Two candidates are running to represent Central Unified Trustee Area 4, home to Roosevelt and Madison Elementary schools. Central Unified school district covers northwest Fresno and parts of western Fresno County, including Biola and areas near Kerman.
Central Unified encompasses 28 schools, with a nearly 16,000-student population.
Incumbent Nabil Kherfan is not on the ballot. Carmen Flores, communication coordinator for the City of Fresno and Jomar Rushdan, management analyst for the City of Clovis, are running for the seat.
Central Unified is home to many low-income and immigrant families. The district faces similar challenges seen across school districts in California, including chronic absenteeism, low test scores, and school safety.
Elections for the Central Unified board of trustees seven areas are held in November of even-numbered years. Elections are staggered so that three or four seats are up for election at a time.
Four of the seven seats are up for general election and one seat is up for special election on Nov. 3.
Flores did not respond to multiple requests for an interview and answers to our questions were not available.
Jomar Rushdan
- Job: management analyst for the City of Clovis
- Age: 42
- Residency: from Richmond, moved to Fresno at 17 to attend Fresno State
- Key Endorsements: Carpenters Union Local 701, Assemblymember Esmeralda Soria, Fresno City Council District 5 councilmember Brandon Vang, and Central Unified Trustee Naindeep Singh.
Rushdan earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration with an emphasis in real estate and urban land economics. He has lived in the Central Unified district for 13 years; and his children are Central students.
Rushdan works for the City of Clovis as a right-of-way agent and previously was a manager for Section 8, administering a $47 million HUD-directed budget, serving 16,000 voucher holders and 40,000 waitlist applicants.
He described more than a decade of informal youth mentoring and cited personal experiences with homelessness and childhood hardship as motivations for his candidacy.
“And had it not been for an individual assisting me and helping me and pouring into me, then I would have been lost. I want to be that hand, that bridge that can otherwise help someone who would metaphorically be dry. So that’s why I want to run.”
Top three priorities:
- Academic excellence: raising test scores, financial literacy, and early intervention tutoring programs
- Student safety: focus on physically and emotionally safety
- Expansion of CTE and pathway programs: give students various options for those who will either attend or not attend college
How should Central Unified address facility needs?
Rushdan said the district needs to take a more comprehensive approach to understanding where students are going and why the district has not seen more significant growth.
“We’ve been plateaued for several years at around 16,000,” Rushdan said. “I think the best way to tackle that is to identify what you’re offering as a school district. You then cross-reference that to where those students are going. You then identify, if possible, the why again as to what’s causing those moves.”
Rushdan said that could include examining whether new housing developments or urban sprawl are drawing students away.
What’s your assessment of Measure X spending for facility repairs?
Rushdan said he is “always in favor of updating facilities,” particularly in older and rural communities that can be overlooked.
“Oftentimes, when you get into building school sites and improvements, it’s always left to the newer areas, and the older and the rural communities are often left to the dust, left to the side. So when you can set aside and earmark funds to make improvements, I’m always in favor of that.”
Rushdan said the district should develop a master plan for every school site and prioritize projects based on need, including anticipated maintenance such as roofing and HVAC systems.
“It’s much like a (house fire) when they go down a street,” Rushdan said. “When they go down a street, they identify the house that’s on fire. They don’t just go spray water on everything because they’re on the block. The house that’s on fire is going to get the water, and that’s the same way that I would do the resources of the district.”
What’s your stance on the Southeast Development Area (SEDA) plan, and what concerns have you heard from the community about it?
The primary concerns, Rushdan said, are centered around making sure existing schools and communities have the resources and infrastructure they need.
“My priority is keeping the needs of Central Unified students and families at the forefront of any decisions brought before the board.”
What would you do to improve safety for students walking to schools?
Rushdan said the school district needs to work with the city to address road and sidewalk improvements, particularly in areas west of Highway 99.
