The Board of Education holds regular meetings every second and fourth Wednesday of the month.Click here for details
As supporting material for board agenda items are made available, they may be accessed through using this link.

The FUSD Board of Education adopted the school calendars for the 2009/10 and 2010/11 school years. To view the 2009/2010 school calendar click here, and to view the 2010/2011 school year calendar, click here.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell announced that Fresno Unified School District’s Baird Middle School, Computech Middle School, and Design Science High School were selected as 2009 California Distinguished Schools, an annual award that recognizes some of the state’s most exemplary public schools. “This recognition is a testament to the outstanding work of the students, staff, and parents at Baird, Computech, and Design Science High School,” said FUSD Superintendent Michael Hanson. “We commend the continued efforts of these schools to prepare career ready graduates.”

Fresno Unified School District schools have received 40 California Distinguished School awards since the program began in 1986. The selected middle and high schools represent about 10.9 percent of California's nearly 2,400 middle and high schools. Of those, only 341 schools met the eligibility criteria based on their student achievement and were chosen from 170 school districts in 46 counties. An awards ceremony honoring the Distinguished Schools will be held Friday, May 29 at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim. The Disneyland Resort is a major corporate sponsor of the event.

The Fresno Unified School District is creating a long-range Facilities Master Plan. This plan will provide important information on what the school facilities and feeder pattern may look and feel like now and in the future. Eight community meetings were held to gather input from parents, staff and community members. Input is still being sought on the proposed high school boundary areas, which can be viewed here as well as on the proposed feeder pattern information, which can be viewed here.

Written feedback is also invited via email to Communications@fresnounified.org or mail to Lisa LeBlanc, FUSD Facilities Department, 4600 N. Brawley, Fresno, CA 93722.

The Fresno Unified School District remains committed to saving as many jobs as possible, while protecting its investment in the classroom. Because of the prudent and fiscally responsible efforts of the FUSD Board of Education, the District is in a better position than most. Given the current information – which may still change with the Governor’s May Revised Budget – the District will not recommend laying off permanent employees, including teachers; increasing class sizes; nor recommending salary rollbacks – as many other school districts in California are doing. Because the state financial outlook remains bleak, FUSD is preparing and planning for another potential budget challenge in the Governor’s Revised Budget due in May or June.

Last Spring, to prepare for 2008-09, FUSD made reductions of nearly $7 million in the central office while increasing the investments in instructional supplies for teachers and library materials by more than $1.1 million. The central office reductions along with other actions taken, resulted in keeping budget cuts as far from the school site as possible for the current school year.

This school year – given the magnitude of the situation – the District cannot avoid making some reductions at school sites, while also making reductions once again in central office. However, even more than last year, the focus during this budget development process for 2009-2010 is on the board-adopted goals and Core Beliefs and Commitments, while minimizing the impact on permanent employees and the classroom.

The District remains committed to preserving the significant academic progress of FUSD students over the past three years by protecting the investment in the classroom, and will continue to take responsible and strategic action to protect the District’s mission to prepare career ready graduates. This includes work around the partnership with the College Board to prepare our students for success in higher education, the Career Technical Education Commission’s work to prepare our students for workplace success, equity and access work to ensure that all students have access to the resources they need and to high-quality options after high school, and the work of the English Learner Task Force to ensure that our 20,000 English Learners accelerate their proficiency.

An overview of the Adopted Budget 2008-2009 for Fresno Unified School District is available for download at the following link: http://www.fresno.k12.ca.us/pdfs/Budget adoption 08-09.pdf.

The Superintendent’s Commission on Workplace Readiness and Career Technical Education is being led by a group of community and business leaders to examine the current delivery of career technical education in FUSD. Based on their research, analysis, and study, the commission is scheduled to bring forward recommendations on system-wide reform initiatives that will help achieve the mission of preparing Career Ready Graduates and define a best set of opportunities for business and community engagement that focuses on exposing students to the world of work. As the work of the Commission progresses, small group meetings with student and staff are being scheduled to gather specific input and feedback.

For more information on the work of the Commission, including meeting presentations, list of commissioners, research, data, and discussion board, please click here: www.fresnounified.org/dept/planning/careerprep/

FUSD Superintendent Michael Hanson gave a final report November 18 on the Edison High School investigation of an alleged student grade change. Superintendent Hanson’s statement is available here: http://www.fresno.k12.ca.us/pdfs/STATEMENT - Edison News Conference - Investigation 11-18-08.pdf. Superintendent Hanson shared a report submitted to him on proposed system improvements based on the investigation. The report is available here: http://www.fresno.k12.ca.us/pdfs/Report to Superintendent - Systems Improvements 11-18-08.pdf.

The 2008 LEA Plan Addendum is now available at the following link: FUSD LEA Plan Addendum 2008

Fresno Unified School District Board of Education established a Constituent Services Office to respond to the needs of parents and community members. Miguel Arias, the Constituent Services administrator, helps parents and community members to receive their requested information and guides them on the most effective route to address or resolve an issue. Fresno serves more than 73,000 students at 106 schools, and the Constituent Services Office helps to connect parents and community members with the information and resources to get the help they need swiftly. The Constituent Services Office can be reached at 457-3727.

On August 5, school and district leaders met to discuss the 2008-09 school year at the annual Leadership Conference. Click here for the Superintendents Address http://www.fresno.k12.ca.us/pdfs/Final 2008 Leadership Conference.pdf and PowerPoint presentation http://www.fresno.k12.ca.us/pdfs/2008 Leadership Conference.pdf.

2008-2009 Parent & Student Notification and Information Handbook
Every Student enrolled in Fresno Unified should receive a copy of the Parent Notification and Information handbook from school. You can also download this document in Adobe Acrobat PDF format . The 2008-2009 Parent & Student Notification and Information Handbooks are also available electronically in Spanish and Hmong versions.

For the third year in a row, FUSD demonstrated districtwide growth in both English Language Arts (ELA) and mathematics on the California Standards Tests (CSTs). In addition, this is the third year of districtwide growth for all subgroups in both ELA and math with the exception of a one year dip in 2007 for African American students (in math).

Since 1998, we have never seen this kind of magnitude of across the board student achievement gains in grades 2-7 in mathematics for Fresno Unified, nor have we as a system been so targeted in our efforts, said Michael E. Hanson, Superintendent Fresno Unified upon reviewing the results. This represents approximately 1,200 students who are now proficient who were not before. If we keep them on track engaged and on target to graduate - we will be providing these students with an opportunity for the future much different than it would have been just a year ago.

Please visit the California Department of Educations website to view state, district and school results at http://star.cde.ca.gov/.

Fresno Unifieds latest edition of Building Futures is now available. This edition features Fresno Unifieds cutting-edge technology, a parents guide to MRSA in California, a community partnership with Fresnos Rotary donating 6,000 dictionaries to 3rd graders and more. Fresno Unified would like to thank the many businesses that supported Building Futures making our January edition a success. If you are interested in advertising in Building Futures please review our media kit. For additional information contact the Communications Office at 457-3733.