Misty Her became Interim Superintendent in early May of last year, and she’s leading Fresno Unified with blunt words and an urgency that her mentor, retired superintendent Bob Nelson, rarely exhibited.

She’s also a candidate for the permanent position as the School Board begins a national search for Nelson’s successor. Her said in an appearance Tuesday on GV Wire’s “Unfiltered” that she expects a new superintendent to be announced by the end of April. That’s a month earlier than the School Board’s previously announced goal.

With the national search in its beginning stage, it’s apparent that Her is gathering support from members of the seven-trustee board.

During recent board meetings, she has sat in the center of the dais in a seating arrangement decided by Board President Valerie Davis.

That’s an important visual cue because the seating position was politized in 2017 when then-School Board President Brooke Ashjian moved then-Superintendent Mike Hanson to the end of the dais. Until Davis invited Her to switch seats, a superintendent had not sat in the middle in more than seven years.

Davis told GV Wire that this change was for convenience. However, it could also be read as an endorsement of Her’s performance thus far.

Polished Answers to Tough Questions

When Her interviews for the permanent position, expect polished answers to tough questions.

For example, in a recent interview with GV Wire, a reporter asked Her why she should be picked to lead the district when she’s been part of it for 30 years, including several years in Nelson’s leadership cabinet. The district produced poor student scores throughout this time.

Acknowledging the question as tough but fair, Her responded: “I do know that as an educator, I got results…  And so, do I know how to do it? I do, because I have the proven results to be able to do this. Now, the hard part is how do we get everyone to do it.”

Related Story: Why Was FUSD Interim Superintendent’s Seat Moved at Board Meetings?

Meanwhile, long-struggling Fresno Unified has gone nearly a year without a permanent superintendent. That’s due to the initial search being halted last spring because of the community’s outcry over the decision by a majority of trustees to limit the field to internal candidates, including Her.

How did the district get in this position? What are its next steps?

A New Approach to Decades-Old Challenges

Fresno Unified is starting from the ground up — overhauling past initiatives to focus on four major goals.

Her and the superintendent team have been at the center of this process, collaborating with the School Board to fine-tune and adopt a five-year plan for significant academic improvement.

Trustee Susan Wittrup says that narrowing the focus to four major goals will ensure they are achieved.

Related Story: Has Fresno Unified Finally Planted the Flag for an Academic Revolution?

These goals and so-called “guardrails” are laying the foundation for improvement and setting expectations for staff — including the future superintendent.

Her says she’s up for the challenge while expressing appreciation for the goals and expectations set by trustees.

“It’s really high accountability for the superintendent and staff… it requires a huge mindset shift for our staff. And it requires them to not just pass students by,” said Her.

She advocates for teachers to address students’ strengths and weaknesses, creating a unique plan for each pupil.

This may be scoring points with the School Board, but others are awaiting proof of student improvement

“It is status quo… we need results to change,” Fresno City Council President Mike Karbassi said. Karbassi does not think Fresno Unified teachers are to blame for the district’s situation. He points to a possible district leadership problem or issues at students’ homes.

Her is calling for community-wide support so that many more students can succeed in the classroom.

“I don’t think it’s just only the responsibility of the school district. I think it’s everyone…. That should not solely rest on the district, the educators, the administrators. It’s everyone in our city wrapping resources and supports around our families so that our students get what they need,” said Her.

Designated Schools Controversy

The Fresno Teachers Association has pushed back hard against Her’s decision to drop the district’s Designated Schools program.

Initially limited to three underachieving schools, the program has expended to 40 schools through the years. However, Her said, the once-promising results of adding 30 minutes of instruction daily and giving teachers extra days for training and other professional development have dissipated.

And, with the district needing to cut $30 million from its budget, the district must take a hard look on its return on investment, Her said, while keeping improved student achievement top of mind.

FTA leaders characterized the elimination of Designated Schools as a 12% pay cut for 40% of district teachers and said Her’s decision came without input from educators.

However, Her said the union’s statements, which were made at a news conference earlier this month, were inaccurate. She said that two-thirds of teachers at Designated Schools would see no reduction in compensation and the remaining 33%, who typically are at the top of the pay scale, would receive a phased 2% reduction over two years.

Her added that those veteran teachers would have the first “right” to accept extra-pay contracts at the school sites.

