I remember when community organizers Veva Islas and Andy Levine were powerful voices for equity, accountability, and transparency.

That was before they took oaths as Fresno Unified trustees, bonded with the bureaucracy, and became card-carrying members of the status quo.

In my 50 years of reporting, I’ve seen maybe a handful of street-wise outsiders who morphed into don’t-rock-the-boat insiders at the speed of Islas and Levine.

The first time I met Islas, she was demanding that the city of Fresno install a crosswalk on a busy street in southeast Fresno. She spoke passionately about safe routes to schools and southeast neighborhoods not being overlooked by City Hall.

Levine first came to public attention with Faith in Fresno as a community organizer, pushing for reductions in gun violence, ending slum housing, and initiating police reforms.

They Have Power, but You Wouldn’t Know It

Yet now that they have real power, Islas and Levine are reluctant — if ever — to use it. And that’s more than puzzling given they sought and won election to political seats entrusted with the all-important job of preparing about 65,000 children and teens to succeed at work or in college.

I get that many politicians want to be team players. I get, too, that Fresno Unified needs to become a high-functioning team of families, students, teachers, and administrators to succeed.

However, getting to that goal also requires trustees willing to challenge authority. Trustees who hold high-salaried administrators accountable for their performance. And trustees who treat transparency as a requirement — not a hassle you pay lawyers and consultants to circumvent.

Given their backgrounds as community organizers, I don’t know how Islas and Levine are OK with the district’s settlement for former communications chief Nikki Henry.

Henry, who fabricated quotes for a dossier against Fresno Teachers Association President Manuel Bonilla, received $162,000 following her resignation.

That $162,000 is nearly four times the annual median household income in zip code 93703, which is in the McLane High region Islas represents.

It’s also nearly 2.5 times the median household incomes for families in zip code 93704, which is in Levine’s Fresno High region.

An at-will employee who has been lucratively compensated for years clearly warrants dismissal and district leaders send her away with parting gifts like life is a game show?

Pick a word. Ridiculous. Insane. Disgusting. They all apply.

Yet nary an explanation from Levine and Islas. Be assured a lawyer told them to keep mum. And they agreed with the loyalty of a Trump cabinet member asking how high when told to jump.

I wonder what the constituents of Islas and Levine think about these street fighters turned Protectors of the Royal Educational Bureaucracy.

Will Levine and Islas Rise Up?

I don’t want to make this all about the Henry fiasco. However, it’s emblematic of how Islas and Levine have blended into the Fresno Unified walls instead of leading the charge to — for the first time in decades — really put the needs of children first.

You’re right, I’m picking on them.

That’s because each is bright, politically gifted, and knows firsthand the transformative power of education. Islas, the first in her family to attend college, holds a master’s degree in Public Health from Loma Linda University. Levine has a master’s in Sociology of Education from the Teachers College at Columbia University.

I want to know. Where’s their intellectual curiosity? What happened to speaking truth to power? Does either of them have the guts to tell a district lawyer, “You might have come up with a way to hide our dirty laundry, but the public has a right to know. After all, it’s their money.”

Just once I’d like to see Islas or Levine respond to a district executive’s acronym-packed power-point: “How will this benefit our students and our teachers, and how should we hold you accountable if things don’t go as advertised?”

Let’s close with words Levine and Islas will surely recognize from the late Congressman and Civil Rights leader John Lewis.

“Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and redeem the soul of America.”

Or, in this case, the soul of Fresno Unified.