‘I think we’ve kind of lost focus.’ Meet a candidate for the Fresno High area trustee seat

When James Martinez knocks on doors to campaign for a seat on the Fresno Unified school board, he enjoys meeting with alumni and talking about their shared memories of the oldest high school in the area.

“Fresno High School has such a special place in the city, the alumni who graduate from there carry that pride with them throughout their whole lives, and it produced countless amounts of community leaders that really shaped the way the city has grown since established,” he said.

Martinez faces the fiercest race in Fresno Unified this year. His opponents are incumbent Andy Levine, and Emma Villa, a teacher, mother, and advocate for children receiving special education.

Martinez now works as the director of operations at Associated Student Inc. at Fresno State. In 2020, he joined the Fresno County Board of Education as a trustee, breaking ground as the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in Fresno County. During his tenure on the county board, he has promoted technical education and concentrates on improving student achievement. His term at the county office ends in December.

Martinez said his daughter, who’s now at the Hamilton K-8, will join the Warriors at Fresno High in two years, and it adds to his determination to serve students in the area.

“She’s going to be my student,” he said. “As a co-parent, I want to make sure that she has the best educational experience while she’s there, and while she’s getting there too.”

Raised by a single mom who didn’t go past sixth grade, and his dad didn’t graduate high school, Martinez understands the weight and significance of education.

“My mom was always like, ‘You have to go to college, I have no idea how to get you there, but you have to go,’” he recalled conversations that happened frequently during his childhood.

Visiting Fresno State in high school was a huge thing, he said. Before that, he never set foot on a college campus. It was Upward Bound, a program to assist low-income and first-generation students in high school to apply for college and financial aid, that made it possible to further his education after graduating from Fresno High in 2004. Martinez attended Fresno City College, then Fresno State, and eventually made his journey to Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California for a Master’s degree.

“I want to make sure that other students’ paths were easier for them than it was for me,” he said. “This year we’re celebrating our 20th reunion, and I would have never thought my wildest dreams can be running to represent my alma mater 20 years later after graduating.”

For Fresno Unified’s school board races, The Fresno Bee sat down to talk to every candidate. Here are the five questions for Martinez. Answers are edited for length and clarity.

What’s the biggest problem you see at Fresno Unified?

There isn’t a strategic plan in place that guides the decision-making process at the board level and the superintendent to really narrow down and focus on what the real issues and challenges are. Why those students aren’t at grade level? I’m not saying test scores are everything — there’s a lot of external factors — but I mean our school system was designed to educate students, and I think we’ve kind of lost focus.

How should Fresno Unified address this problem?

I think we need more teaching assistants in the classrooms to lift the burden off the teachers. I think the new teachers need more training in terms of how to address certain students’ needs, because it’s not a “one size fits all.” I think we need to take a more individualized approach to education.

My kid sometimes sits there till 9 pm doing homework, sometimes that’s necessary, but sometimes she comes home with big chunks of homework, and it’s like “Why isn’t this getting done in the classroom?” She said, “We didn’t have time to get to it.” That says to me, it’s not her fault, it’s not the teachers’ fault, the class size is too big. When you have a class size of 26 to 30 students, that’s a lot.

There should be more academic interventions. Specialists try to figure out the root cause of the underachievement.

Probably one of the most controversial things that I’m proposing, is partially tying the superintendent’s evaluation to student achievement scores, having that extra layer of accountability and oversight. You can have well-intentioned individuals in that spot, but I think the core focus should be on increasing our test scores.

The district had already done some of these assessments and developed plans. Some critics say there’s just no one really implementing the plans.

So like any bureaucracy, you can come up with a plan, but you don’t execute it, then it just sits on the shelf, right? My master’s is in organizational communication, so it would drive me insane if we spent all this time and effort developing a plan, and it’s not executed or implemented. And speaking of which, you can come up with the best laid-out plans with the best experts you possibly can find, but if you don’t bring in people on the front lines, such as our teachers or substitute teachers, classified employees, and have them have a seat at the table and get their input, it’s never going to work. Because the district is so large the trickle-down approach has very little effect, and teachers in the classroom don’t have a sense of agency to those plans, they’re just being told what to do, then it’s never going to work. The inclusive, comprehensive process needs to be implemented in order for teachers and administrators to build that bridge.

You have Fresno Teachers Association’s support.

I think it’s a testament to the work that I’ve done on the County Board of Education and they noticed that type of leadership and initiatives that I propose and I have been successful in passing on. They approached me and I contemplated it, and I discussed it with my family. I knew that it was going to be a challenge, but I feel honored and privileged that they have found their full support behind me and my candidacy.

I’ve also been endorsed by SEIU 521 which is all the classified employees at Fresno Unified, as well as a few other labor unions and other community leaders as well. So I think people are just really, really hungry for change and looking for something different. Bolder, more active and vocal leadership at the district level, and someone who’s really going to advocate for Fresno High School.

What do you hope for the Fresno High region?

I know that there’s a school bond measure that’s coming up about facilities, you know there’s millions and millions of dollars of deferred maintenance. I know there are a lot of maintenance issues at Fresno High School.

If I’m lucky enough and privileged enough to get elected to the seat, I think the district did a really good job at remodeling the facade of the school, but you have north and south halls that also need to be upgraded as well. Those things are ancient, they’re basically just bomb shelters. There are no windows, and if there ever was a fire, there’s no easy way to exit those buildings.

Safety is a big priority that I’ve heard walking door to door and listening to students. There were three incidents last year that really highlighted some of the oversight of safety issues at that school site that have not been addressed.

This story was originally published September 5, 2024 at 12:21 PM.

Leqi Zhong

The Fresno Bee

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Leqi Zhong is the Clovis accountability/enterprise reporter for The Bee. She is a graduate of UC Berkeley with a Master’s degree in journalism. She joined The Bee in 2023 as an education reporter. Leqi grew up in China and is native in Cantonese and Mandarin.