Councilman urges Fresno schools to reopen. ‘This isn’t intended to be political pressure’

The Fresno Unified School District doesn’t have a set date for when it will reopen its campuses for in-person learning. It has caused protests, tension with parents and students — even a threat of a lawsuit from city leaders.

But more recently a group of FUSD parents — led by another Fresno council member — have banded together to ask the district to consider revising its plan so students can return faster.

“This isn’t intended to be political pressure,” Councilmember Miguel Arias told The Bee’s Education Lab. “I’m not asking my colleagues to join me in doing this. I’m the only council member with kids in Fresno Unified and my kids have been online for over a year.”

Fresno Unified parents along with Arias held a news conference on Friday in front of City Hall to explain why their kids should return to school. Now that safety measures have been put in place and teachers will begin receiving the vaccine next week, students should return, Arias said.

The Fresno County Health Department is setting aside at least 40,000 vaccinations for educators, and is specifically setting thousands aside for FUSD employees as well as other large districts in the county.

“I have thousands of residents working side-by-side in poultry plants, picking crops, at grocery stores working,” Arias said. “None have been vaccinated and still show up to work and it’s unfair to simply allow any group of employees to be at the front of the line for vaccines while not requiring them to return to work.”

Fresno Unified has a different approach to reopening its campuses than some of the other large districts in the county.

FUSD will continue distance learning until the county reaches the orange Tier 3 in the state’s color-coded “Blueprint for a Safer Economy” of coronavirus safety measures and restrictions. The orange tier represents “moderate” risk levels for spreading COVID-19. To get to the orange tier, positive coronavirus cases would need to dip between 1 and 3.9 daily cases per 100,000.

Other districts like Clovis Unified and Sanger Unified have had students on campuses since November and have continued to bring back more students.

“If it is safe enough to go back to in-person (learning) north of Herndon it’s safe enough to go back south of Herndon,” Arias said, referencing a dividing line between FUSD and Clovis Unified. “If north Herndon kids are allowed to go back in-person while the rest don’t go back, it’s one of the largest discriminatory actions this city has ever experienced and it only reaffirms the tale of two city’s history and legacy that we have had to endure.”

This isn’t the first time a city leader has pleaded with FUSD to reopen sooner. Councilmember Garry Bredefeld held a news conference at the beginning of the month and intended to place a proposal on the City Council’s agenda to initiate a lawsuit and reopen schools immediately during the coronavirus pandemic. A week later, the Fresno City Council voted 4-3 to remove the discussion from its agenda, killing the proposal without debate.

FUSD Superintendent Bob Nelson took to Twitter to call out Bredefeld’s proposal.

“So how is that current two-party system working for you, Fresnans?” he asked. “Nothing like politicizing an issue as serious as a safe and responsible return to schools in order to rally a support base. The only thing this release lacked was face paint, Viking horns, and a Chewbacca onesie.”

Labor negotiations

Unlike a district like Clovis Unified that has already opened its campuses, FUSD has a teachers union to negotiate with. The Fresno Teachers Association was heavily involved in the reopening plan the district came up with.

Arias said Fresno Unified should consider having a more flexible reopening plan like other school districts in the state. Many other districts don’t have a contractual agreement that significantly restricts changes to the reopening plans, he said.

“For us (the city) making this a contractual agreement with labor groups goes against our position that we should follow science and the advice of health care workers to make changes based on what’s happening on the ground,” Arias said.

If Fresno Unified were to change its reopening plan it would need to bring the matter to the bargaining table. FUSD leaders told the Ed Lab vaccinations for teachers would not change the district’s reopening plans.

“However, we’ve never backed away from the negotiation table with our labor partners and as more accessible mitigations such as widespread access to vaccines and surveillance testing become a reality we are discussing how that affects our safe and stable return to in-person learning,” FUSD spokesperson Nikki Henry said this week.

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.

This story was originally published February 25, 2021 at 6:46 PM.