As parents this month began sending children back to school after the summer break, news came out that Fresno Unified would no longer directly fund field trips to places such as Monterey Bay Aquarium, various colleges and universities, and the famous sixth-grade camp.

The decision, however, comes despite the district’s new “guardrails” promising citizen engagement on decisions that affect students at large.

It also comes as the district’s administration remains some of the highest paid in the state, even compared to more costly areas such as Long Beach and Los Angeles.

Now, in the middle of contract negotiations, the Fresno Teachers Association has circulated a petition online calling on the district to find a solution to pay the roughly $2.2 million to $3 million it spends annually on student field trips.

In the face of shrinking reserves, rising costs, and declining revenue, Fresno Unified Deputy Superintendent Ben Drati told GV Wire Wednesday that the district will no longer pay for field trips. Instead, it will fall on school sites and the Parent Teacher Association to fundraise for trips.

The district has been dipping into its $122 million reserve to backfill spending gaps, Drati said.

“A lot of districts don’t have these activities, but we certainly appreciate it, we want it, we think it’s important,” Drati said. “It’s just we have to now revert back to, in the meantime, revert to how we used to fund it — through site decisions, through fundraising efforts, and other ways to do these trips. And then maybe not go on such elaborate trips.”

District Needs to Find a Solution: FTA

On Wednesday, after news broke about the district’s decision, the Fresno Teachers Association put out a statement saying that field trips provide students with learning outside of a classroom setting. Union president Manuel Bonilla said the district needs to work on a solution, given Fresno Unified’s $2 billion budget and $122 million in reserves.

“Field trips are not extras for many of our students. They are opportunities to experience colleges, science, history, the arts, nature, and their own community in ways that cannot be replicated inside a classroom,” Bonilla said. “We believe the district has the resources to fix this. What we need now is the willingness to sit down and find a solution.”

Drati said with the tightening budget, the district is focusing on core education within the classroom.

Trips can be more localized, he said, going to the Fresno Chaffee Zoo as opposed to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

He said it’s only been in the last four years that federal American Rescue Plan funds enabled the district to fund at least one enrichment trip a year for students TK to sixth grade

That money, however, ran out. This most recent year, the district faced a $30 million shortfall.

After two years of cuts to the central office, Drati said it came time to make cuts at the school level. Drati said he wants to work with the FTA to use some of the $30 million guaranteed in the last teacher contract to pay for field trips.

“Those programs, all those field trips, what we call enrichment, they’re not core,” Drati said. “We have to stay within the core of teaching with educating students in the core functions.”

Fresno Unified Promises Community Engagement Before Major Decisions

When Superintendent Misty Her took the job, she promised a new set of goals and guardrails — adopted by the board of trustees — that would hone the focus of the district down from hundreds of goals to only a few.

One of those goals was community engagement.

District policy in 2025 changed so that the superintendent would not propose major decisions — defined as impacting more than 25% of a targeted group — without first having a community engagement plan.

Drati said the district’s communication strategy “was consistent to what we have always done.”

In spring, officials began communicating at school site councils to explain expenditures for the next year. Main topics involved personnel changes and how to best educate students.

He said while “we could have done a better job putting it out there,” because the district didn’t eliminate fundraising, it wasn’t necessary to conduct a community forum about the matter.

“Are we going to have sports or not, are we going to have performing arts or not, we’re always making those decision for the education of the students,” Drati said. “We didn’t isolate out to have a conversation around saying we are not going to have field trips.”

Getting funding information as early as possible is crucial for teachers planning, said Nicole Jennison, teacher at Edison High School.

For sixth-grade camps, schools need to sign contracts now with camp vendors. And then they’ll be accountable for the money even if the community can’t raise money in time.

“I specifically had conversations with other teachers I know and staff at my kids’ elementary school that this was in the budget proposal,” Jennison said. “What (school) admin actually got told so they could prepare is another story.”

As District Cut Funding, Admin Got Raises

As the district cut funds the past few years, administration salaries grew, making them among the top earners in the state.

Salaries for Chief Human Resources Officer David Chavez, Chief Operations and Classified Labor Management Officer Paul Idsvoog, and Chief Business & Financial Patrick Jensen have all grown substantially in the past few years.

Since 2022, Idsvoog’s salary and benefits amount grew 23% to $408,783. Chavez’s grew 38% to $414,582. Jensen’s grew 70% to $384,032, all while maintaining the same position, according to data from Transparent California.

Jensen makes about $10,000 less than his counterpart in Long Beach Unified, Yumi Takahashi, did in 2024, the most recent year for data. According to salaryexpert.com, while Fresno is 9% more expensive than the national average, Long Beach is 50% more expensive than the U.S. average.

As chief human resources officer, Chavez made $100,000 more than the same officer in Long Beach, Kelly An, who earned $314,666 in 2024.

In her first year as permanent superintendent, Her made $513,725 in 2025, including $87,117 in benefits. In 2024, Long Beach Unified Superintendent Jill Baker made $587,147 after six years in that position.

Other central office expenses include $1.5 million spent last year on central office administration expenses on meals and travel, down from $2.5 million the year before, according to public records given to GV Wire by FTA President Bonilla.

Drati said $900,000 of that figure was for professional learning that goes to instruction and is important for best practices.

On the district’s salaries, Drati said the district cannot operate without a top office. And to get the best personnel, the district has to be competitive with others in the state.

“If (President Donald) Trump doesn’t have a team, or no one has a team, you just cut that away, you won’t be able to operate,” Drati said. “We have a central office that their salaries are consistent to what other districts would pay. We’ve got to be competitive in order to keep people around.”