Dr. Eimear O’Brien officially kicked off her campaign for Fresno County Superintendent of Schools on Saturday afternoon in the shaded backyard of her northeast Fresno home surrounded by close relatives, more than 100 friends, and two former Fresno County schools chiefs.

O’Brien’s endorsers including Larry Powell and Jim Yovino, both former county superintendents who attended Saturday’s event. Powell put his money where his mouth is by handing O’Brien a check. That came after her lengthy and highly personal speech detailing her journey from Ireland to Fresno, her teaching and administrative jobs, and her belief — based on her own teaching experience — that every child can learn how to read.

She said that if she is elected Fresno County Superintendent of Schools next year — the post is now held by Dr. Michele Cantwell-Copher — her role will be to support, encourage, and inspire the county’s 32 district superintendents to elevate student achievement.

O’Brien revealed three goals and handed them out as “homework” to attendees. She said that if she’s elected, she will prioritize third-grade literacy, partner with parents and families, and increase the return on investment in education.

“There are significant dollars being invested in education in Fresno County. It’s in the billions, billions of dollars. But I also know that 56% of our kids are not making it in ELA (English language arts), they’re not meeting the standards, and 68% — we should all be worried about that — 68% are not meeting the targets in math. This is all going to affect our entire society as we move forward,” she said. “And I started thinking about my experiences in Clovis, my experiences in Central, and I thought, what I learned in both those districts was … we have to have the courage to change when we know something is not working. And it’s not working.”

The more than 100 people who gathered in O’Brien’s backyard included staffers from her former schools, Valley Oak Elementary and Clovis West High in Clovis Unified. The crowd also included several Clovis Unified trustees, perhaps not surprising since O’Brien was the much-loved superintendent of the district before her retirement in 2023.

Also on hand were several members of the Central Unified School Board, a district with links to both O’Brien and Cantwell-Copher. O’Brien recently served a short stint as Central’s interim superintendent, and Cantwell-Copher had several jobs at Central before she joined the Fresno County Office of Education.

Absent from Saturday’s event were any high-ranking members of Fresno Unified School District, and therein lies the conundrum that O’Brien will face if she is elected county schools chief next year. As much as she wants to improve student academic performance, Fresno County’s overall test scores depend on large part on how well Fresno Unified students perform.

As the state’s third-largest school district, Fresno Unified has a huge impact on the countywide test scores — not unlike the huge impact that Los Angeles Unified, California’s largest school district, has on the entire state.

A lot of eyes will be plastered this year on state assessment tests, which will for the first time show whether Fresno Unified’s literacy efforts boosted reading scores for the district’s third graders.

Read like Aaron Judge

New York Yankee outfielder Aaron Judge’s ALL RISE Foundation is hosting a summer book club for students in grades kindergarten through 12, and you don’t have to just read books about baseball (although some of them are pretty readable).

This is the third year of the ALL RISE Summer Book Club, which ends Sept. 3.

“The ALL RISE Mission to help youth reach their unlimited possibilities begins with the gift of reading,” Aaron Judge, ALL RISE Founder and former Fresno State baseball player, said in a news release. “As our Book Club gears up for its third year, we are looking to triple our reach with our carefully curated grade-level book lists that allow parents to read to their little ones and older students to find fiction or nonfiction books that inspire them to read for fun. As we head into summer, I hope you will continue to cheer on the Yankees, but I also hope you will share our book lists with the youth in your lives. With your help, we can ensure that children everywhere improve their literacy and fulfill their dreams like I have.”

This year’s goal is 600 ALL RISE Book Club members. In 2024, according to the ALL RISE news release, there were 349 book club members from 170 communities across the nation, including College Grove, Tennessee, New Braunfels, Texas, Shelton, Connecticut, and Redlands, in Southern California.

(School Zone’s salad days were spent in Redlands, which like Fresno is inland and gets really hot in the summer. School Zone’s childhood home had a swamp cooler in the family room and not much else, and she couldn’t get to the Sylvan Plunge every day. So SZ opted for the next “coolest” option — the Smiley Library, where the thick adobe walls and AC promised a break from the heat, and the vast shelves of books boosted her love of reading.)

To sign up for the ALL RISE Book Club, go to AaronJudgeALLRISEfoundation.org. Students can choose a grade-level book from the list, and after they submit their book report, Judge will send them a certificate.

Clovis North Student Is One of Nation’s Top Debaters

Isabelle D’Mello was one of six students named finalists in extemporaneous debate in the National Speech & Debate Tournament, the world’s largest academic competition that recently attracted 7,000 students from 46 states and 12 countries to Des Moines, Iowa.

D’Mello and the other five were named finalists after five days of rigorous competition, and they represent the top 1% of speech and debate competitors in the National Speech and Debate Association.

She was the third-place finisher, behind the national champion, Luke Ryan, a student at the Pembroke Hill School in Missouri, and Ethan Kuruvilla, a student at Bellevue High School in Washington.

This year marked the centennial anniversary for the National Speech and Debate Association.

University High Grad Heading to Air Force Academy

Braeden Hill, 17, of Friant was one of four students who earned an appointment to a U.S. military academy after being nominated by U.S. Rep. Vince Fong, R-Bakersfield. Fong’s other nominations included Joanna Lee, 18, of Visalia, a Diamante High School grad who will attend the U.S. Naval Academy.

“Nominating remarkable students from our region for admission to our United States Service Academies is one of the greatest honors I’m afforded as a U.S. Representative,” Fong said in a news release. “These young men and women are answering the call to serve, dedicating their lives to defending and protecting our country as our nation’s next generation of military leaders.”

The Wonderful Company Seeks Grant Applications

Schools and local organizations in Avenal, Delano, Del Rey, Firebaugh, Lost Hills, Mendota, Sanger, Shafter, and Wasco are eligible to apply for grants funded by The Wonderful Company’s Central Valley Community Grants.

Over the past 10 years the company and its co-owners, Lynda and Stewart Resnick, have awarded more than $8.5 million in grants to more than 142 nonprofits and 165 schools in the Valley. The grants support health and wellness, education, recreation, community beautification, art, and social services.

A virtual information session will be held at 2 p.m. July 10 to learn more about the application process and eligibility. Click here or visit bit.ly/2025-wonderful-community-grants to register for the virtual information session.

The deadline to submit applications is midnight on Aug. 31. The grant recipients will be announced in October.