“We’re doing lots of things to mitigate it,” Her said. “We want to be very transparent.”

Expanded Search: Helpful or Hurtful?

The community is split on how the expanded search will impact internal candidates — including Her.

Those who pushed for a national search believe the process will offer legitimacy to the candidate appointed.

“The whole system is better because of the competitive process… I am looking for the most qualified person,” said Wittrup, who led the community push for a national search.

In the other corner is Sandra Celedon, president and CEO of Fresno Building Healthy Communities. She voiced concerns for Her’s candidacy last spring, saying the halted process and actions of the board may have “forever tainted” Her’s possible appointment.

Others who spoke last spring said that racism drove community backlash against an internal search in which Her was widely believed to be the front-runner.

However, Karbassi said race had nothing to do with his backing of a national search for Nelson’s successor.

“That’s the problem with Fresno Unified: We don’t want to do things on merit. We just want to tick boxes,” said Karbassi.

Nelson even put his two cents in, implying the shift was orchestrated by outside influencers.

“What you have is the developer community and the labor community working in collaboration to change what’s happening at the superintendent’s level,” Nelson told Fresnoland.

Manuel Bonilla, president of the Fresno Teachers Association, reacted to Nelson’s characterization by saying, “It is a ridiculous comment because if that was the case, we would have had a superintendent a year ago. We represent 60% of the labor force in Fresno Unified… for anyone to say that these people, that are doing the groundwork, shouldn’t have a voice in this is crazy.”

Either way, the board is moving forward with a national search. A third-party search firm has been hired, and interviews are set to begin in April.

Related Story: Flipping the Script: Board Majority Supports Wide Search for Fresno ...

What Needs to Change?

Community members appear to agree on this: Fresno Unified needs a superintendent who disrupts the norm and challenges the system.

“We need someone that is not just reactionary. Someone who is proactive and has a plan, not just goals. That’s the type of person we need. Someone to change the culture,” Bonilla said.

Fresno Unified has a five-decade history of poor student achievement accompanied by contention among staff and leadership. And, as Bonilla describes it, a culture of fear and retribution in which folks are scared to bring up issues.

In the past decade, the district has failed to get student proficiency scores across the 50% mark and faced two potential teacher strikes.

Her acknowledged the problem at a recent School Board meeting: “While we have had some gains, the results we’ve gotten is something that we’re not proud of, because we know we need to do better by our kids and by their families.”

A little more than 33% of students were meeting state math standards and 24% met English language arts (ELA) standards in 2017. That rose to 38% and nearly 30%, respectively, in the 2018-19 school year under Nelson.

After the pandemic, test scores fell to 32% in math and a little more than 20% in ELA standards. At the time, Nelson acknowledged the troubling learning losses that occurred while lessons were being taught via Zoom.

In comparison, about 72% of Clovis Unified pupils met ELA standards and 58% met math standards in the 2018-19 school year.

These scores dropped to 66% and 51%, respectively — still much higher than Fresno’s pre-pandemic scores.

“I think we need to ask ourselves, why weren’t we paying attention?” Her said.

Will someone coming from within the system be able to “shake things up”?

“It is possible with the right personality… someone gets in there and thinks: ‘I want to change this’ and knows how the system works to break it,” Karbassi said, “It is possible. But, right now, I don’t see any change.”

Interim Superintendent for a Year

Her will spend a year as interim superintendent — a unique opportunity to establish herself in the role.

She is taking full advantage of her trial run.

“One of the things that I did when I first started in this role was, I started talking to kids, all kinds of kids.” Her said, “And, asking them like, what is it that you know we did well, what is it that we didn’t do well. Where do we fail you?”

She is using feedback to design a system, alongside staff, that is relevant to students and will help them master the skills they need to succeed in college or the workplace.

Additionally, Her makes sure she works with staff. Whenever there is an opportunity, about once a month, she speaks with principals about expectations and goals, Her told GV Wire in another interview.

However, there is discontent in some quarters over the extended timeline of the superintendent search. Bonilla is among those losing patience.

“They ran to be leaders and should start acting like it. It’s embarrassing that we, as a community, have had to wait a year for one of the primary functions of this role,” Bonilla said. “The school board’s inaction and ineptitude cost the district hundreds of thousands of dollars for a (national) search that should have happened last year.”