What’s at stake?
A hearing at Foothill Elementary School Sept. 5 was an opportunity for the public to weigh in on a proposed territory transfer from Sierra Unified to Clovis Unified. Sierra Unified residents and officials made their opposition clear.
A petition to transfer territory from Sierra Unified to Clovis Unified faced overwhelming opposition from the small mountain community at the first public hearing on the matter Thursday.
Over 250 people packed Foothill Elementary School’s multipurpose room for the hearing. The majority of attendees hailed from the district of just over 1,200 students.
“Please do not deprive our district of its ability to maintain and expand (its) offerings, merely to benefit a developer’s interest and his pocketbook,” said Cortney Burke, Sierra Unified’s board president, during the district’s presentation in opposition to the transfer.
The hearing came after a petition was filed with the Fresno County Superintendent of Schools’ office in May, requesting the transfer of roughly 600 acres of territory from Sierra Unified to Clovis Unified.
Residents of Ventana Hills, a Granville Homes gated community, spearheaded the petition. They’ve also received support from Granville CEO Darius Assemi.
“The petition here is to make our lives more manageable and predictable with our current family routines,” said Marc Thurston, the chief petitioner from Ventana Hills.
Dozens of Sierra Unified community members spoke out against the transfer, on the other hand, voicing concerns that losing the proposed 600-plus-acre territory – roughly 430 acres of which remain undeveloped – would curb the district’s future growth.
“This is not about proximity,” said Sierra Unified parent Justice Jones. “If you don’t think Granville Homes uses the reputation of Clovis Unified to sell homes, you have not been to their website.”
The hearing was held by the Fresno County Committee on School District Organization, an 11-member committee within the Fresno County Superintendent of Schools Office.
The committee will decide whether to approve or deny the petition depending on its compliance with Education Code and taking into account input from the districts.
What did the petitioners say?
County officials shared at Thursday’s hearing that the territory transfer petition received 16 verified signatures from Ventana Hills residents.
Currently, only two of the 10 school-aged children in the community attend Sierra Unified, according to the residents.
Thurston, the chief petitioner who is also a Bakersfield realtor, outlined the community’s primary reasoning for seeking the transfer for the small community, including that residents of Ventana Hills feel stronger ties to the community of Clovis.
“If you asked us what community we feel most closely aligned with, I think it would be unanimous in the neighborhood,” he said. “They would all say that they consider themselves to be part of Clovis and not part of this here mountain community.”
Thurston said another goal, particularly for his family, is to ensure an easier commute to school for his daughter when she starts high school. Since his daughter’s extracurriculars and his wife’s workplace are all in Fresno and Clovis, they would prefer to send her to school in the same area.
He added that the two families who currently send their children to Sierra plan to request an interdistrict transfer in order to continue attending Sierra Unified, even if Ventana Hills gets moved to Clovis Unified’s jurisdiction.
“I have spoken with both of the fathers of those two children,” he said. “Both of them were strong supporters of this petition, but they also confided in me that should the territory be granted, they would actually be asking for a transfer back to the territory, because they’ve had a very good experience up here.”
Only three public commenters spoke in favor of the petition Thursday night.
One was Enjoli Black, a neighbor of Thurston’s in the Ventana Hills neighborhood.
The other two were Assemi, the Granville CEO, and Priscilla Presto, who identified herself as a Granville employee.
“We are a very community-oriented organization. I care about every community we build in,” Assemi said.
“I heard a fantastically orchestrated choreographed presentation at Sierra Unified – their attorneys and their consultants. I wish they would spend that much resources on the education of kids,” he continued, followed by loud boos from the Sierra-dominated crowd.
Responding to a question on Friday regarding the community criticism, Assemi sent the following statement to Fresnoland via text message: “At Granville Homes, our advocacy goes beyond our homeowners; we are passionately committed to supporting all educational opportunities in Fresno County, as we have done and will continue to do. Our goal is to create thriving communities where every child has the opportunity to succeed, and it starts by having that choice.”
What did community members say?
At the hearing, Clovis Unified maintained its neutral stance on the petition.
The district’s general counsel Shawn Vanwagenen affirmed the district’s stance in a presentation Thursday that lasted just one minute, followed by brief questions from committee members.
At the same time, Sierra Unified officials, consultants and 30 public commenters from the community presented a unified front, asserting they don’t want to surrender any more district territory.
Their chief concerns stem from how this transfer could worsen declining enrollment and chip away at the district’s tax base and bonding capacity, district officials and consultants said.
Lori Grace, Sierra Unified’s superintendent, stressed the impact that reduced funding could then have on the small district’s educational offerings.
“The loss of even 30 students represents one full-time equivalent (teacher),” she said. “That could mean the end of our visual arts program. That could mean the end of our CTE program.”
Shin Green, a consultant for Sierra Unified, said that that’s a key difference between Clovis and Sierra.
“I do not see how this proposal promotes sound fiscal management for Sierra Unified School District,” he said. “Clovis, they’re big. They wouldn’t notice. This district would.”
Many of the Sierra Unified residents and officials also took issue with the ties between Granville Homes and the petitioners who are residents of the Granville gated community Ventana Hills.
“This transfer request before you tonight, I find particularly troubling. I say that because it doesn’t really appear to be about education, about community, or any of the traditional reasons for such transfers,” said David Soldani, an attorney representing Sierra Unified. “What I see here is a developer-backed petition.”
This isn’t the first time Granville affiliates have approached Sierra Unified about transferring territory, according to the district.
Soldani shared a quote from a July 2012 board meeting that he attributed to Assemi.
“My customers walk into my sales office and one of the first questions they ask is what school district are you in? … Are you Clovis Unified? … and when the answer is no, they turn around and go right back out,” Assemi is quoted as saying, according to the district’s presentation.
Fresnoland reached out to Assemi on Friday for additional context regarding the quote but did not immediately hear back.
A Public Records Act request from Fresnoland revealed another developer-led attempt to absorb Sierra Unified territory into Clovis Unified from 2019 – in that instance, from a representative of the Assemi Group, which is run by the Granville CEO’s brother.
At Thursday’s hearing, one Ventana Hills resident – Black, who is an executive for Pacific Gas & Electric company – insisted she wasn’t in cahoots with Assemi.
“I have no affiliation with Granville whatsoever. I’ve never actually met with Darius. I don’t know him,” she said.
What’s next?
The petitioners, districts and community members all addressed their comments Thursday to a committee within the Fresno County Superintendent of Schools Office.
That 11-member committee will decide whether to approve or deny the territory transfer after receiving input from all the involved parties.
One member of the committee, Connie Schlaefer, told the public Thursday she would recuse herself from all discussions and action related to the petition as she is a current Sierra Unified board member.
In addition to holding hearings in each district, the committee must also ensure the territory transfer meets a set of nine conditions outlined in Education Code Section 35753.
One of these conditions requires that “the proposed reorganization is primarily designed for purposes other than to significantly increase property values.”
The next hearing on the matter will take place in Clovis Unified.
That hearing is scheduled for Sept. 17, at the Clovis Unified Professional Development Building, located at 1680 David E. Cook Way in Clovis. That hearing will also start at 5:30 p.m.
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