Fresno Unified School District unveiled its newly renovated board room at Wednesday’s meeting, and one thing jumped out at some observers: Interim Superintendent Misty Her now sits at the right hand of Board President Valerie Davis.

Seating arrangements on the dais took on political significance in January 2017 when then-Board President Brooke Ashjian moved then-Superintendent Michael Hanson from his center seat to the end of the dais during a board meeting.

Friction between the two had been building for some time, and Hanson had already declared his intention to resign in August 2017.

But at a special board meeting on Jan. 30, 2017, the board voted to fire Hanson on a 4-2 vote and named chief of staff Bob Nelson as acting superintendent.

After the board appointed Nelson to the job permanently, his chair remained at the end of the dais, the same spot that Her occupied until Wednesday.

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Proximity Promotes Convenience

Davis, the board’s longest-serving trustee who was elected president in December, told GV Wire on Friday she decided to move Her next to her in conjunction with the reopening of the board meeting room.

Since the new dais places the two student trustee seats at either end instead of at a table separate from the dais, “I figured we have to do something different,” Davis said. “And sometimes during a presentation, or I have questions of the superintendent, it’s easier for me to just lean over and whisper than to text her and ask her, what is this? Why is that? Can you cut that short?”

Is there any significance to moving the superintendent’s seat back to the middle?

“For me, it’s a convenience,” she said.

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