Two candidates are in the running for the Fresno County Superintendent of Schools office, a role integral to supporting more than 30 school districts.
Incumbent Superintendent Michele Cantwell-Copher was elected in 2022 and is competing with challenger Eimear O’Brien, a former Clovis Unified superintendent. Both candidates have served decades in leadership roles in the county’s education system.
Fresno County is home to over 200,000 students and to Fresno Unified, the third largest school district in California, in an otherwise predominantly county with most districts serving much smaller numbers of students.
Fresno County schools face many of the same problems seen all over the country, including low literacy and math proficiency rates.
Michele Cantwell-Copher
Job: Current Fresno County Superintendent of Schools
Age: 58
Residency: Lives in Fresno, raised in Riverdale, born in Tucson, Arizona.
Before taking on the mantle as the Fresno County superintendent , Cantwell-Copher served at the FCSS office for 14 years as an administrator and in multiple positions at Central Unified for 9 years, including vice principal at Madison Elementary School, principal at Normal Liddell Elementary and an assistant superintendent. She was also previously executive director of the State Center Community College District for two years.
What is their approach to the duties of the superintendent?
Cantwell-Copher said that the county superintendent provides fiscal oversight and district student support is essential to maintaining standards in schools. She also noted that she has worked to strengthen the trust in relationships between the FCSS and school districts in the last four years and said that monthly meetings between superintendents are seeing record attendance.
Cantwell-Copher emphasized efforts to provide professional development to teachers and paraprofessionals, explaining that she believes districts saw that FCSS office as “more referee or auditor rather than coach and partner” in the past.
“That’s where we come alongside and we become trusted partners to do things like take your instructional program to a higher level of effectiveness by employing certain instructional strategies or programs that we’ve seen work in other parts of the the county, and so that kind of partnership is really what I see the future being.”
What are their priorities for the position?
Cantwell-Copher said she wants to continue improving student achievement and access to dual-enrollment, CTE and other certifications and internship opportunities.
Additionally, Cantwell-Copher said Sacramento lawmakers need to understand the unique challenges facing Fresno County.
“I know that there are fears that are different and specific to Fresno County, and so I’m going to be intentional about making sure Sacramento legislators and policymakers know who we are, what our profile is, what our demographics are, what our needs are, and how we believe they can advocate for decisions that will affect the classroom or the school site or how even a district functions, whether that be fiscally or instructionally.”
What will they do to tackle concerns over low mathematics achievement?
On top of opportunities for districts to share and test math instructional practices, Cantwell-Copher pointed to the Count Play Explore (CPE) program, led by the FCSS’ early care and education department, as one of her office’s efforts to tackle low math achievement.
The CPE initiative is a statewide effort led by the FCSS to create a learning model that is fun and educationally engaging with children from birth through the third grade.
“It’s all about establishing very early on a readiness to take on the very complex math skills that are necessary in the grades when they get to algebra and beyond in high school.”
How do they plan to use data to inform FCSS decisions and the decisions of school districts?
According to Cantwell-Copher, the FCSS office has been working on creating a database likened after one seen in Kern County’s Office of Education, the Kern Integrated Data System (KiDS), which monitors student progress towards graduation, college readiness, A-G requirements, performance and other data.
“It’s an arena that is much needed by our school districts because we’re anticipating fewer resources for school districts as well in the future, and so we have to get a lot more efficient and effective about using those resources,” Cantwell Copher said, adding “The Fresno County Data Hub is onboarding school districts as we speak, we have the capacity in the next one to two years to have every single school district supported by our data hub and that is going to change how we all share data, how we make decisions together, how we illuminate best practices in this county and it is something that I’ve been particularly invested in with my own time and energy because I know that that is the best way to make the best decisions for our school districts.”
How do they believe they can improve trust in the community?
Cantwell-Copher says that on top of communicating with community members and schools more frequently through all channels, she wants to be out in the community to be accessible and understand how schools are operating.
“I’m just intentional about being accessible and really understanding how our schools are operating, so that I can communicate that to the public.”
Key Endorsements:
Fresno County Sheriff John Zanoni, the California Teachers Association, Fresno County Supervisor Buddy Mendes and Brian Pacheco, Fresno City Councilmember Annalisa Perea, Mayor Vong Mouanoutoua of Clovis, Mayor Victor Martinez of Mendota, Mayor Brandon Pursell of Kingsburg, Fresno City Councilmember Annalisa Perea, Fresno Chamber of Commerce, Assemblymember Esmeralda Soria
Who is funding their campaign?
