Fresno-area district changes graduation requirements. Teachers didn’t have much say

Students attending Central Unified will need fewer credits to graduate high school beginning next school year.

The controversial decision to lower graduation requirement credits to 230 vs. the previous 280 credits was approved during Tuesday night’s school board meeting. It passed 5-0 with Trustee Jason Paul abstaining.

The vote to change requirements was approved by the board after it heard multiple phone calls during public comments from teachers and students opposing the item.

Lowering the requirements will change the school day for Central Unified students. Now students will only have six periods instead of seven. The discussion to get rid of seventh period was brought before the board in October 2019.

“The board had asked the administration to come back with alternatives to graduation requirements. We had that discussion with our district learning team which includes principals from all sites. That was back in the spring of this calendar year prior to COVID,” Central Unified Superintendent Andrew Alvarado told The Bee.

“We don’t intend to cut any of the electives in our first year. What we want to do is explore and get feedback from our students and our teachers so that we are providing the courses you are interested in,” board President Yesenia Carrillo said during the meeting.

The current requirements exceed the requirements by the state and give students 70 credits for electives. Students are only required to take 50 electives per the state of California.

Carillo said the changes will greatly benefit underrepresented students such as English learners. “We received a lot of feedback that changing the requirement to 230 will allow the English-learner population access to additional electives. This is really important because it keeps students motivated,” Carillio said.

Why change the requirements?

The decision to lower the required credits is to help increase the district’s graduation rate, the board said.

Currently Central is in “targeted school improvement for graduation rates.”

Central has an 86% high school graduation rate, ranking fourth from the five largest local districts (Fresno, Clovis, Madera and Sanger are the others) in graduation numbers. The previous requirements held Central kids to a higher standard requiring more credits than other districts in the area. Beginning 2021-22, they’ll be on a par at 230 credits.

Between 300-400 students do not graduate each year, according to the data presented during Tuesday’s meeting.

“We are very concerned about the high achievers but we need to be equally concerned with those kids that are unrepresented that are the most vulnerable.” Trustee Phillip Cervantes said.

The new requirements mean that beginning next fall, teachers will teach five classes (down from six) each semester, Alvarado said.

Will teachers be laid off?

Alvarado said the district does not intend to cut academic programs such as agricultural or its Career Technical Education programs.

Alvarado also said no tenured teachers would be laid off during the 2020-21 school year.

He didn’t have the same promise for probationary teachers, who do not have the same protections as tenured teachers. Teachers who are not currently tenured and are on probation may be affected by any future cutting of classes. The district “can’t guarantee those positions,” Alvarado said.

“To do this during this economy is one of the harshest things that you guys could possibly do,” said parent Carrie Vigil during public comment.

Under the new model, teachers will have “reduced contact with students by almost 40-50 students,” Alvarado said. “Going from 280 to 230 credits, we don’t know how that is going to impact our student to teacher ratio.”

Parents and teachers not included

The harshest criticism the board received on behalf of students and teachers was the lack of input asked from the community ahead of making this decision.

An independent survey of 126 teachers showed 80% of teachers said they were not given an adequate amount of time to respond to the proposed change. Out of the same survey, 86% of teachers said they were not “meaningfully included in the process” of changing the requirements.

“This is a decision made by bureaucrats, not by educators,” Central High Teacher Association at-large representative Tom Burkart said during public comment.

A petition with almost 1,000 supporters against this proposal to cut down required graduation credits made rounds on the web.

“As far as reaching out to the parents, I think that’s a fair argument. Did we set up a town hall and bring it to the community? No. Have we brought it to the board and given it ample time, absolutely,” Alvarado said.

The discussion of changing the bell schedule has been an ongoing issue for the past 20 years. “They had the same exact conversation 12 years ago about the bell schedule and the graduation requirement,” Alvarado said.

“The negatives of the block schedule is something we have been talking about over a decade. We’re not rushing the decision, I think we are trying to get to a conclusion, finally, instead of going around in circles kicking the can down the road,” Trustee Terry Cox said.