Will Fresno Unified see a major political power shift next month? Who’s on the ballot
On Tuesday, The Bee’s Education Lab broke down donations, endorsements and campaign goals for the six candidates vying for the Edison and Bullard-area seats on Fresno Unified’s school board this fall.
With four of FUSD’s seven school board seats on the ballots that began hitting mailboxes this week, a political power shift could be in the works.
Below, you can find an overview of the seven candidates in the races for the Sunnyside-area and McLane-area seats, plus more information on how to vote (Spoiler: Election Day is Nov. 8, but you can already cast your ballot).Meet the Sunnyside-area candidates
Four candidates – Valerie F. Davis, Karl C. Diaz, Tammy McMahon-Gorans and Michael B. Osmer – compete for the seat representing Trustee Area 3, also known as the Sunnyside High School region, in one of the district’s most crowded candidate pools.
Davis, the incumbent, has represented the Sunnyside area for four consecutive terms since 2006, serving as board president from 2012 to 2016. She told the Ed Lab she’s an alum of Fresno Unified and has worked for the district in various roles since she was 18, including as a choir teacher.
Davis said her priorities include continuing the academic progress the district has made over the past three years, despite the setbacks of the pandemic.
Specifically, she wants to support and expand Fresno’s teacher pipeline program that encourages current FUSD students to become FUSD teachers, as well as the district’s peer mentoring program.
Three generations of Davis’ family have worked as teachers and coaches in the district. She said the multiple “generations of students, parents and community members” who have worked with her family through the years are her most notable endorsements.
One of Davis’ top donations is $10,000 from Richard Spencer of Fresno real estate company Spencer Enterprises. She’s received approximately $32,571 total in campaign contributions since the beginning of 2021 — the third most of any FUSD school board candidate.
Diaz works as an alternative education teacher for the Madera County Superintendent of Schools. He leads independent studies for at-risk youth. Prior to that, he taught in schools in Fresno and other cities in California.
As a parent in the Sunnyside area, Diaz told the Ed Lab the lack of academic growth he’s seen in the area under Davis’ multiple terms pushed him to throw his hat in the ring. If elected, his top priorities would include both student safety and academic achievement.
Diaz said that to him, safety looks like anything from combating bullying to working with local businesses in the Sunnyside area, where there are many liquor stores, to limit the times of day when alcohol is sold. He also wants to work on reducing class sizes so teachers can better manage classrooms and students can learn with fewer disruptions.
He said he has received an endorsement from the California School Employees Association.
He does not appear to have met the $1,000 threshold to provide detailed disclosure of campaign contributions or expenditures, according to Fresno County Clerk’s Office records.
McMahon-Gorans was a teacher for 35 years in Lemoore. After a short-lived retirement in 2021, she returned to teaching as a substitute in Kings County.
She told the Ed Lab she’s “desperately unhappy” with how FUSD operates and believes board members’ political aspirations are being prioritized over tackling student learning loss brought on by the pandemic. She said FUSD students were “cheated” while schools remained shuttered and online classes continued during the 2020-21 school year.
If elected, McMahon-Gorans said she’d treat core subject mastery like the emergency it is. In addition, she said she’d push back against the current ethnic studies curriculum being adopted across the state, which she called “anti-semitic,” and push for a curriculum emphasizing equality for all. She also wants to give parents the option to opt out of programs that go against their religious beliefs.
McMahon-Gorans said she also supports the presence of armed police on all the district’s campuses, including elementary schools.
She has received endorsements from the Fresno County GOP as well as California Assemblyman Kevin Kiley. McMahon-Gorans said her “most exciting” endorsement is from the California Parents United organization.
She has raised roughly $2,846 in campaign contributions.
Osmer works as a marketer with California’s State Compensation Insurance Fund.
He said that FUSD is “broken” and that he wants to be part of the solution by focusing on improving math and language arts achievement in the district. He wants to provide a model of leadership on the board based on God’s messages of unity and love.
Osmer hopes to be an advocate for parents, as well, who have a right to know what their children are being taught in school, he said.
He’s raised $1,000 in campaign contributions.
Meet the McLane-area candidates
Three candidates – Veva Islas, Michelle Scire and Karen Steed – are on the ballot for the McLane High School-area seat, also known as Trustee Area 4.
