Measure H is about creating the best learning environment for our students, says trustee | Opinion

I urge you to vote YES on Measure H, the Fresno Unified construction bond on the Nov. 5 ballot. Here’s why…

Our schools are critical to the future of our city. Producing college and career-ready students ensures they can assume the roles we ALL rely on from nurses and doctors to engineers, construction workers, electricians and everything in between. To produce college and career-ready students we need to invest and create the best learning environments possible for them.

However, the plain truth is that many of our schools are overcrowded and have gone without improvements for years.

Measure H is critical, the passage of this bond will change the trajectory of our students’ lives. Equity in education allows students paths out of poverty, and positions them to lead meaningful lives where they can contribute to our community. Our students need adults to make these important decisions to invest in their futures.

Measure H creates new facilities and improves existing ones that allow teachers and students to be in the best learning environments. All our schools have worthy projects – projects that help us meet infrastructure needs to deploy new technology, create greater safety on our campuses and decrease the number of students in each classroom. These are commitments we made to our students, teachers and parents. Monies from the bond would help us address all these issues. Without the bond nothing improves.

In the McLane High region, the proposed project list includes new classrooms and libraries at Norseman and Birney. These two elementary schools serve most of our elementary-age deaf and hard of hearing students in our entire district. The projects proposed at Leavenworth and Hidalgo elementary schools will make sure we meet ADA compliance for our students and teachers.

Ericsson Elementary needs to replace portables, which are temporary classroom structures, to create permanent classrooms. Yosemite Middle School needs improved AC units – they have been waiting for over six years for cool air in some of their facilities.

We must invest dollars where they are most needed. To be objective, we as a board took a vote to use an equity tool to help us prioritize projects across the district. All the priority projects on the bond list scored insufficient or poor on that equity assessment. This includes elementary schools like Del Mar, Calwa, Addams, King, Lane, Centennial, Viking, Pyle, Jefferson, and Roeding, to name a few.

Children in these schools come from the poorest families in our district, many do not speak English at home, many are foster or homeless students. They have so many disadvantages, but the lack of political prowess or wealth shouldn’t be a deciding factor about whether they get to be in a classroom with a functioning AC unit or if their school has a library. That’s why they need your vote. They need a community to stand up for them.

Forty years and $500 million seems like a lot of time and a lot of money. But think of this, we are the third-largest school district in California, we have over 70,000 students and over 100 schools. So yes, the funding needs are great, and construction is expensive. I also want voters to consider that it takes 12 years to get a single child entering kindergarten today to graduate, this funding will impact your children and their children. They are worth the proposed investments.

Improving student outcomes is the most important thing we work on as school board members, delaying investments moves us further away from reaching these goals. We all want the best for ALL our students. Your YES vote on Measure H is a decisive vote for the future of our children and our community. Vote Yes on Measure H!