An incumbent board trustee and two challengers are vying to represent Fresno Unified’s Area 4, one of three seats up for grabs on the school district’s board of trustees.
Incumbent Genoveva “Veva” Islas was elected in 2018 and is the board’s current president. Islas has also served as executive director of Cultiva La Salud, a local nonprofit organization she founded in 2005 that focuses on public health equity.
Mirna Garcia is a realtor who’s been involved in housing equity and an advocate for survivors of sexual violence. Garcia currently serves as president of the National Hispanic Construction Alliance’s Central Valley chapter and is the board treasurer for the South Tower Community Land Trust.
Karen Steed is a retired teacher of Fresno Unified and clerk for the city of Fresno. Steed previously ran against Islas in 2022, losing the election by just under 360 votes.
Area 4 is located in the center of Fresno Unified and serves families within the perimeter of the 180 Highway and Ashlan, Chestnut and Blackstone Avenues. 16 of the district’s over 100 schools are located within Area 4, including Mclane High School, Duncan Polytechnical High and the Phillip J. Patiño School of Entrepreneurship.
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Genoveva Islas | Mirna Garcia | Karen Steed
Genoveva Islas
Job: Current President of the FUSD Board of Trustees
Age: 57
Residency: Fresno
Key Endorsements: Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula, FUSD Trustee Andy Levine, State Center Community College District Trustee Nasreen Johnson, City of Firebaugh Councilmember Felipe Perez, Fresno County Board of Education Trustee Itzi Robles, former Assemblymember Juan Arambula, North Coast States Carpenters Union, CA WFP, Fresno County Democratic Women’s Club, Planned Parenthood, National Women’s Political Caucus Fresno, Central Valley Progressive Political Action Committee
Before serving on FUSD’s board, Islas worked for decades in various positions related to public health, including as a health educator in Kern County’s Department of Public Health and a health education liaison for Blue Cross of California.
Islas established the Central California Regional Obesity Prevention Program in 2005, which worked with public health departments and local organizations in the counties Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, Merced, San Joaquin, Stanislaus and Tulare. In 2012, the name was changed to Cultiva La Salud, with Islas having served as founder and executive director for over 14 years.
Islas speaks English and Spanish fluently and is a child of Mexican immigrant parents. As a child, she moved with her farm worker parents to different rural communities before graduating from Wasco High and returning to Fresno State to earn a bachelor’s degree in health science. Islas later attended and earned a master’s degree in Public Health from Loma Linda University. She also has 22 grandchildren that have previously or currently attend the district
What would you highlight from your recent term? What’s something you want to continue working on?
Islas said she was proud to help establish the district’s department of interpretation and translation, which creates uniform language access across the district’s communications, including sign language. She also highlighted her support for expanding CTE pathways and access, like McLane High’s Art Venture academy and Medical Education and Research Academy (MERA).
Islas said improving student performance remains her top priority, which said would encourage families to stay in the district that has been losing students for years. She noted that though there are concerns over student performance in math and science, student literacy is foundational to the rest of a child’s learning.
Islas also said that she wants to improve communications with parents for the upcoming term.
“Related to all of this is rebuilding trust with our parents and so I want us to be better about how we communicate with our parents and our students. I don’t want ever to be in a situation where they find out at the last minute about things, I want us to be very proactive.”
How will you improve district communication to be more open?
Islas says the district needs to maximize its use of all communication channels to promote listening sessions — which she said frequently draw only a handful of participants — and utilize video clips to share information and make it more accessible for parents.
Islas said the district needs to improve its organization and communication to make sure all staff and administrators are on the same page.
“It needs to be everywhere,” Islas said, referring the district’s messaging, adding, “I hate when I hear things like, ‘Oh, I didn’t know about that,’ or ‘I never heard about that,’ and I particularly hate, as the board president, when I find out things last minute, I want us to be very organized in that information.”
How do you want to address the district’s current levels of enrollment, average daily attendance and chronic absenteeism?
Islas has been critical of charter schools because she feels they pull students away from the FUSD.
“I want us to be very, very conscious about evaluating them and their performance before we decide to recharter them or to allow them more years to operate under our charter.”
Additionally, she said while enrollment, ADA and chronic absenteeism have negative impacts on district funding, she also said the district can work with staffers to cut costs.
