They want to help lead Fresno Unified schools. Who should voters choose to be trustees?
Seven people are competing for election to the Fresno Unified School District board on the November ballot. The contenders look to help lead the third-largest school district in California that has a host of challenges, not the least of which is trying to bring up test scores and academic performance overall.
Fresno Unified continues to score in the bottom half of districts statewide on standardized tests. An achievement gap has particularly hurt Black students.
Ugly incidents of racism among some FUSD staff also surfaced at the end of the last school year.
Then there is the challenge of continuing distance learning in the era of the coronavirus pandemic. District officials see home-based learning getting better as the current school year progresses, but how to keep students engaged and actually learning the subject matter is a constant stress for teachers and administrators.
The pandemic has also meant a budget cut of nearly $80 million this year due to less state revenues, and there could nearly $28 million less in the coming two years.
Into this mix come the election hopefuls. Incumbents Carol Mills and Claudia Cazares face challengers, while Area 2 Trustee Elizabeth Jonasson Rosas is unopposed and advances without an election.
There are seven trustees on the school board, which governs one of the largest public entities in Fresno County.
Fresno High area
Mills has represented Area 5, anchored by Fresno High, since 2004. Four years ago she was unopposed.
Running against her now are David Paredes, a community youth organizer; Alexandria Desiga, an education project manager; and Sharon Clinton, who was a jobs specialist for Fresno County and is now retired.
Paredes and Desiga have unconventional backgrounds and would bring fresh ideas to the board. Paredes is an Edison High and recent Fresno State graduate who grew up in south Fresno and understands the struggles faced by children from low-income neighborhoods. He created an online “meals map” that anyone can scan to find out where free meals are being provided, such as Fresno Unified school sites. His key issues are improving student access to mental health services and fostering environmental justice. He believes ethnic studies should be required at all grade levels.
Desiga is a Sunnyside High graduate who went on to study law at Michigan State, and then got a job as a consultant with the Malaysian government, working on ways to improve the education system of state-run schools.
Clinton was unable to participate in The Bee’s online interview because of technical problems with her computer.
Mills was the first in her family to graduate from college, and she went on to earn a law degree. She works now as a senior staff attorney for the California appeals court based in Fresno.
Mills has a solid knowledge of the district, and for that reason she should be supported in this election.
In her last term Mills took part in the hiring of Superintendent Bob Nelson and negotiating a new contract with the teachers’ union. A new career technical education building and second gym are being built at Fresno High, and she helped direct facility improvements to a dozen schools in her area.
Does Mills have detractors? Of course. Anyone who has served as long as she has will end up ruffling some feathers, and sometimes Mills can be abrupt in her responses.
But she retains keen interest in helping educate Fresno’s young people, and her breadth of knowledge and experience are valuable.
Hoover High area
In her first election bid four years ago, Cazares posted an easy win over her opponent. She should do so again, despite being challenged this time by two opponents.
Her campaign website lists a host of accomplishments, including how Fresno Unified is taking over the old county juvenile hall and tearing it down to make way for a new campus.
In her term the district has increased nursing and psychologist staffing and added millions to the budget for special education.
As for going forward with distance learning, Cazares acknowledges there are some children who need adult supervision to keep focus. Toward that end, she said the board directed staff to open classrooms on campuses to such students, who would have adult leaders there to help them log into their regular teacher’s sessions and stay on task through the school day.
“The idea is that the student would be in a classroom with other students, but logged into his regular cohort,” she explained.
One of the challengers is Bill Gates, but not the one of Microsoft fame. A Bill Gates who ran for mayor in the spring primary is actually an Egyptian man who owns a private security business. His Egyptian name is Nabil Samuel.
The other challenger is Esteban Pacheco, a law enforcement dispatcher. Neither man returned emails or phone calls and could not be interviewed.
Cazares — who works for the city of Clovis in community development — has the passion, drive and experience to be a logical choice for this seat. She has a vested interest in seeing Fresno Unified succeed, since her sixth-grade child attends an FUSD campus.
How The Bee came to these recommendations
The Bee’s Editorial Board consists of Publisher Tim Ritchey, Editor Joe Kieta, Opinion Editor Tad Weber, Vida en el Valle Editor Juan Esparza Loera, and Vida Staff Writer Maria Ortiz-Briones. The board conducted interviews with the candidates via Zoom, with exceptions of those who could not be reached. Additional research was also done using publicly accessible online sources and The Bee’s archives.
Candidates who are not interviewed will not receive the board’s backing.
The recommendation is just that: a helpful opinion meant to guide readers. It is the view of the Editorial Board; the news staff does not play any role in its creation.
This story was originally published October 8, 2020 at 5:00 AM.