Fresno Unified school board needlessly hurts Armenian community with campus-naming vote
For Fresno’s Armenian American community, the process that the local school board went through recently to name a new facility could not have been much worse.
The Fresno Unified School District, the third largest in California, does not have a campus or major facility named after an Armenian educator or community leader. That is the case despite how Armenians have called Fresno home for more than a century, having settled here to escape the genocide that occurred in their country before World War I.
Fresno Unified plans to open a new facility at 10th Street and Ventura Avenue in two years. The property will house students from Cambridge High School, J.E Young Academic Center, and the eLearn Academy. Employees in district departments, including early learning, special education, the department of prevention and intervention, and professional learning, will also work at the facility.
The task fell to the board to determine a name for the new campus. A community survey was conducted, and the top choice by a large margin was H. Roger Tatarian. A Fresno native who grew up in the area where the new facility will be located, Tatarian later graduated from Fresno State, then got a job as a reporter with United Press International, a wire service with the mission of covering breaking news around the world. Tatarian would go on to become the head of UPI.
After retiring from that post, Tatarian returned to Fresno State, where he taught journalism for 15 years. He died in 1995 at the age of 78.
Tatarian votes
In the survey, Tatarian received 929 nominations. Taking second was longtime FUSD educator Dolphas Trotter, with 116 nominations. Francine and Murray Farber were third with 88.
But championing the Farbers was district Trustee Elizabeth Jonasson Rosas, who represents the Roosevelt High area on the board. She lauded the couple as exemplary philanthropists have have donated more than $100,000 in college scholarships and have launched various programs that benefited thousands of young people.
Also backing the Farbers was Fresno City Council President Luis Chavez. A former FUSD trustee and husband to Jonasson Rosas, Chavez wrote a long letter to the school board extolling the couple for caring about children in impoverished parts of town.
In the end, the board ignored the survey and chose to follow its tradition of deferring to the board member in whose district the facility was located, and the Farbers were approved for the naming. The decision came in an emotional meeting: several people angrily accused the trustees of anti-Armenian racism.
Armenian recognition
For Fresno’s Armenian community, it was the latest blow in the long quest for recognition. Only one American president had acknowledged the Armenian genocide carried out by the Ottoman Turks until President Biden did so this past April. During the genocide an estimated 1.5 million Armenians were killed. Many scholars believe the Armenian genocide was the forerunner to the Jewish Holocaust of WWII.
The joy resulting from Biden’s official recognition was tempered by the fact that Armenian forces lost territory to Azerbaijan in a war at the end of last year. An estimated 200 Armenians, most soldiers but some civilians, continue to be prisoners of war, according to news accounts.
Jonasson Rosas wanted to name a building at the Ventura Avenue property after Tatarian; his family declined the offer. Tatarian’s relatives made it clear that they will agree on the use of his name only if the property is significant.
Trustee Valerie Davis had a good idea: District staff should draw up a list of all unnamed facilities for the board to review. Worthy Armenian employees of the district could be considered, as could Tatarian again.
Members of other ethnic and racial groups in Fresno have had campuses named after them. Fresno Unified is past due to recognize the importance of the local Armenian community.
This story was originally published June 8, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
