Education Lab
Fresno Unified increases funding to keep police on campus, despite cries to defund
School districts across the country are rethinking their relationships with law enforcement agencies after protests erupted amid calls to reform systemic racism.
However, the Fresno Unified School District will spend more money next year on police officers on campus at a time it is losing millions of dollars.
The district is losing about $79.3 million in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic that shuttered schools and businesses and triggered a national unemployment explosion.
Fresno Unified board members on Wednesday approved a budget for the upcoming school year. Teachers won’t be laid off or take pay cuts, but 27 departments will lose money, including some that could affect students despite district staff’s assurance that wouldn’t happen.
The reductions in these departments will be primarily to central administration and be the furthest away from students and campuses, Deputy Superintendent Ruthie Quinto said.
However, Trustee Veva Islas said, “it is not true that we are keeping cuts away from students.”
“I continue to struggle with the idea, and the comment that was voiced earlier is really untrue to me that we’re staying away from cuts to students when we are not better aligning resources that we have,” Islas said during Wednesday’s meeting.
The Special Education department stands to lose the most, facing a $4,739,894 cut for the coming school year. English Learner Services will lose $438,445, and $1,468,265 will be cut from the Early Learning Department.
College and Career Readiness will lose $410,347, Parent University will lose $115,971, and $330,583 will be slashed from the Career Technical Education department.
The Summer School, After School, and Extended Day Fee Based Program will lose $664,542, Arts and Music will lose $73,395, and $26,599 will be cut from the African American Academic Acceleration Department.
After Gov. Gavin Newsom’s announced billion-dollar cuts to education in May, school districts across the state had to reduce money from departments it had previously planned for, which is reflected in Fresno Unified’s budget. The money Special Education, English Learner Services, and the African American Academic Acceleration Department lost was never officially added to the budget, it was proposed money the district had planned for but it’s being cut in the state budget.
The district is still increasing services for Special Education, a school official said.
Trustees Islas and Claudia Cazares were the only board members to vote against the budget proposal.
Dozens ask the board to defund police
There were 254 public comment submissions about the budget with 79 of those regarding defunding police officers on school campuses and shifting that money to other student services like school counselors and mental health services. Some students submitted comments expressing their fear of going to school with police officers are on campus.
The district has received dozens of comments about defunding police, Islas said, and “it is really tone-deaf of us not to try to have some action in response to that.”
The district has continued to pay for law enforcement even though officers haven’t been on campuses since March 13, when schools shut down to help slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. Fresno Unified would have saved around $185,000 if they didn’t have to continue funding police officers while campuses were closed, district officials said.
Fresno Unified pays for a portion of police officer salaries who work on its campuses. The district budgeted $2,962,550 for the 2019/20 school year for its contracts with law enforcement agencies: Fresno Police Department ($2,465,350), Fresno County Sheriff’s Office ($159,700), and County of Fresno Probation ($337,500).
However, the district lost a grant it depended on and now has to pay an additional $383,300 to fund police officers on campuses, officials said.
Shot spotter, a gunshot-tracking program, is the only police-related program the district will stop funding. The contract expires in November, and the board is not expected to renew it.
“Budgets are definitely statements of our values,” Islas said. “I have a continuing struggle about paying for PD (Fresno police department) at the level that we had given that the campuses are closed. We are not receiving the same level of services would our campuses be open.”
Superintendent Bob Nelson said he made an “informal” request to Fresno Police Chief Andy Hall to consider taking a pay reduction, but the chief didn’t agree to it.
“We tried to solve that informally and it sounds like we’re going to need to take formal means in terms of making again our position known in this regard,” Nelson said.
Nelson said that completely defunding police on school campuses “won’t solve the issues we have,” but continuing to work with police “business as usual” isn’t acceptable either.
“We cannot have any situation in which our black youth are disproportionately having engagement with some police, but honestly, it’s not just a police issue,” Nelson said. “The disproportionality is also reflected in our suspension and expulsion data, and it’s something we all have to work together to rectify.”
Quinto said the district also reached out to Fresno County Sheriff’s Office officials, and they agreed to consider adjusting the payments to deputies.
The district should not have to pay for services they aren’t receiving, Trustee Keshia Thomas said, and “if that means they (Fresno Police Department) are not willing to take a loss on this contract, I think we need to really revisit whether or not we’re going to do business with them.”
Thomas said she believes police should be on school campuses, but the board needs to have a “serious” conversation on this issue and where to go from here.
“Everyone may not feel that it’s perfect, but a budget is often a compromise of what is the best that we can do with the circumstances and sometimes that all we can do,” Trustee Carol Mills said during the meeting. “We can’t do perfection, but we can do our best to do what we can to keep the cuts away from the students and the cuts away from the campuses, and I think this budget is doing that.”
Clovis Unified
Clovis Unified School District on Wednesday also approved its budget for 2020-2021 and is losing $30 million.
Superintendent Eimear O’Farrell has said the district would keep cuts as “far away from students as possible.”
O’Farrell said the district has slowed hiring new employees, except those open positions deemed essential. There are no plans for staff layoffs, according district budget documents.
“The hiring freeze will only apply to vacant positions having minimal impact on the educational experience if not filled,” according to the district’s budget report.
To save money and ensure necessary programs are not cut, Clovis Unified will reduce funding to various programs including technology, adult education, facilities, sports and recreation.
The district will also shift a portion of Educational Services’ Salaries & Benefits to Clovis Online Funding.
Other services that will be hit by budget cuts include financing, Allocated Personnel Unit, position control, grants, professional development, and discretionary funds. There will also be a decrease in purchasing of planned equipment.
Isabel Sophia Dieppa contributed to this report.
The Education Lab is a local journalism initiative that highlights education issues critical to the advancement of the San Joaquin Valley. It is funded by donors. Learn about The Bee’s Education Lab on our website.
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