The grand opening of Fresno Unified’s new Farber Educational Campus on Friday was a long-awaited day of celebration on many fronts:

Celebration of an alternative education center complete with classroom and job training opportunities that principal Carson Wood says he’s claiming as the biggest in the world — until someone tells him otherwise.

Celebration that the site of the former Fresno County juvenile hall — a place of despair and desolation infamously known as the “Hall of Shame” because of its terrible conditions — is now a center of hope for students and their families.

Celebration that the campus will be a resource not only for students enrolled in alternative education, and career technical education courses but also for the residents of southeast Fresno who will be able to use it as a community resource.

Misty Her Shares a Personal Story

Some of the celebrations were quite personal. Interim Superintendent Misty Her, fighting back tears, talked about how she associated the site with the old juvenile hall where her younger brother was housed during his high school years and where she and her parents would visit. He later went to the California Youth Authority.

“After he passed away, it was so painful for me to drive down the street, let alone look at the remnants of the old juvenile hall. And in fact, for years I avoided going down this street. I even skipped out on the groundbreaking event when you were all here with your shovels, because it was too painful for me to be here. And I was one of the ones on our team helping to design what this school was going to be like,” she said.

“But I have to say, the first time I walked the halls of this beautiful campus, I was without words. And for the first time in my life, those old feelings of resentment and regret turned to hope and healing. This is now a place where students’ dreams can flourish and not wither.”

A Fresh Start

Chang Thao and Ong Vang also were celebrating with their son Elliot Thao, a senior at Cambridge who was one of two featured student speakers at Friday’s ribbon-cutting event. Elliot, 17, had been struggling at Sunnyside High when a counselor told him an alternative education program might be a better option for him.

Elliot said attending Cambridge on the Farber campus gives him an opportunity to enroll in pathway programs such as logistics and warehouse management, where students will learn how to operate machinery like forklifts and get real world experience in warehousing and logistics jobs.

Chang Thao said he’s seen a change for the better in his son since he started attending Cambridge.

“It’s a good feeling for me that I guess the educational system still hasn’t failed my son. I did doubt it at first while he was attending Sunnyside,” he said. “But now that he’s here, I see the change in my son. I see the motivation in my son wanting to come to school and learn something and eventually graduate with work experience, the logistics program they have here, the kitchen program, all this. Yeah. So it’s a great thing that Fresno Unified has provided for our children.”

Elliot said he was both surprised and honored that his parents took time off from work on Friday to be at the Farber event.

But Chang Thao said there was never any question about attending. “I wouldn’t miss it. … I was going to make time for this.”

Uplifting Students and the Community

The campus’s namesakes, Francine and Murray Farber, were on hand with their daughter, children-in-law, grandchildren and even a great-grandson. Francine Farber said that when she was told a year ago she had metastatic breast cancer, she was determined that she would live long enough to see the opening of the Farber campus.

And now the couple’s goal is to award the first Steve’s Scholars scholarship to a Farber graduate someday.

The Farbers established the scholarship program in the name of their late son to encourage Tehipite Middle School Students to succeed academically, have good attendance, be involved in community projects, and graduate high school ready for college.

But the new southeast Fresno campus will do more than provide a first-class educational experience for students in alternative programs, Francine Farber said.

“I think one of the major points that they’re hoping is that this transforms the neighborhood. It’s not just to transform the lives of the students, but the entire neighborhood hopefully will be uplifted, and we could see that,” she said. “We can see that as an offshoot, really.”

Fresno Unified Trustee Elizabeth Jonasson Rosas, whose Roosevelt High region includes the Farber campus, said the campus is already making connections to the community even before it opened, and she expects they will deepen and other connections will develop.

Future community uses could include classes, partnerships, food distributions, training for certifications, and neighborhood meetings, Jonasson Rosas said.

As a trustee and also as a resident of southeast Fresno, she said, “I’m really proud on a number of different levels. One, to be able to bring the services from an administrative standpoint closer to the community in southeast Fresno, closer to the bus line, make it more accessible for people. I’m very proud to be able to have those partnerships with community and have community be able to utilize this.

“This is really going to be not just an educational facility, but really the community’s facility. And that brings a lot of joy to me and a lot of pride, as not only a representative from this area, but someone that lives not too far from here. Just to see that connection is really important.”

More Work to Come

Phase 1 of the Farber campus was built through a project labor agreement with Davis Moreno Construction that delivered the project on time and on budget, said Alex Belanger, the district’s chief executive for operations.

The construction contract was $47 million and was paid for by state COVID stimulus money, he said. The campus includes a classroom building, the logistics lab, and a dining hall where students can eat meals and also learn about culinary jobs on a CTE pathway.

The district also spent $15 million to $17 million on “soft costs” such as furniture, lab equipment, he said. Funding for that came from Measure M.

Phase 2 is on the drawing board and will include construction of the Dolores Huerta Early Learning Facility, Belanger said. The funding source has not yet been identified, he said.

Community members who didn’t get a chance to attend Friday morning’s ribbon-cutting ceremony can take a look at the campus at a block party Friday afternoon that’s starting at 3:30 p.m. and goes until 6 p.m. The campus is at 720. S. 10th St. at the intersection of 10th and Cesar Chavez Boulevard.