The biggest development in Fresno-area school board races perhaps is who won't be on the November ballot. Longtime Central Unified trustee Terry Cox tells GV Wire℠that she won't run for a sixth term. Cox says that after 20 years on the board she wants to focus on her job as...
Nelson Talks About Leading State’s 3rd-Largest School District and His Ukulele
Fresno Unified superintendent Bob Nelson says his strategies for weathering the COVID-19 pandemic, schools closures, and critics include having thick skin, kindness, and playing the ukulele. Nelson's comments came during a recent EdSource podcast with Carl Cohn, professor emeritus and clinical professor in the School of Educational Studies at Claremont...
Superintendent: New Boundaries, Year-Round Schools Possible if Clovis Unified Bond Measure Fails
Clovis Unified School District trustees voted Wednesday to put a $335 million bond measure on the November ballot, even as trustees and the district's superintendent acknowledged that asking for voters to approve a tax measure during a pandemic is less than ideal timing. But district officials concluded that with steadily...
As COVID Shutdowns Expand, Will Area Schools Open Next Month?
Local school officials were huddling Monday to talk about how the latest COVID-19 closures ordered Monday by Gov. Gavin Newsom might impact back-to-school plans. Central Unified spokeswoman Sonja Dosti said Central Unified superintendent Andy Alvarado and other superintendents were conferring with Fresno County Superintendent of Schools Jim Yovino about preparing...
Got (Chocolate) Milk? For Fresno Unified Students, It’ll Soon Be Harder to Find
Chocolate milk won't be an option for Fresno Unified students in their summer meals starting Wednesday. That's when the district will stop including it with the breakfast-and-lunch meal handouts at area schools. And starting in August, chocolate milk will only be available for elementary school students with their lunches. (Middle...
Winning Bid For PLA-Build of Herrera Elementary Is $3M Under Estimate
Fresno Unified trustees gave the green light this week to a $37.6 million construction bid for the new Juan Felipe Herrera Elementary School in southeast Fresno. Trustee Elizabeth Jonasson Rosas made a point of asking how the bid compared with prior estimates. Chief operations officer Karin Temple said the winning...
Trustees Keep Fresno Cops on Campus but End ShotSpotter
The Fresno Unified School District on Wednesday adopted a $1.5 billion budget for the 2020-21 school year that keeps Fresno police and Fresno County deputies on campus but deletes funding for the city's ShotSpotter program that helps police quickly detect and respond to gunshots. Trustees voted 5-2 to approve the...
Should Police Officers Still Be Assigned to FUSD Campuses?
The debate over whether police officers and sheriff's deputies should be assigned to Fresno Unified school campuses heated up Thursday evening during a special board meeting on the proposed 2020-21 budget for California's third-largest school district. Sixty people submitted public comments urging the board to end the district's employment of...
FUSD Superintendent: ‘a Time to Acknowledge That Pain and Hurt’
Fresno Unified Superintendent Bob Nelson said Tuesday that he joins with the rest of the community in mourning the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, a death that has sparked protests both peaceful and violent across the country. Nelson said Floyd's killing has caused pain and...
Surrounded by Fresno Police in Case of Mistaken Identity, ‘The Kid is Scared to Death’
Fresno Unified board president Keshia Thomas says she well understands the anger boiling over in violent protests across the nation in reaction to the death of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. She knows what it's like when police wrongly target a black man or youth because it happened to her...