What's at stake?
Running Fresno Unified, California's third largest school district, is arguably one of the most important jobs in Fresno, especially as issues from school attendance, to post-pandemic academic performance, to classroom behavior and budget cuts are at the forefront.
Fresno Unified hasn’t found a replacement for outgoing Superintendent Bob Nelson yet – and the search for what some call “the most important job in the Central Valley” may have a long road ahead.
Trustees voted at a special meeting to take a “giant step back” on the search process that board leadership said in a previous meeting would start with candidates internal to the district.
The move, which came in response to backlash from community members and some trustees advocating for an expanded search, culminated in the cancellation of interviews with candidates that had been scheduled for Wednesday evening in closed session.
“I just think to make it cleaner for us and more transparent that we take a giant step back,” said Trustee Claudia Cazares, “and start fresh with the community, including (gathering) additional community input before we move forward with interviews.”
Not everyone agreed with the decision, however. Some critics of the boards’ backpedaling spoke up in defense of Deputy Superintendent Misty Her, presumed to be one of the top candidates for Nelson’s replacement.
“Is this really about broadening potential (for) the best candidate to represent the Fresno school district,” said Edison High School student Kimberly Vang in remarks to the board, “or is this about how you don’t want a person of color representing your school district?”
The board wasn’t unanimous in their decision to cancel Wednesday’s interviews and reevaluate the search process, either. The board action passed 5-2 with board members Cazares, Susan Wittrup, Valerie Davis, Keshia Thomas, and Elizabeth Jonasson Rosas voting in favor while trustees Veva Islas and Andy Levine voted against.
Islas and Levine both said they supported an expanded search but wanted to respect the time of the internal candidates and move forward with the interviews scheduled for that night.
“I still feel like there is an opportunity for us to honor the work that has gotten us to this point,” Islas said, “and then to move forward in a way that is responding to what we’ve heard from community.”
The board didn’t give an updated timeline or search firm they’re considering or report any additional next steps out of closed session Wednesday.
How did we get here?
In January, the district announced Nelson’s departure for a tenure-track faculty position at Fresno State starting in August.
He’s led California’s third-largest school district since 2017 – which Fresno Unified touts as an unusually long, stable tenure in a time of turnover and instability in public education.
Despite administrative stability, the district has continued to lag far behind the rest of the state in students’ academic performance. Only about a third of students met state standards for English language arts and even fewer than that – around 20% – of students met the standards for math in 2022.
Following the announcement, the board approved a $40,000 agreement with consulting firm Leadership Associates at a Feb. 21 meeting.
The contract asked the firm to help conduct listening sessions with community members “to develop a profile which indicates desired qualities and characteristics of the next superintendent,” according to the agenda item.
Leadership Associates compiled feedback based on the sessions, listing “ties to the Valley” as one of the priorities that emerged among community members.
Trustees and others have been critical of the firm, however. Wittrup, the board president, told Fresnoland she questioned whether Leadership Associates adequately captured the community’s voices in their report to the board.
Some community members also said the feedback from these listening sessions has been misconstrued.
“The community stated that we wanted someone who was familiar with the Valley. That doesn’t mean ‘internal,’” said Christina Soto in remarks to the board.
“I’m sure there are many people across the state and maybe the nation who have Central Valley roots who would be very qualified to be superintendent. Why we would limit that search, I don’t understand.”
At the board’s Mar. 20 meeting following closed session, Wittrup announced that the next phase of the superintendent search would consist of “interviews of internal applicants.”
What did trustees and community members say about the search process for Nelson’s replacement?
Wittrup has led the charge for broadening the district’s candidate pool in recent weeks.
She authored an op-ed in GV Wire Mar. 28, which criticized a “narrow majority” of her fellow trustees for deciding to “limit interviews to internal candidates.” She called a press conference Tuesday to advocate for a change in the process.
At Wednesday’s board meeting, other trustees voiced support for a broader search, including Islas, Cazares, and Levine. Davis advocated for seeking a new hiring firm.
A politically star-studded coalition of Fresnans also joined trustees in the call for an expanded search during public comment Wednesday, including City Councilmember Miguel Arias, Fresno Teachers Association President Manuel Bonilla, Fresno civil rights activist Gloria Hernandez, and developer Darius Assemi – who is also Wittrup’s longtime boyfriend and the publisher of GV Wire.
“We can’t just play favoritism. We can’t do stuff behind closed doors,” Hernandez said. “We worked too hard to get here.”
Outside of the meeting, Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula shared a statement on social media, calling on the board to conduct a more comprehensive, nationwide search and insisting a need for change in the district with students’ failing test scores.
A petition calling on the board to conduct an expanded search had garnered over 370 signatures as of Wednesday night.
Other trustees and community members, meanwhile, have defended the internal search.
Trustee Keshia Thomas, a proponent of looking at internal candidates, told Fresnoland that’s because she believes Fresno Unified has multiple “really competent individuals.”
“That is our job as a board,” she said, “to make sure people are hired that, in the event that something happens to the superintendent, we have more than one qualified applicant.”
She added that she’s not opposed to expanding the search down the line.
“Eventually, possibly,” she said.
Several members of the Hmong community questioned whether the sudden reversal from the board had to do with the candidates’ race.
Her, who the district said it would plan to appoint as interim superintendent if it doesn’t find a replacement for Nelson by August, is the top-ranking Hmong public school official in the nation.
Va Her, who works for the Hmong Business Incubator Center and is a trustee in Sanger Unified, accused Wittrup of “inciting” racism, “whether that is intentional or unintentional.”
GV Wire reported Wednesday on his allegations that Wittrup mentioned the deputy superintendent by name in a radio appearance and accused her of benefiting from nepotism – which Wittrup has denied.
Other speakers Wednesday accused the district of not wanting to see any person of color take the top job.
District spokesperson Nikki Henry confirmed that each of the internal candidates scheduled for interviews Wednesday are people of color. She declined to share their names or the specific number of candidates.
“As soon as we have all people of color running for this position,” said Yang, the Edison student, “a problem arose.”
“This makes me wonder,” Yang added, “why they’re seeking people from other districts when … (the candidates) running are the most reasonable people to be superintendent in Fresno Unified, seeing as 90% of the students in Fresno Unified are people of color.”
I support Misty. I have worked with her on several community projects and volunteered along side her. She is more than qualified for this position. She knows the community, very active and involved (not to mention understands the needs of Fresno County & neighboring communities). Has the leadership and worth ethics it takes. Her husband is also in education and leadership. This is a wise and should be easy decision to move into the role of superintendent. STOP the politics in education and get her in to help our future. This would be a huge loss if another wins that role. Smart, strong, and diverse background coming from struggles in childhood made her the strongest candidate I know. She will be a prime role model for many. If you hire someone outside, it will shows how political this is. I am also on a board from another county and would like to think an educated individual born in Fresno.