The following organizations and individuals have donated to Cantwell-Copher’s campaign:
- California Teachers Association/Association for Better Citizenship – $5,900
- Valley Forward Action – $1,443.85
- UA Local 246 Plumbers & Pipefitters COPE Committee – $1,000
- Fresno Chamber PAC – $5,000
- Valley Forward Action Fund – $2,567.13
- Michelle McGaughy – $1,000
- Joseph S. Price – $1,000
- Operating Engineers 3 District #50 PAC – $2,500
- Peter Faragia – $1,000
- Fresno Laborers Local 294 – $2,500
- Charter Public School PAC – $30,000
- Brad Huff – $1,500
- Francisco Hernandez Jr. – $1,000
- Richesin Holdings (Douglas Richesin) – $1,000
- Shellie Hanes – $1,000
- Fresno Teachers Association PAC – $11,900
- Fresno Chamber PAC – $1,000
- Jagdip Dhanda – $5,000
Eimear O’Brien
Age: 62
Residency: Lives in Fresno, born in Ireland
With 40 years of experience in education, O’Brien previously served as a teacher for 20 years and in multiple leadership positions for another two decades.
O’Brien taught early grades for a decade in Ireland before serving another decade at Maple Creek Elementary in Clovis Unified. O’Brien then became vice principal and principal of Valley Oak Elementary before taking on the roles of learning director, deputy principal; and principal of Clovis West High School.
She then served as assistant superintendent before serving as the Clovis Unified superintendent from 2017 through 2023.
What is their approach to the duties of the superintendent?
O’Brien said she approaches the position with a desire to build trust, integrity and credibility between the FCSS and the districts and educational leaders it partners with.
“If people don’t trust you, trust that what you say is true, and trust you to tell the full story, not half the story, that undermines the trust that the community has in the county superintendent.”
What are their priorities for the position?
O’Brien has identified early literacy as the one of the primary areas she wants to improve during her tenure, arguing that ,without literacy, a student’s future academics are jeopardized.
“The analogy I give all the time is that you can’t remodel your kitchen if the foundation is not solid, everything will just start falling apart,” O’Brien said, adding ,”that’s happening in Fresno County for many of our students.”
O’Brien wants to find ways to implement training for educators to get familiar with a curriculum backed by the science of reading, which emphasizes phonics learning as part of early child literacy.
O’Brien said she wants to be transparent with the community about what is working and what’s not, saying that she isn’t afraid to admit an error and wants to be held accountable.
“I am calling into question the transparency and the credibility of our county superintendent, because I believe that she is not being totally truthful with the community about the [literacy] crisis we’re in.”
What will they do to tackle concerns over low mathematics achievement?
While O’Brien did not outline any specific plans on tackling mathematics, O’Brien says student foundations in literacy need to be strong first before focusing on math proficiency impacting students going into higher education.
“You can accuse me of making this the centerpiece of my campaign, but in actual fact, every educator will tell you that literacy is the foundation of pretty much everything else, and it can be the gatekeeper,” O’Brien said, adding “in third grade, you start to see the trajectory of your of your child [and] for many students if we don’t fix it right there in third grade, it becomes their destiny.”
How do they plan to use data to inform FCSS decisions and the decisions of school districts?
O’Brien says that she wants to create a system that compiles data from multiple assessments used by school districts, such as iReady or Orton-Gillingham, to help leaders and educators monitor progress at foundational levels using the science of reading.
She noted that while districts may each use different assessments, she wants to bring uniformity to how they monitor student performance by gathering comparable data and also partnering with local higher education institutions to get new teachers familiar with science or reading.
“What I want to do is bring our district superintendents together and find a way that we can collectively monitor our students in each of those foundational grade levels, whether it’s preschool, TK, kindergarten; I believe there’s a way to do that.”
How do they believe they can improve trust in the community?
O’Brien says she wants to build trust with the community by being transparent about student achievement data.
“If we really care about our kids, we need to be transparent with our community about the crisis that we’re in.”
Key Endorsements
Former Fresno County Superintendent Larry Powell, Former Fresno County Superintendent Jim Yovino, Mayor Jerry Dyer of Fresno, District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp, Fresno County Assessor-Recorder Paul Dictos, Clovis City Councilmember Matt Basal, Fresno City Councilmember Mike Karbassi, Fresno City Councilmember Tyler Maxwell
Who is funding their campaign?
According to campaign finance documents, the following organizations and individuals have donated the following amounts to O’Brien’s campaign:
- Cook Family LP – $5,000
- Eimear O’Brien – $5,000
- Richard Spencer – $20,000
- CENCAL Services Inc – $10,000
- C-III Construction, Inc. – $5,000
- Richard Spencer – $20,000
- Tyler Maxwell for Fresno City Council 2024 – $5,000
- Western Systems, LLC – $10,000
- Associated Builders and Contractors Northern California Chapter Political Action – $5,000
- Ramandeep Basi – $5,000
- Lisa Smittcamp – $1,000
- Susan Castro $1,000
- Richard Shehadev – $1,000
- Brooke Ashjian – $2,500
- Matthew Ruiz – $10,000
- Dr. Joe Lee – $1,000
- Jim Yovino – $2,500
- Doug Richesin – $2,500
- DeWayne Zinkin – $5,000
- Linda Penner – $1,000
- Matthew Ruiz – $5,000
- Eric Vidmar – $5,000
- Jeannie Bradley – $1,500
- Cook Land Company Inc $10,000
- Todd Suntrapak – $5,000
- Mid Valley Disposal LLC – $5,000
- Bee Sweet Citrus – $1,000
- Jaswant Basraon – $5,000
