What's at stake?
Fresno Unified’s Board of Education weighs vote on job cuts and layoffs for employees, along with the district’s first cellphone policy update since the flip-phone era.
Fresno Unified’s school board debates worker layoffs this week — which is just one of several major decisions the board faces Wednesday.
The district’s trustees will also vote on a new districtwide phone policy, and formally declaring their opposition to the city’s Southeast Development Area (SEDA) plan.
The FUSD board of education will vote on possible job cuts and layoffs for classified and certificated employees for 2026/27 school year.
The district could not immediately confirm the number of expected cuts or layoffs on the table Wednesday.
Currently, the district projects a deficit of $59 million for the 2026/27 school year. Classified workers for the district represented by SEIU Local 251 urged the board against hiring freezes and layoffs at the Feb. 11 school board meeting.
The district’s classified workers have noted that any job or pay cuts would be particularly hard to swallow on the heels of the Board recently doubling their own take-home pay.
As the state’s third largest district, Fresno Unified becomes the latest big California district to grapple with budget cuts amid declining enrollment and revenue losses.
The district’s new phone policy follows a state law requiring school districts, charter schools and county offices of education to create and adopt new phone policies by July 1. Passed in 2024, the state law requires policies that limit or prohibit the use of smartphones by students while at school or in class.
The new policy replaces the district’s previous policy, which was adopted in 2002 and last revised in 2004.
According to AJ Kato, the district’s communications manager, the new policy restricts phone use in classrooms with certain legally-required exceptions, including individualized student education plans and emergencies.
“School sites have flexibility to adopt stricter rules based on campus needs,” Kato said via email.
On top of the layoffs and phone policy revision, the school board’s consent agenda this week also contains a resolution to formally oppose the city of Fresno’s SEDA plan.
The resolution draft says that the original proposal for SEDA would cause populations to move away from existing neighborhoods and schools.
This redistribution of families from SEDA, according to the resolution, would exacerbate current declining enrollment, potentially increase per-student operating costs and cause reductions to staff and student supports in the district.
On top of formally opposing SEDA in its original form, the board’s resolution urges the city to reconsider, revise or delay SEDA until its impacts on schools are mitigated and addressed.
