What's at stake?
“That means this report raises even bigger questions about the evaluation of other employee groups, especially management and central-office administrators,” the FTA union president says.
A recent civil grand jury report appeared to put to bed one of the district’s more prominent 2025 public controversies, by describing an eye-raising payout that triggered backlash, as more of a symptom of a larger problem.
The report issued by the Fresno County Civil Grand Jury found that Fresno Unified employee evaluations and job descriptions need to be overhauled — highlighting that just 12% of FUSD’s total staff received employee evaluations over the last decade. The district says changes are already in the works.
Originally, the civil grand jury received a complaint regarding funds spent by FUSD to pay a “non-certified, non-union employee who had resigned.
The departure last summer of former FUSD spokesperson Nikki Henry sparked backlash over what critics said was a lavish payout for a top district PIO who quit after allowing false, AI-hallucinated information into a district staff document. And while the grand jury report doesn’t mention Henry by name, it ultimately sides with the district, saying the payout followed established policies and procedures.
“However,” the report continues, “a related matter surfaced.
“It was discovered that the school district was not rigorously enforcing its policies and procedures regarding personnel evaluations. The Grand Jury believes that this lack of continuity may have contributed to the original issue.”
In particular, the investigation into FUSD revealed that as few as 12% of the entire district workforce had received an evaluation in the last decade, with employees evaluated at least once every two years. The grand jury also found that the district’s job descriptions need to be updated to reflect new job duties and that there is a lack of performance baselines for employee evaluations.
“Fresno Unified has begun implementing efforts to strengthen employee evaluation practices, improve consistency in supervisor training, update job descriptions, and reinforce expectations for timely, meaningful, and consistent performance evaluations across employee groups,” said AJ Kato, the district’s communications manager.
The district said it could not comment on the 12% figure reported by the civil grand jury, saying that since the report does not detail what data it used, the district can’t evaluate the reported statistic.
The district was not immediately able to offer data regarding personnel evaluation completion rates at school sites and central office positions.
Manuel Bonilla, president of the Fresno Teachers Association, told Fresnoland that the report’s figure could indicate a disparity in evaluations being done across staffing levels in the district. Bonilla said that, under state law and the union’s own bargaining agreement, newly-hired teachers are evaluated annually and permanent teachers bi-annually.
“That means this report raises even bigger questions about the evaluation of other employee groups, especially management and central-office administrators,” Bonilla said in a statement.
According to Bonilla, the report reflects a lack of accountability that educators have experienced from upper management. Bonilla also said teachers’ union wants the evaluation process to change.
“A majority of our members say evaluations are too often used as a punitive tool instead of an opportunity for support, reflection and professional growth,” Bonilla said.
The district was not immediately able to offer data regarding personnel evaluation completion rates at school sites and central office positions.
The district’s current staffing goals include having all supervisory roles complete training on supervision and evaluation by June 2028, increasing it from 0% from June 2025. It also aims to increase the use of evaluations in decisions to hire, promote, laterally move, or approve extra pay contracts to staff from 0% in June 2024 to 100% in June 2028.
Previously at an April board meeting, the district reported that it has implemented a review process to ensure a new framework is used for evaluations and held meetings with Human Resources administrators to talk about evaluation concerns.
The April meeting also included some of the initiatives FUSD has taken to meet its staffing goals, including increasing coaching sessions for principals through June 2028 and implementing meetings between its HR department and district staff, leaders and union representatives to align evaluation expectations.
