With nearly 22.03% of ballots counted early Tuesday night, incumbent Fresno County Superintendent of Schools Michelle Cantwell-Copher bolted to a strong lead over challenger Eimear O’Brien.

Cantwell-Copher, who is vying for her second term, had 57.27% of the vote to 42.73% for O’Brien, a former Clovis Unified superintendent.

Cantwell-Copher Emphasizes Progress to Voters

With an increasingly strong spotlight from Fresno County families and local media on the underperformance of many school districts, this race generated widespread attention.

Cantwell-Copher said she deserved re-election because of the progress shown by students in the county’s 32 public school districts. She stressed that she had the leadership skills to accelerate student learning.

Since 2022, Fresno County schools in general have improved by nearly 5.5 percentage points in English and 8 percentage points in math.

“When we look at where our students started and where they are today, we see the impact of the hard work happening in classrooms every day,” Cantwell-Copher said. “Our teachers, school leaders and support staff have remained focused on helping students succeed, and that commitment is making a difference.”

Improvement Isn’t Coming Fast Enough: O’Brien

O’Brien countered that progress wasn’t coming fast enough and that the county would lose an entire generation of students if learning didn’t accelerate. She additionally said that strong performances by a handful of local districts masked a continuing failure to meet state standards in reading and math.

With endorsements from former Fresno County superintendents Jim Yovino and Larry Powell, O’Brien offered voters her plan to immediately improve literacy and promised to bring full transparency to the office.

“The literacy crisis has been the centerpiece of my campaign,” O’Brien said. “There are many schools and classrooms in Fresno County using the science of reading, but we need to scale it up as a county.”

Cantwell-Copher, O’Brien Advanced Out of Primary

The incumbent, who won election in 2022 with backing from Yovino, and O’Brien advanced to the runoff from a three-candidate field that included educator Johnny Alvarado. Cantwell-Copher led the primary with 42.8% of the vote, and O’Brien garnered 30%. Alvarado, who endorsed Cantwell-Copher after the primary, finished with 27.2%.