“Whatever muscle that is behind the district, we need to release that to work with the city in order to get the necessary road improvements that we need,” Rushdan said. “It’ll have to be a partnership because the school districts themselves do not have the authority or the resources to build streets and those types of improvements.”
Rushdan said the lack of basic infrastructure creates safety issues for students in Central Unified. Students in various areas within Central, can be seen walking either “in the road, and then once a car comes, they’ll scoot over,” Rushdan said. “You’ll see students walking in dirt paths.”
Rushdan said improving infrastructure will require resources from the city and potentially the state, but that the need is urgent.
“Many neighborhoods you would never think were missing sidewalks unless you’re in a rural, country-type of city. But we’re in Fresno, California, which is the fifth-largest city in the state. So the fact that we’re having conversations [about] dozens of miles of missing sidewalks is a bit alarming.”
How would you address chronic absenteeism at Central Unified?
Rushdan said the first thing to address with chronic absenteeism is the underlying reason students are missing school.
“Students, with very few exceptions, are not missing class because they just feel like missing class. But the majority of students that have chronic absenteeism, there is a root cause behind that.”
He said those causes could include not having clean clothes, living in a motel, experiencing abuse or being in foster care. Rushdan said schools often focus on identifying the number of absences rather than understanding why they are happening.
He said the district should make repeated efforts to contact families rather than immediately relying on punitive measures. He said that approach could help the district identify the underlying causes of chronic absenteeism.
What strategies or plans do you have to improve test scores, college readiness and overall academic success?
Rushdan said he wants struggling students to enroll in math and/or English tutoring programs.
“And if we can get them with an early intervention, then rather than it being a trend, it will be a one-off. It was corrected, it was caught, and now we can move forward in the future versus having a continual pool of students that are not prepared in the various areas scholastically.”
Rushdan also wants to focus on four years of financial literacy training in high school, which would focus on credit scores, good debt versus bad debt, home ownership, entrepreneurship, the stock market, budgeting and other basic banking skills.
Rushdan wants high school students to declare whether they plan to go to college or enter a career. From there, the district could track their plans and help them build toward that goal.
For students on the career track, the district, Rushdan said, could connect them with career and technical education programs and companies that have agreed to hire from those programs.
Rushdan wants to establish pathways where the district could partner with contractor companies in Fresno to create a pipeline for students interested in trade careers.. Those companies could offer apprenticeships to students while they are still in school and, for students who meet their qualifications, provide a pathway to employment after graduation.
The goal, Rushdan said, is for students to graduate with a plan already in place, either heading to college or directly into a career, rather than reaching 18 and asking, “What now?”
Students would begin planning in ninth grade and work toward completing that plan by graduation, allowing them to “hit the ground running strong.”
What can the district do to ensure underrepresented students have equitable access to academic resources and opportunities?
Rushdan said his vision for the district centers on partnership through supporting teachers, working with parents, improving academic performance and keeping students safe.
“When you’re a true partner with the parent, it’s a collective.”
Rushdan also emphasized the importance of addressing students’ mental health, drawing on his own experience with homelessness as a child.
“One part that I harp on is mental, because again, when I was homeless, there was a mental baggage that I brought to school every single day,” Rushdan said. “Going to school and navigating those different circumstances can be tough for a child.”
Rushdan said he would like the district to make mental-health support more accessible to students, allowing them to seek help during the school day without stigma.
How would you ensure that undocumented families are both informed and protected amid immigration enforcement presences within our communities?
Rushdan said the district needs to show undocumented families that it is a partner and ally, particularly when immigration enforcement is present in the community.
“We just have to let them know that we are a partner with them because words are words, but as the saying goes, actions speak louder than words. I think that’s the easiest way to show true partnership, through action.”
Who are some of his top funders?
Rushdan raised $14,375 as of Sept. 19, with contributors coming from both individuals and committees.
His largest donors include the African American Leaders for Economic Development who contributed $5,000, Ardyce Bryant with $3,900, Soria for Senate with over $3,000, and Frazier for SCCCD District 5 with $2,500.
