When it came time at the Dec. 18 Fresno Unified board meeting to vote on a proposed charter high school and a $30,000 communications services contract, trustees Elizabeth Jonasson Rosas and Veva Islas were missing from the dais. It wasn't their first absences in 2019. According to district records, Jonasson...
Fresno Unified Trustees Approve Pay Raise — for Themselves
Fresno Unified trustees' paychecks will get a boost for the first time since 2001. Board members unanimously approved a 5% pay raise for this year, and every year after, at Wednesday night's meeting. Fresno's trustees have long had the ability to increase their pay under state law but hesitated to...
Can Fresno Unified Trustees Get Along? They Meet to Find Out.
Officially, the purpose of Wednesday’s (May 22) special Fresno Unified school board meeting was a “governance check-in.” In reality, it was nearly two and a half hours of trustees airing grievances over things like confidentiality, board behavior and agenda-setting. And while no trustee would say as such, the meeting also...
Fresno Unified Trustees Will Decide Measure X Projects Friday
One of the thorniest issues for many school boards is deciding which construction projects to fund. For Fresno Unified's seven trustees, the challenge is how to spend $172 million in remaining Measure X bonds. That might sound like a lot of money — and it is — but the district's...
Student in Slatic Confrontation Remains in School, District Says
The student who allegedly threatened to kill a Fresno Unified trustee remains in class at Bullard High School, a district spokeswoman says. “Based upon information the district has including the video, there is nothing to indicate the student should receive disciplinary action,” Fresno Unified spokeswoman Amy Idsvoog said. Idsvoog says...
Is Nelson's 'Happy Warrior' Style a Fit for Fresno Unified's New Board?
Bob Nelson is asking Fresno Unified School District trustees to evaluate his performance just four months after receiving a positive evaluation from the previous board. The request comes after two public meetings with a board that includes three new members. Nelson signaled his need to clear the air at Wednesday's...
State Center Trustees Decline to Investigate Payne, Kahn
Tensions simmered at the State Center trustee meeting Tuesday (Jan. 8), but did not boil over like the last time the group met. The board voted 4-3 against forming a special committee to look into ethical misconduct allegations levied mainly at trustee Eric Payne, and to a lesser extent Bobby...
Can This Retired Marine Whip Fresno Unified into Shape?
The biggest culture collision in the history of Fresno Unified School District is underway. On one side is retired Marine Maj. Terry Slatic, who was elected to succeed trustee Brooke Ashjian in November. I've spent a good part of the past 45 years interviewing serious men and women —college and NFL...
Lies? Truth? Neither Side Backs Down in Explosive Trustee Debate
An explosive battle between two State Center trustees over one’s nomination as board vice president led to the district engaging in a fact-finding mission. At the Dec. 11 board meeting — the first meeting of the new term — Trustee Bobby Kahn objected to colleague Eric Payne’s nomination as board...
Carrillo Wants to Add Team Approach, Budget Skills to Central Board
Fresno attorney Yesenia Carrillo, who was raised in a family of small business owners, says that her skills and temperament would be a good fit for a Central Unified school board that has weathered considerable controversy in the past year. She sees a genial, cohesive board as a crucial ingredient...