Fresno City Councilman Luis Chavez and his wife, Fresno Unified trustee Elizabeth Jonasson Rosas, are being investigated for alleged improper votes while on the school board. An anonymous complaint on Oct. 17, 2019, to the state Fair Political Practices Commission, alleges that Chavez and Jonasson Rosas, by approving improvements for...
School Board Members Question Payout for Departing District Leader
The Fresno Unified School Board on Wednesday approved a severance agreement with deputy superintendent Ruthie Quinto by a 4-3 vote. The vote comes one week after Quinto's resignation was announced by superintendent Bob Nelson at the Sept. 9 meeting. Quinto said she was leaving to spend more time with her...
Fresno Unified Trustees Reject Slatic’s Nominee for Bond Committee
Four members of the Fresno Unified School Board took the rare step last week of rejecting a School Bond Oversight Committee member nomination made by one of their fellow trustees and recommended for approval by Superintendent Bob Nelson. What's not clear is whether the "no" votes signified the quartet's continuing...
Special Report: Nearly Half of Fresno Unified Students Below Grade Level
Fresno Unified School District has released an eye-opening report that paints in stark numbers how poorly students are performing academically and the huge challenges they face in being ready for college and career. Listen to this article: Only 12.1% of the district's students started the school year at grade...
Special Report: Nearly Half of Fresno Unified Students Below Grade Level
Fresno Unified School District has released an eye-opening report that paints in stark numbers how poorly students are performing academically and the huge challenges they face in being ready for college and career. Listen to this article: Only 12.1% of the district's students started the school year at grade...
Are Fresno Unified Magnet School Lotteries on the Up and Up?
Fresno Unified School District's magnet schools are some of the best anywhere. They're innovative, challenging, and staffed with top-flight teachers. In many of them, naturally, applicants exceed capacity. Thus, the district uses lotteries to determine the students getting Golden Tickets. Through the years, however, some have questioned whether high-demand schools...
Claudia Cazares Named President of Fresno Unified School Board
The Fresno Unified School Board unanimously voted in Area 6 incumbent Claudia Cazares as board president at its meeting Wednesday at FUSD headquarters. "I am truly honored and very excited about the vote of confidence from my fellow colleagues," Cazares said. Cazares was elected to the board in 2016 after beating...
Old 'Hall of Shame' Will Now Uplift Southeast Fresno, Leaders Say
Fresno's notorious "Hall of Shame" will be transformed into a state-of-the-art alternative education site in southeast Fresno. Fresno Unified trustees voted unanimously Wednesday night to buy the old juvenile hall campus on Tenth Street, ending months of negotiations with the county of Fresno. Fresno Unified will demolish the closed campus...
Fresno Unified Has Attendance Problem … On Bond Oversight Committee
Voters in Fresno Unified have entrusted the school board with more than a half-billion dollars in bond money. Measure Q passed in 2010 for $280 million. Measure X passed in 2016 for $225 million. Both bonds have an oversight board to make sure the construction funds are spent appropriately. The...
Did Racial Bias Lead to Fresno Unified Hair Policy Change? Mom Says Yes.
Fresno Unified School District is suspending enforcement of its hairstyle policy. And while neither the superintendent nor the school board president says it is in reaction to allegations of racial bias, a mother who is also a substitute teacher says her son was discriminated against. Superintendent Bob Nelson announced the change...