School Zone, never a huge fan of covering School Board meetings, was even less of a fan of the Fresno County Board of Education’s meeting last week when she discovered that the meeting wasn’t user-friendly.

The third-floor corner meeting room in the downtown Fresno headquarters is a little hard to find unless you know where you’re going. Once you’re in the room you’d better sit up front if you want to hear anything, as the audio system in the room either doesn’t exist — despite the existence of microphones on the dais and at the podium where the public can speak — or it wasn’t turned on last Thursday.

Although meetings of the five-member board, each of whom represents a different slice of Fresno County, are livestreamed, they are not archived so there’s no way for the public to check them out later.

School Zone was not alone in noticing this. Hector Romero, president of Fresno County Chapter 573 of the California School Employees Association, urged the School Board during the public comment portion of the meeting to make arrangements for their meetings to be more available.

“The reason why I’m here today is just to ask about accessibility, accountability, and transparency. And my question is, I know that we now livestream our sessions, the board sessions. But as I have learned, we do not archive them or offer them after,” he said. “And I think since the majority of these meetings are during the workday, which our employees can’t come to, or they can’t watch it really at their desk, why are we not providing this ongoing for the public also to see the work that our superintendent and board does?”

Fixes Are Underway

Deputy Superintendent Diane Lira said in an email Monday that the livestreaming began in September at the request of a board member. “While archiving the livestreams was not part of the original request, we are actively exploring the possibility of adding this feature in the future,” she said.

As for the audio system, Lira said, “The microphones used during the meetings are designed for recording purposes rather than amplification. As a result, audio clarity can be affected if a speaker is not positioned close enough to the microphone. To address this, we will take steps to ensure that all speakers are reminded to speak directly into the microphone to provide clearer audio for viewers.”

The Fresno County Office of Education, headed by Fresno County Superintendent of Schools Michele Cantwell-Copher, oversees educational programs like CTEC Charter High School in central Fresno, approves the Local Control Accountability Plan for juvenile court schools, and provides as-needed assistance for many of the county’s smaller school districts.

Setting Goals and Guardrails

The Fresno Unified School Board took its next baby step toward selecting the district’s new superintendent last week, but it was an important baby step.

The board is following the framework for a superintendent search established by a consultant for the Council of the Great City Schools that includes setting “goals and guardrails” for superintendents to adhere to. Goals are, well, goals, and guardrails are protections for “non-negotiable values” that are important to the community.

Last Thursday’s workshop resulted in the following goals:

• Early literacy proficiency, as evidenced by increasing the proficiency of first graders in reading tests from 48% in June 2024 to a whopping 70% by June 2030.
• Literacy intervention: The percentage of students in grades 3 through 8 who are more than one grade level behind and who show more than one year’s growth will increase from 10% in June 2024 to 50% by June 2030.
• College and career readiness: Increasing the percentage of high school graduates who are college and career ready from 43% to 86% by 2030.

The fourth goal was to improve the percentage of students in grades 4 through 8 to be better equipped at conflict resolution, problem solving, and self-regulation. No specific goals were set at the workshop.

And then there were the guardrails:

• No new major decisions proposed by the superintendent without a community engagement plan.
• The superintendent leave out vulnerable population groups or schools as a way of meeting goals.
• No hiring, promotion, or lateral movement of staff who are consistently performing at “does not meet standard” for two years.
• The superintendent may not jeopardize the health and wellness of students and staff in his or her zeal to meet goals.

The board still needs to vote to make the goals and guardrails official, and that needs to come before trustees can hire the search firm that will be responsible for rounding up suitable candidates to be the district’s new superintendent. The estimated date for that hire is now May 1.

Related Story: Fresno Trustees Inch Closer to Hiring a New Superintendent

Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto

Carden School of Fresno will be competing in the world robotics championships in Houston against other schools from the U.S. and around the world. Carden’s team, The Tech Monkeys, recently won the regional Robotics championship at Alta Sierra Intermediate School in Clovis.

What makes their win extra amazing? Carden, one of the smaller schools in both Fresno and the Central Valley, has only been competing for two years. They bagged their victory with a first-round score of 345, which no one was able to match or exceed in the next two rounds.

The Orcabotics team from Cedarwood Elementary in Clovis took second place, and L.E.G.O. Wolves from the Wonderful College Prep Academy in Delano rounded out the top 3.

Kids First Report Out

GO Public Schools Fresno has released its “2024 Kids First Report” for public consumption. The student outcomes report analyzes how Fresno Unified and charter school students did on standardized testing, chronic absenteeism, and being ready for college and career. The guide also contains useful tips for parents on how to understand data and what they can do to help their child be successful in his or her K-12 career.

GO Public Schools Fresno is an education advocacy organization that for years has focused attention on the state’s third-largest school district and the performance of its students.

The report is free and is available here.

GO Public Schools Fresno will provide printed copies in 2025 and also will host in-person events on Jan. 15 and 16. Click here to RSVP.

Goya Sponsors Scholarships

The New Jersey-based company, America’s largest Hispanic-owned food company, will award $20,000 scholarships to students nationwide who are entering their freshmen year of college and planning to major in culinary arts and/or food science. The scholarships will be awarded in $5,000 increments.

Applicants will be evaluated based on academic achievement, leadership, community service, financial need, and an essay on how Goya has enriched their family traditions.

Applications are due by March 3. For more information and to apply, go to https://learnmore.scholarsapply.org/goyaculinary/.

Shout-Out to Kings Canyon Unified

The Reedley school district has earned the title of 2024 California Honor Roll District, with eight of its schools being named to the annual Educational Results Partnership Honor Roll.

The honor roll recognizes the top-performing public schools, charters, and districts in California, and only 20% statewide earned the honor.

Kings Canyon was acknowledged for closing achievement gaps among higher-poverty and historically underserved student populations.