What's at stake?
At the June 2 board meeting for Fresno Unified, the proposed budget for the coming school was presented, showing gains for the district's reserve for economic uncertainties and a sharp reduction to next year's projected budget deficit.
Following the revision to California’s proposed state budget in May, Fresno Unified is poised to cut its own budget deficit for the coming school year by more than half and nearly double its reserve levels — but it won’t change the district’s planned reductions in staffing.
At a school board meeting on Wednesday, district staff presented the proposed budget for the upcoming 2026-27 school year and held a public hearing for the district’s Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP), a three-year outline of FUSD’s funding and operational investments.
Previously, the district projected a deficit of $55 million for 2026-27 and a reserve level for economic uncertainties of 3.69%. Now, it’s projecting a deficit of around $23 million and a reserve level of 5.52%. Despite the increases, Patrick Jensen, the district’s chief financial officer, says the district’s finances aren’t in the clear just yet.
“We’ve understood for a number of years that low attendance and low enrollment are trends that are here to stay in our district, and they’re resulting in significantly reduced revenue,” Jensen said during the proposed budget presentation on Wednesday.
Jensen previously noted at the May 27 board meeting that the district’s new projected deficit and reserve level are contingent on the board maintaining all of the district’s planned reductions for the coming school year.
The budget presentation listed reductions at school sites and the district’s central office. In total, the district is planning reductions of around 141 full-time equivalent positions for the central office and around 308 positions at school sites.
In an interview with Jensen, he said that the reductions will come from not refilling positions of retirees, reassignments to other positions and from reductions to the workforce. He also maintained that the coming reductions will be similar to what they’ve implemented in the current year, saying that impacted staff will have a job offer by the end of the reduction process.
Additionally, Jensen noted that while the district’s projected deficit in 2027-28 has been cut from $16.48 million to $5.78 million and increased in reserve level from 2.77% to 5.23%, the district is also looking at increased fuel and technology costs.
At the May 27 meeting, Jensen said the district anticipates an additional $300K to fuel costs and an extra $5.4 million in computers for staff and students. He attributed these price spikes to the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz and the exacerbation of computer component shortages brought about by the rise of artificial intelligence.
On top of this, the district’s local control funding formula (LCFF), which outlines the district’s funding from the state, assumes a continuing enrollment decline of 1,200 students, 1,100 students, and 1,700 students, respectively, over the next three years.
For now, the district board is slated to approve the upcoming year’s budget and LCAP at the June 17 meeting, the final board meeting of the school year.
Parents and staff speak out against vice principal reassignments
During the public comment portion of Wednesday’s meeting, parents and district staff called upon the board to reconsider reassignments of multiple vice principals.
Many were moved to tears as they urged the school board to rescind recent staffing decisions they say transferred multiple beloved administrators to other schools around the district.
Multiple parents specifically asked that Sarah Chavez, a vice principal at Juan Felipe Herrera Elementary School remain in that position.
“She is very involved; she knows students by name, the parents as well, she’s involved with career day things that the children feel very involved with, and they look forward to going to school every day,” said America Leyva, a parent of students at Juan Felipe Herrera Elementary.
Heather Price, a teacher at Duncan Polytechnical High School, said staff had learned Tuesday that both of the school’s vice principals would be moved. Price noted that, on top of the vice principals, an ongoing wave of retirements means the school is losing its chief janitor, office manager, head of counseling and two of its three student learning intervention team members that serve around 1,200 students.
“That is unacceptable, I don’t know if that is incompetence or negligence, but that is not OK,” Price said, adding “you do not do that to a school, so I just wanted to let you know how pissed we are all about it.”
Currently, it’s unclear how many school sites in the district are being impacted by vice principal reassignments.
Edison High School honors Cal Johnson and Cecil Smith
Wednesday’s meeting also saw the board approve the naming of two gymnasiums at Edison High School after two influential local educators and advocates.
Dozens of community members and residents packed the school board chambers Wednesday to urge and applaud the naming of Edison High School’s west gym after Lindsay “Cal” Johnson, an Edison alumni who previously served as trustee for area one in FUSD and advocated heavily for the construction of Rutherford B. Gaston Middle School.
Brandon “Griot B” Brown, CEO of School Yard Rap and Johnson’s nephew, talked about the impact Johnson had on his community and Brown’s own education path.
“Many cultures believe that names have power, and I think there’s beauty and there’s power in giving the name to this educational building to the man that’s lived his life serving that community,” Brown said during the meeting.
Johnson, who was present at Wednesday’s meeting, said he was overcome by the support from the board and community.
The board then approved naming Edison’s east gym after Cecil Smith, an educator and coach who served at Edison for 34 years before retiring in 1997. Also known as “Chief,” Smith is an alumnus of Fresno State and was part of the inaugural Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. chapter, the first African American chapter at the university.
“He’s so thankful, and when people started to first talk to my dad about this happening of some kind of honor he was really touched because a lot of people do not get the acknowledgement or honor while they’re still here, and my dad’s going to be 91 this year,” said Smith’s daughter, Shonda Smith, at Wednesday’s meeting.