Islas, the incumbent, is running to serve another four years on the board after she was first elected in 2018. Islas’ background is in public health, as the founder and executive director of the local nonprofit Cultiva La Salud.
She told the Ed Lab she’s running to continue advocating for the needs of “historically disadvantaged students,” including students of color, English learners, foster and homeless students, as well as special ed students. She hopes to expand dual immersion and engagement efforts with non-English speaking parents to aid these efforts.
Islas is focused on addressing the impacts of the pandemic, particularly around learning loss and the pandemic’s mental health toll. She pointed to the expansion of the district’s after-school and summer programs and the district’s “monumental” investments in social-emotional support staff as recent investments from the board that are starting to address those needs.
Islas has been critical of the district’s funding of armed police officers to serve on its campuses. In June, she cast the lone nay vote against a new contract between Fresno Unified and Fresno police to return armed officers to the district’s middle schools after the previous contract expired.
Islas also angered community members with a January tweet dispelling the notion that COVID-19 vaccines cause infertility and taking aim at anti-vaxxers, which critics at a subsequent board meeting claimed mocked infertility and those opposed to vaccines. Islas didn’t apologize but acknowledged people could criticize the tweet’s “poor taste.”
Fresno City Councilmember Miguel Arias and California Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula have endorsed Islas. So have organizations like the Fresno County Democratic Women’s Club and the Central Valley Progressive PAC.
She has received endorsements from multiple unions representing district employees, including the Fresno Teachers Association.
FTA’s PAC contributed one of Islas’ heftiest donations to date, in the amount of $10,000. Since 2021, she’s received about $41,277 total in contributions — the second most of any Fresno Unified candidate this November.
Scire is a trained chemist. She’s an alum of Fresno State, where she has taught chemistry classes.
She said she comes from humble beginnings and came to see education as a way out of the cycle of poverty. She believes the district is currently failing to offer students that same opportunity by not bringing them up to grade level standards for math and language arts.
To rectify this, Scire said she would advocate for a standard operating procedure to better vet programs aimed at improving student achievement and support only those with clear data showing results. She said the Designated Schools program is an example of something the district should re-evaluate along these lines.
Scire said her other priorities if elected include more transparent communication around both safety incidents and students’ academic performance on the school’s campuses, and incorporating data into hiring and promotion decisions for the district’s staff rather than relying on “nepotism, retribution, and retaliation,” she said.
She does not appear to have met the $1,000 threshold to provide detailed disclosure of campaign contributions or expenditures, according to Fresno County Clerk’s Office records.
Steed is a recently retired FUSD teacher of 25 years. Before that, she worked for the city of Fresno as a senior account clerk.
She told the Ed Lab she’s running because the district is failing to educate its students properly and discipline them to preserve a suitable environment for learning. She said she believes the district needs to apply disciplinary action to employees and administrators who “endanger the learning and achievement” of students and mismanage district funds.
As a trustee, Steed would push for programs and policies that can be measured in terms of their efficacy. She said part of the solution will also be to do a better job engaging parents, making herself available on school sites and sending important information home not just digitally but also in the mail.
Steed said her most important endorsement should come from her potential constituents, and that she doesn’t work for any donors or committee.
She has been endorsed by the Fresno County Republican Party.
She does not appear to have met the $1,000 threshold to provide detailed disclosure of campaign contributions or expenditures, according to Fresno County Clerk’s Office records.
How to vote
Early voting is already underway for the Nov. 8 election and can be done at the Fresno County Clerk’s Office, located at 2221 Kern St.
Select in-person vote centers will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. starting Oct. 29.
All voting centers will be open starting Nov. 5 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. — or 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Election Day. The Fresno County Clerk’s website provides an interactive map of polling places and drop boxes.
Not sure whether you’re registered yet?
You can check your registration online via the Secretary of State’s website by visiting voterstatus.sos.ca.gov. All you need to enter is your name, birthday, your driver’s license/state ID if you have one, and/or the last four digits of your social security number if you have one. You can also sign up for updates on the status of your vote-by-mail ballot using the same portal.
If you’re not registered to vote yet, you can do so online or via mail. The last day to register for the November election is Oct. 24. More information can be found by visiting the SOS website.
Still have questions? You can contact the clerk’s office at 559-600-8683 or visit its website.
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 at its website.
This story was originally published October 12, 2022 at 5:30 AM.
