The August 17 arrest of the former principal of Alta Loma High School who resigned from that post last year to take on the leadership of the Ontario Montclair’ School District’s intensified science and mathematics learning program has thrown the operations at the campus where that accelerated educational program takes place into disarray.
The Vineyard STEAM Academy is a public school serving transitional kindergarten through 8th grade students in the Ontario-Montclair School District. Located on the campus of Vineyard Elementary School at 1500 East 6th Street in Ontario, those permitted to attend it are restricted to those students who have a demonstrated ability or interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
When instruction for the 2026–2027 academic year began in the Ontario-Montclair School District began on Wednesday, August 5, 2026, Kaylor was back in place as the vineyard STEAM Academy’s principal for what was to be his second straight year in that academic billet.
As of August 31, however, he was no longer serving in that capacity and Desarai Patrick had been installed as the acting principal overseeing Vineyard STEAM Academy.
Inquiries with the Ontario-Montclair School District were met with no response. District officials were unwilling to officially acknowledge that Kaylor was no longer in his position with the academy.
A report, now verified by the Sentinel, is that Kaylor had been relieved from the post as a consequence of a “serious legal issue,” according to a district insider who was not authorized to make any officials statement.
On August 16, according to Orange County authorities, Kaylor made arrangements over the internet to meet with an individual who had represented himself as an underage male. On August 17, after Kaylor arrived at the Vagabond Inn at  3205 Harbor Boulevard in Costa Mesa, he was arrested by law enforcement authorities at seventeen minutes after midnight for seeking an encounter with a minor with lewd intent and for possession of a controlled substance.  He was arrIncident He
Prior to taking on the principal post at Alta Loma High, which is part of the Chaffey Joint Union High School District, Kaylor worked as an assistant principal at Yorba Linda High School and as activities director at Esperanza High School in the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District. Prior to working in the Placentia-Yorba Linda district, he was a special education teacher and leadership advisor at Rancho Cucamonga High School, with is part of the Chaffey Joint Union High School District.
Kaylor’s departure from Alta Loma was considered abrupt by some of the students there. He was seen by many as being enthusiastic about education and particularly committed to promoting positive student identification with the school and student participation in both academic and extracurricular activities. There were closely aligned anecdotes by former students at Alta Loma High, backed up by videos,  of Kaylor’s unabashed participation in pep rallies during which he would strip himself to the waste and participate in what some students characterized as drug-fueled physical contortions. At least a few teachers at the school felt Kaylor’s actions in this regard to be inappropriate.
Students reported that in the last two to three years that Kaylor was at Alta Loma High, marked by the return of in-class instruction after the state-imposed shutting of schools during the COVID-19 pandemic, Kaylor buttonholed several students he was on very familiar terms with and disclosed his homosexuality to them, encouraging them to be open in their presentation of themselves to the world. Reportedly, Chaffey Joint Union High School District Superintendent Mathew Holton felt handcuffed in how to deal with Kaylor when he began his confessionals with students about coming to terms with his sexual orientation because there was nothing to suggest that Kaylor was sexually involved with anyone under the age of consent and the standards currently in place statewide relating to the open acceptance within academic settings of what was formerly referred to as alternative sexuality and lifestyles.
The situation became problematic, however, in late 2024 and early 2025 when it became known that he was involved with a member of the faculty at Alta Loma High School who was a decade-and-a-half younger than he was and that he had apparently initiated a relationship with a former Alta Loma High School student who was, by that time, over the age of majority. Word was that  his departure from the higher-paying position as a principal at Alta Loma High in the Chaffey Joint Union High School District for the principal’s post at Steam Academy with the Ontario-Montclair School District, which paid on the order of $20,000 less annually was a situation that was forced upon him and which he had not embraced willingly.
Students and parents at STEAM Academy in general gave him high marks for his performance at STEAM, though students report that they detected in him the symptomology of drug use  including intermittent nervous twitches and mood swings.
The school district, including Superintendent James Hammond, steadfastly refused to make any official comment, while clerical staff conveyed to the Sentinel that Kaylor’s continuation with the district under paid leave will draw to a close as soon as the procession of his termination pursuant to California Education Code § 44932 can be arranged.