Incumbent narrowly wins Fresno Unified trustee seat, a costly blow to teachers union
Fresno Unified Trustee Claudia Cazares narrowly defeated retired teacher and administrator Daniel Bordona in a contested school board race that remained too close to call almost a month after the election.
Cazares’ reelection to the Hoover region trustee seat also means the district’s influential teachers union struck out on electing its preferred candidates to the school board. The Fresno Teachers Association spent more than $200,000 in its effort to oust two incumbents.
In the official election results posted Tuesday evening by the Fresno County Clerk/Registrar of Voters, Cazares, who took office in 2016, garnered 7,245 votes, or 50.32%, compared to Bordona’s 7,152 votes, or 49.68%.
“I want to thank our community that came out in full force to vote, no matter which way they voted. I want to thank my family for being so supportive of me over the last eight years,” Cazares said Tuesday evening. “I think we were both very great candidates. The community showed that.”
The Hoover region trustee seat was the most contested local race in Fresno County. Since Election Night, Cazares had been slightly behind Bordona in the vote count. It wasn’t until last Wednesday that she took her first lead of 31 votes, or 0.2 percentage points.
Bordona said he was grateful for the support his campaign received from the community and the Fresno Teachers Association, but does not intend to run again for the seat.
“I absolutely wish her (Cazares) the best of luck, and I hope that she can be a change agent for our district and for our kids,” said Bordona.
It was a costly election for Bordona’s biggest donor, the FTA. The union poured nearly $200,000 into the Hoover and Fresno High trustee races, records from Fresno County Clerk show.
As of Nov. 5, Bordona had raised $102,248, of which the union contributed 85%. Another union-backed candidate, Fresno County Board of Education President James Martinez, was convinced by the union to run for the Fresno Unified board instead of reelection to the county education board. Martinez’s campaign had received $132,025, of which 84% came from FTA.
However, the spending didn’t pay off. In addition to Cazares’ last-minute comeback, incumbent Andy Levine, a community organizer and Fresno State’s lecturer who represents the Fresno High region, prevailed in a three-way race that included Martinez with 43.44% of the vote.
Cazares raised $10,873, and Levine raised $63,106 this year.
“When we say that we are going to do something, we put our full force into making that a reality,” said FTA President Manuel Bonilla. “If you were to look across many elections, there’s spending in areas and folks that maybe didn’t get the results that they wanted, that’s just the reality of any type of election.”
Bonilla said the union believes it was worthwhile to financially back candidates “we feel are going to help change our school district authentically.” The current board hasn’t demonstrated leadership on core issues, such as academics, safety, and support for students and educators, Bonilla said.
“If these numbers hold, we stand ready to work with the trustee to help improve our school district. We hope to see a level of leadership and collaboration that we haven’t seen in recent years,” said Bonilla.
Cazares said her plan for the next term is to keep engaging the community, support staff and educators, and listen to all the concerns and suggestions.
“I have lived in the Hoover region for 24 years now, and I’m a parent of a Fresno Unified student, so I feel you, and I’m available for any issues that need to be resolved,” she said.
Levine said he is committed to improving student outcomes for this full four-year term. He said he’s grateful that voters approved the district’s $500 million Measure H school bond.
The district’s school board is expected to hire a new superintendent next year. It will be a national search, and the board aims to fill the position before the start of the next school year, said Cazares.
More changes could be coming to the school board, though. Elizabeth Jonasson Rosas was reelected to her Roosevelt region trustee seat, but announced Wednesday she is running for the Fresno City Council seat vacated by her husband, Fresno County Supervisor-elect Luis Chavez.
“It’s an honor to represent the communities in southeast Fresno that I currently represent, and I hope to continue representing a plurality of them and additional people in southeast Fresno on the City Council,” said Jonasson Rosas. “So my commitment to serving southeast Fresno and the city of Fresno remains the same, it’s in a different capacity.”
This story was originally published December 4, 2024 at 12:08 PM.