“I’m very proud that I have, I feel, a good relationship with our teachers union, where I can talk to them about things that are bubbling up and then figure out how we form conversations or bring work groups together to try to resolve those issues.”
Islas also floated the idea of paying students or parents to attend focus groups to provide the district with direct feedback.
How will you approach labor negotiations for the district?
Islas says she wants to listen to and learn more from the district’s lowest paid employees.
“I understand how hard it is to raise families when your income is limited and I know what a tremendous service our bus drivers and our custodians play in our everyday lives and so I want to see them valued,” Islas said.
How will you support special education students?
Islas says she wants to follow the lead of experts in special education to the district to improve FUSD’s curriculum and facilities to better meet student needs.
“I want to see that department grow and I want us to make sure that we fully resourced it.”
What is your approach to cuts at the classroom level?
Islas said that the classroom should be the last place to see cuts. She suggested that the Fresno Teachers Association could be a valuable partner in understanding what teachers need in the classroom without trying to balance the budget on the back of the district’s frontline workers.
“I do think, and I’m not alone in this, in that we do need to evaluate our highest-paid workers and that there may be more cuts that we need to expect and implement with some of our highest-paid workers.”
“I also want the public to be aware that our highest-paid workers are not the vast majority of our district; they’re a finite number of individuals and even if we cut them all or even if we cut them by half, it wouldn’t solve all the problems that we have in terms of our budget.”
Islas also mentioned an idea that could see the district’s highest paid staff pay more into health benefits to save costs for lower paid workers.
Do you have any plans to invest in the district’s athletics?
Islas said the district should develop more partnerships with local organizations and businesses to sponsor district sports, equipment and events to help avoid cuts to the athletic budget.
Who donated to their campaign?
Campaign filing documents show that Islas’ campaign received the following donations:
- Sandra Celedon for Assembly 2026 – $17,110.09
- NWPC of Fresno – $1,000
- North Coast States Regional Council of Carpenters Power PAC – $3,000
Karen Steed
Job: Retired Fresno Unified teacher and City of Fresno clerk
Age: 67
Residency:Born in Patterson and has lived in Fresno for over 50 years
Key Endorsements: Fresno County Hispanic GOP
A previous challenger in Area 4, Steed is the granddaughter of farmers and a retired teacher and clerk with 25 years of experience in Fresno Unified. She also worked for 15 years as an accountant clerk for the City of Fresno’s Fire Department and Wastewater Management.
Steed taught 18 years at Birney Elementary School in multiple roles. She also served as the technical computer and career preparedness teacher at Phoenix Secondary for seven years, working with grades seven and eight.
Steed is a Hoover High School graduate and also graduated from Fresno State with a bachelor’s degree.
What are your priorities for the position?
Steed talked about making the board’s decisions, budgets and discussions more accessible to the community. She emphasized the need for a trustee with a teacher’s perspective.
“Transparency, doing what we say we’re going to do for real, not just because it sounds good, but doing it for real.”
Steed also wants to improve security at schools, citing her own experiences at Phoenix Secondary where students have threatened staff, noting that larger campuses would benefit from additional security to serve larger student populations.
How will you improve district communication?
Steed believes that the district and board members needs to communicate with the community faster, especially during emergencies and to provide detailed followups
Steed also said the district needs to own up to its mistakes.
“My point of view: It doesn’t appear that anybody wants to own the stuff that happens in a negative light at Fresno Unified. No organization is perfect, they’re going to make mistakes, man up and own it; How do you fix a problem if you don’t even know it exists?”
How do you want to address the district’s current levels of enrollment, average daily attendance and chronic absenteeism?
She described creating a more welcoming environment with higher academic standards, which she said would motivate parents and students to stick with their neighborhood schools.
“Kids, when they’re faced with all these negative inputs, it’s hard to get any enthusiasm, [and] consequently, they’re out of school. I think bringing back the idea of neighborhood schools would be awesome, so you can go to school with kids that are in your neighborhood and you see them all the time.”
How will you approach labor negotiations for the district?
Steed highlighted her perspective as a former teacher, saying she would be able to bring a teacher’s voice into discussions and decisions that the district makes.
How will you support special education students?
While not outlining any specific plans, Steed said that she wants to find ways to support special education and students with disabilities.
“We have a lot of very disabled children who have challenges that cannot even be imagined by adults, they’re not disabled, they are children of challenges.”
