What's at stake?
One of Fresno Unified’s student board members, Jonaven Souksamlane, asked the board to consider revisions to the position’s bylaws to expand the role’s capacity in the board.
Fresno Unified’s board approved new revisions to its bylaws on Wednesday, with changes to the student board member positions possibly coming by the end of May.
As part of discussion about the board’s bylaw changes at Wednesday’s meeting, student board member Jonaven Souksamlane called for modifying changes affecting the student positions.
Souksamlane requested that Fresno Unified’s bylaws be revised to allow student board members time to explain their votes if they differ from the board’s vote. He also said the bylaws should reinforce student board member training opportunities, integration of students board members in board subcommittees and allow student board members to make motions.
“My hope is to get these friendly amendments at least approved before my term is up, because I know that my final votes will be casted in May, and hopefully this would really help the student trustees for next year,” Souksamlane said during the meeting discussion.
Ambra O’Connor, chief of staff at the Superintendent’s Office, said that the board will bring back the proposed revisions in the district’s second board meeting in May.
While bylaw revisions for student board members will be approved later, the board approved bylaw revisions for several other categories, including board committees — but not without debate on the dais.
In particular, members disagreed over changes concerning the board’s legislative committee, typically composed of two or three board members who provide recommendations on legislation for the board to support.
Trustee Elizabeth Jonasson Rosas recommended language that would limit the legislative committee’s focus to the subject of student outcomes, and only that. However, board president Veva Islas pushed back against the recommendation, saying the proposed language would limit the board’s ability to take stances on local issues and legislation.
“I don’t want to put us in a position where we can’t advocate or speak to issues that are impacting our students’ safety, our students’ health, our students’ welfare, the fiscal solvency of the district, and I feel like that’s what the intention of this,” Islas said during the discussion. “The intention of this is to undercut our ability to weigh in on issues that are impacting the district,” Islas added.
Student member Souksamlane also responded to the language recommendations, specifically mentioning the SEDA plan as something that could impact the district but doesn’t necessarily fall strictly under education.
“I understand that’s not your intent, but there are outlying factors, for example, that’s not, in education,” Souksamlane said. “It’d be SEDA, SEDA would be detrimental to our district.”
Souksamlane also questioned if the amendment to the language was of political interest for members of the board running for the Fresno City Council.
Ultimately, the board passed the bylaw amendments, including revisions to the legislative committee that allows the committee to recommend legislation that aligns with and falls under the purview of Fresno Unified.
While not discussed, the bylaw revisions also included language that would require a majority board vote in order to eliminate student board member positions. District communications manager AJ Kato confirmed via email that the district is not planning on eliminating the student positions and only included the language to be aligned with state education code.
In an interview, Souksamlane said although he those new bylaw revisions, he was not told about the kind of situation that would arise for the school board to eliminate its student positions. He also noted that the language’s inclusion was a recommendation from the California School Board Association.
District progress in goals and guardrails
Superintendent Misty Her presented current progress on three district goals concerning student performance.
Of the three goals, Her explained that the district fell short of its target for one of its literacy intervention goals. Specifically, it fell 5.2% short of its 55% target for improving 7th and 8th grade performance in district interim assessments. The objective aims to increase the percentage of identified students who show improvement from 44% in June 2025 to 65% by June 2027.
However, the district is ahead of its goals for college & career readiness and 7th-11th grade student performance on ELA district assessments.
Two schools highlighted for their performance in exceeding district goals and performance were Hoover High School and Tenaya Middle School, with principals from both schools speaking about their efforts to improve student performance.
“I will just say that the work is intentional, and teacher leadership, alignment, assessment system and the focus [professional learning community] work has allowed Hoover to grow, and we’re going to continue to have progress,” said Principal Courtney Curtis of Hoover High School.
Curtis cited the work and collaboration of teachers, staff and administrators, specifically, the use of interim exams similar to the SBAC. Additionally, educators have recently gotten together to share best practices through professional learning communities — which Curtis said is partly responsible for the school’s success.
Principal Ryan Duff of Tenaya Middle School also commended teachers and staff, similarly crediting educators sharing best practices in professional learning communities while implementing strategies like goal setting and monitoring for students.
“I also realized improving school climate and strengthening culture of student achievement can’t happen in isolation,” Duff explained. “We can’t just focus on the academics without the cultural piece too.”
One parent of a Tenaya Middle School student, Meagon Obrist, spoke during the meeting and explained how her student struggled academically and emotionally in elementary school.
Obrist said that while her daughter at one point had a grade point average near zero, now her kid has a near 4.0 GPA.
“The teachers have really come together to figure out ‘Okay, how can we help her? How can we make her thrive?’ instead of just thinking she can’t do it,” Obrist said.
Students speak up about hate speech at Edison High School
Two students from Edison High School spoke during the unscheduled oral communications portion of Wednesday’s meeting. Both called on the board to revise its policy on hate speech after racist incidents at their school.
Dominic Holland, a senior and member of the school’s Black student union, explained that there have been repeated incidents with a student writing the N-word and drawing swastikas.
Holland also said he found the district’s current policy inadequate for responding to racist incidents he and other students have experienced. He also noted how difficult it was to even find Fresno Unified’s policy on hate speech in the first place.
“And sometimes you’re singled out as an African American student and it’s frustrating; sometimes I’ll walk in a bathroom stall and see the N-word,” Holland said.
Back in February 2025, racist and antisemitic vandalism at Edison High was reported to the Fresno Police Department. But none of it was exactly new for the south Fresno school.
Teshawn McComas, a senior and the president of Edison High’s Black student union, also called on the board to revisit its policy on hate speech, asking for more specific language on prohibited language and outlining consequences.
McComas also read directly from an anonymous student’s testimony shared with the Black Student Union, which referenced hearing the N-word repeatedly every day.
“They ended this with, ‘How can a student like me thrive in an environment where the racism is seen as a joke?’” McComas said.
Elijah Mayes, a student member of the Fresno Unified School Board, commended the students from Edison High for coming to the board with their concerns, saying he personally knows the impact of seeing, hearing and being harassed with racist language.
“This is not just a word, it carries history, pain, disrespect, and does not have a place in our schools,” Mayes said. “Students are tired of it.”
