Fresno Unified’s key critic of its bond measure should not be the board president | Opinion
Lola Medina Flores is a junior at Fresno High who likes to hang out in iconic Royce Hall. Why? It is the only building on the campus where the air conditioning is always working.
Two-thirds of Fresno Unified School District’s 106 campuses were built before 1970. Some have plumbing that relies on clay pipes originally installed in the 1920s. For nonmath readers, that is a century ago.
Suffice to say, Fresno Unified has lots of facilities needs — $2.5 billion, in fact. The district’s voters approved $855 million in three different bond votes since 2010. But the needs keep growing as buildings and plumbing and electrical systems age.
Now the district has proposed the $500 million Measure H on the November ballot. It too will address infrastructure that is falling apart, as well as create some new things, like an agricultural school.
The Bee Editorial Board, which I am part of, has endorsed the bond measure as a needed investment. But a new opponent has surfaced — the president of the Fresno Unified board herself.
Susan Wittrup has authored an essay telling voters to oppose Measure H. Far from being an advocate for the measure, as one might expect, Wittrup outlines several reasons for her opposition.
In her essay — published in GV Wire, a local online news site — Wittrup blames the district for not getting sufficient public comment on the bond measure. She believes the project list was up for approval without public scrutiny. She thinks the board should hire a superintendent first, then deal with facility needs.
Wittrup also wants improvements in students’ academic achievement before focusing on rundown classrooms, labs and gyms.
“Conducting a national search and hiring a permanent superintendent must come first,” Wittrup writes. “Until the Fresno Unified School Board can actively demonstrate a focus on student outcomes and hire a permanent superintendent, a bond measure should be out of the question.”
I find her stance to be divisive and her arguments misleading and unconvincing. Here is why I believe Wittrup’s advice should be ignored:
Facilities needs
To her charge that the process has not been transparent enough, the district held three public workshops on the bond measure — in April, May and June. Information sessions were also held at Duncan Polytechnic and Fresno High.
In addition, the district’s consultant conducted polling three different times to learn what priorities voters had for using the money.
“Those polls are statistically representative of the Fresno Unified voter base and that information was presented to the board and used by staff in developing proposed project lists,” the district says in a question-and-answer posted on its website.
Wittrup complained that the final project list did not come to the board until its meeting Wednesday night, two days after ballots were mailed out. Yet trustees themselves have slowed down the process over the past several months with revisions to the project list. Wittrup was part of that delay.
As to whether a new superintendent should be hired first, there is no denying that the top administrative post is important. But Fresno Unified, the state’s third-largest district, has enough administrative bandwidth to conduct a superintendent search and rebuild its facilities simultaneously.
Improving “student outcomes” refers to improved achievement on standardized tests. No one disputes Wittrup’s point that the educational performance of Fresno Unified students must get better. But that will take some time. Teachers and principals are only part of the equation. Parents play the other key role. And too many of them are disinterested in their children’s schoolwork. It is not uncommon for some parents, drunk or high, to show up at schools to meet with teachers. Or the parents don’t show at all.
Delaying a bond measure runs the risk of incurring higher construction costs down the line. Everything from materials to labor is going up in price. It is prudent to get to work now.
Proposition 2, a statewide bond measure on the November ballot, would offer local schools and community colleges $10 billion for repair, upgrade and construction of facilities. But local districts must provide matching funds to qualify. Measure H would help in that regard.
Bond measure
Wittrup was unavailable to discuss her essay because she was busy preparing for Wednesday night’s board meeting.
But as board president, she is well aware of the points I am making in this column. Yet she chooses to discourage voters from helping Fresno Unified at this time. That is a risky strategy. What will happen if a campus has to be closed because one of its clay pipes finally failed and there is no water? Where will those schoolchildren go?
Facilities directly relate to improved student outcomes. A recent Sacramento Bee analysis of Proposition 2 put it this way:
“Poor physical environments and loud classrooms are associated with truancy, behavior problems and lower student achievement. Reading speed, comprehension and math performance are adversely affected by room temperatures above 74 degrees. School safety and sustainability have also been shown to affect student learning.”
There is no other way for local districts to raise money for facility improvements than bonds. The need in Fresno is great. I advise voters to back Measure H.