What is your approach to cuts at the classroom level?
Steed described classroom staff as “sacrosanct,” explaining that even if the district can’t afford another class in a school, teachers should be retained at school sites to support other classes and school sites.
“I mean, that’s the first cut you’re going to make, is the classroom?” Steed said. “Let’s back that up and say, ‘where in administration can we go first?’”
Instead of cutting educators, Steed says the district should look at other ways to make cuts, including analyzing any duplication of services and utilizing more unused district facilities to reduce any rent costs.
Do you have any plans to invest in the district’s athletics?
Steed did not outline any specific plans for supporting athletics, saying she’s instead focused on keeping students safe and supporting academics to better prepare students for their future.
“Let’s give you the best chance at doing that (living) and then find a team when you’re older, so you can beat the crap out of somebody else.”
Who donated to their campaign?
Steed did not receive any donations to her campaign, per county campaign documents.
Mirna Garcia
Job: Realtor
Age: 52
Residency: Born in Berkeley,before moving into Fresno in the 1980s.
Key Endorsements: The Young Democrats
Prior to becoming involved in housing equity and real estate, Garcia grew up a child of Mexican immigrants who arrived in Oakland and later moved to Fresno. Garcia worked in the fields until the age of 13 when she got a job in Chinatown at the now-defunct Mary’s Liquor Store. She has had a total of 9 children.
Garcia is also one of 22 survivors of the Tower District rapist, which gave her trauma, led to her dropping out of high school at 16 and, due to her father’s belief that she had known the rapist, homelessness, all while being in court for the next two years. Garcia says her lived experiences gives her a perspective she feels can help make a difference for students in need of social-emotional, housing and mental health support.
Garcia is a Fresno High alum and graduated from Fresno City College with certifications in accounting, real estate and tax preparation. She has been involved in real estate for 16 years, is the founder of local housing initiative Llaves De Tu Casa and aspeaker for RAINN, an organization that supports survivors of sexual violence.
What are your priorities for the position?
Garcia wants to focus on making decisions by the district more transparent and open for participation, particularly allowing community members to have more of a say before decisions are made.
“People have a right to be invested in their children’s education and be able to make decisions on behalf of their children, and even children deserve to have a voice. We don’t ask them, we assume that they don’t know what they want, what they need.”
Garcia also wants to involve more young voices in the decision-making process, saying students have unique insights that could help prevent or mitigate needs that could arise in the future.
Garcia also wants to expand student access to existing CTE programs the district offers, saying students who want to attend specialty programs shouldn’t be turned away and left without opportunities to develop their future careers.
How will you improve trust with the community?
Garcia wants to analyze how the district can better inform parents in its communications.
“I want people to be able to consume the information in advance and have a voice. If they choose to engage, what information do they need to be able to feel as they are contributing to the answer? Because who wants to hear after it’s been decided this is how it’s going to be?”
How do you want to address the district’s current levels of enrollment, average daily attendance and chronic absenteeism?
Garcia explained that the district should invest more in meeting the social-emotional needs of students, saying that many factors are at play that can impede or derail a student’s ability to attend school.
“So many critical components that our children need to be able to succeed are being pulled away, we’re top heavy financially.”
How will you approach labor negotiations for the district?
While Garcia did not outline any specific strategies on labor negotiations, Garcia believes that trust needs to be brought into conversations about the budget and says the only way to do so is to be honest and open about the finances.
“I know right now with the economy, everything that’s going on, people are feeling overwhelmed, but we got to keep going.”
Garcia also said she’d like to explore ways for labor partners to potentially mentor students through career pathways.
How will you support special education students?
Garcia did not outline any specific plans on supporting special education or students with disabilities, but said that the district ought to be asking students directly about their needs more often.
What is your approach to cuts at the classroom level?
Garcia says that classrooms should be the last place the district cuts.
She said the district should be developing strategies to develop its most desirable programs to attract more families to Fresno schools.
“I think we’re in that state of mind of thinking in lack of instead of abundance, if we can think in abundance and produce abundance, then our children are going to succeed.”
Do you have any plans to invest in the district’s athletics?
Garcia did not mention any specific plans for investing in athletics in the district.
Who donated to their campaign?
According to campaign documents, Garcia received the following donations:
- Perea for Assembly 2026 – $5,000
- Brooke Ashjian – $1,000
