, With Love. Years later in Hollywood, she met Sidney Poitier, star of the film adaptation, and told him about the teacher who introduced her to the story.

She recounted how a senior-year Sadie Hawkins date led to her first punk show, and how a band she knew later invited her to sing with them. That led to recording work, including on the Red Hot Chili Peppers album Mother’s Milk. After about 15 years in music, she returned home and turned to politics, inspired by local mentors.

Calhoun said faith kept her grounded, and that her decisions on the board are made for every student at every school. She said she works to keep things equitable across all of the district’s campuses: Fullerton, Troy, Sonora, La Habra, Buena Park and La Vista.

“It’s been a journey for me, and it’s been an honor,” she said.

Two paths, one school

Zener and Calhoun took very different roads, one through classrooms and district offices, the other through stages, music studios and city hall. Both came back to give to the community that raised them. Their names now join the Fullerton Union High School Wall of Fame, where future students can see what a Fullerton education can lead to.