Since dramatically avoiding a strike at the last minute early in 2018, Fresno Unified leaders and the teachers union have gone to great lengths to keep their public comments positive. But as the final scheduled Board of Trustees meeting before the summer break approaches, there are signs their lovefest is...
Future Parks Tax Could Be in Hands of Fresno Council
Fresno councilman Miguel Arias doesn’t want to wait on the mayor to figure out a successor plan to Measure P. So, he wants the council to take the next step. Now Arias wants to establish a parks and public safety committee, with a focus on determining a new tax proposal...
City Hall and Fresno Unified Team Up to Make a Splash
For the third straight year, City Hall and Fresno Unified School District will partner to open up pools and school fields during the summer. The city will provide staff for the parks and pools; the district provides the facilities. Fresno Unified Superintendent Bob Nelson called it a “true partnership.” “The...
Fresno Unified Lays Out Response to Student's Racist Posts
Fresno Unified plans to double down on teaching students about the many aspects of racism and the urgent need to keep campuses safe, following an uproar over racially offensive social media posts that included a Bullard High student posing in blackface. District Superintendent Bob Nelson, standing alongside 15 people from...
Can Fresno Unified Trustees Get Along? They Meet to Find Out.
Officially, the purpose of Wednesday’s (May 22) special Fresno Unified school board meeting was a “governance check-in.” In reality, it was nearly two and a half hours of trustees airing grievances over things like confidentiality, board behavior and agenda-setting. And while no trustee would say as such, the meeting also...
Love of Teaching Powers Her Amazing Sprint to a Fresno Classroom
Kaylee Gutierrez is among the 19.3% of students who enter Fresno State as freshmen and get their diplomas four years later. But she did something else that had university officials jogging their memories. Gutierrez earned a multiple-subject teaching credential while posting a 4.0 grade-point average in those four years. Best...
Speaking Truth to Power on Behalf of Special Ed Students
It's called speaking truth to power. And, Wednesday night, five women dedicated to special education students and families delivered the truth to the most powerful leaders in Fresno Unified. It was a remarkable, dramatic event on a night that leaders rolled out something worth celebrating: a $10 million ongoing increase...
Big Special Ed Dollars Coming. Can FUSD Deliver Better Results?
As soon as he became superintendent in 2017, Bob Nelson publicly acknowledged serious, heart-breaking problems in Fresno Unified's often-criticized special education program. The criticism hasn't relented even as Nelson has become the social media face of the district's move to "inclusion" — that is, teaching special ed students, whenever possible,...
Fresno Unified Trustees in No Hurry to Decide Measure X Projects
A special meeting Friday on how to spend the remaining $170 million in Fresno Unified's Measure X construction bonds didn't produce action on a single project. Instead, the trustees voiced their thoughts on funding priorities for nearly three hours. Asked what was accomplished, trustee Elizabeth Jonasson Rosas answered, "Very little." Apparent...
Fresno Unified Trustees Will Decide Measure X Projects Friday
One of the thorniest issues for many school boards is deciding which construction projects to fund. For Fresno Unified's seven trustees, the challenge is how to spend $172 million in remaining Measure X bonds. That might sound like a lot of money — and it is — but the district's...