April 26, 2023 – Board Meeting Recap

Summary of the Board of Education Meeting on April 26th, 2023

The April 26th, 2023 meeting of the Board of Education began with the following announcements out of closed session:

  • The Board took action in closed session to appoint Giovanna (Jonie) Difilippo to Assistant Superintendent, Human Resources and Labor Relations.
  • The Board took action in closed session to appoint Maria Mazzoni to Assistant Superintendent, Human Resources and Labor Relations.
  • The Board took action in closed session to appoint Kimberly Collins to Assistant Superintendent, Human Resources and Labor Relations.
  • The Board took action in closed session to appoint Annarita Howell to Assistant Superintendent, Human Resources and Labor Relations.
  • The Board took action in closed session to appoint Manjit Atwal to Deputy Executive, Human Resources and Labor Relations.
  • The Board took action in closed session to appoint Linda Laettner to Executive Officer, Office of Engagement and External Partnerships.
  • The Board took action in closed session to promote Paul Scott to Director, Information Technology.

Next, Superintendent Nelson provided a brief report to the Board of Education, including:

  • Superintendent Nelson started his remarks encouraging families to open a CalKIDS ScholarShare account for their students. More than 58,000 of our more than 70,000 students qualify to get an automatic $500 deposit, with an additional $500 automatic deposit for our students who are foster youth and/or unhoused. In addition, any new or newly linked 529 college savings accounts by Sunday are also eligible to receive an additional $50 deposit! Families and students are able to check their eligibility and sign up at this link.
  • Superintendent Nelson then invited the public to join us at Hoover’s Event Center this Saturday for our eSports Tournament and our high school Robotics competition. The eSports Tournament for middle and high schoolers where our Fresno Unified students will compete against teams across the valley, kicks off at 8am. The Robotics competition with eight schools and 13 robots in head-to-head competition, kicks off at 8:30am.
  • Superintendent then celebrated our Fresno State Send-Off event earlier this week. Fresno Unified had 2,106 seniors apply to Fresno State, with 95% of those applicants being accepted! Superintendent shared his joy that these almost 2,000 students will continue to learn, grow, and put down roots here in Fresno.
  • Superintendent then went on to shout out and celebrate just a few of our amazing seniors in this exciting season of college acceptances and scholarship awards.
    • Anna Hun of Duncan who has been accepted to Harvard, Stanford, Dartmouth, Duke, UPenn, Vanderbilt, UCLA, UC Irvine, UC San Diego, and the Fresno State Smittcamp Family Honors College. To our knowledge, Anna is the first Duncan graduate to be accepted to the Ivy League!
    • Thomas Clark Stewart of Edison who has been accepted to Yale, Brown, Columbia and Cornell! Thomas also had a powerful op-ed article in The Fresno Bee recently and was honored as the Fresno County Superintendent of Schools March Superstar!
    • Joslyn Conchas of Sunnyside has been selected for a new program for high school students committed to a medical career and serving the valley’s needs. Joslyn is in Sunnyside’s Doctors Academy and earned 1 of just 12 spots out of 1,200 applications! The program, San Joaquin Valley PRIME + BS/MD is an educational pathway partnership between UC Merced, UC San Francisco-Fresno and UC San Francisco. During the eight-year program, Joslyn will earn a four-year degree from UC Merced, complete her pre-clinical medical training at the UCSF medical campus planned for UC Merced, and will complete her remaining training at the UCSF campus right here in Fresno.
    • Annabelle Raley of Design Science who has been awarded a four-year scholarship from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation worth $55,000 dollars per year to pursue her post-secondary dreams!
  • Superintendent shared congratulations to our Arts Education Department who received a Best Communities for Music Education Award from the NAMM Foundation. The NAMM Foundation celebrates and promotes the intrinsic value of music education. “This award recognizes the work of our teachers, TSA’s, administrators, parents and board members who pushed to have music K-12 in our district. It also celebrates the fact that our community has opportunities outside of school like, Youth Orchestra of Fresno, Children’s Musical Theatre, and local music camps like Sequoia Lake and La Sierra for our students to play music outside of school.” – Heather Kuyper-McKeithen. The application asked questions like average years’ experience of the music teachers, music teacher education levels, ratio of students to number of music teachers, examples of integrated lessons, yearly budget for music, other local music opportunities, etc.
  • Superintendent Nelson closed his remarks by sharing this great video of last week’s groundbreaking for Sunnyside’s new CTE building. Check that video out here.

Next, the Board of Education took the following action on the below consent agenda items:

  • Approved Personnel List
  • Adopted Findings of Fact and Recommendations of District Administrative Board
  • Approved Minutes from Prior Meeting
  • Approved Position and Adopted Job Description Community Schools Coordinator I and Approved Revision to the Classified Management 261 Duty Days Salary Schedule for Community Schools Coordinator I
  • Approved Revised Classified Hourly Salary Schedule
  • Approved Revised Media Technician/Driver Job Description, Revised Media Production Specialist Job Description and Revised Classified Hourly Salary Schedule
  • Approved Addendum to Agreement with California Teaching Fellows Foundation
  • Approved Addendum to Agreement with Crowe, LLP.
  • Approved Addendum to Agreement with the Law Office of Rick Jensen
  • Approved Agreement with Benedict College
  • Approved Agreement with BLDG Services
  • Approved Agreement with the City of Fresno Parks, After School, Recreation and Community Service Department
  • Approved Agreement with Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates (FM3) to Conduct a Community Survey Regarding Potential Bond Measure
  • Approved Agreement with J. Graham, Inc.
  • Approved Agreement with Moreno Institute, LLC.
  • Approved Award of Bid 23-34, Roosevelt High School Interim Housing
  • Approved Award of Request for Proposals 23-37, Ready to Serve Pizza with Site Delivery Services
  • Approved Use of Individual Piggyback Contracts
  • Approved Proposed Revisions for Board Bylaws
  • Approved Agreement with High Performance Academy, LLC.
  • Ratified Change Orders
  • Ratified the Filing of a Notice of Completion

The Board of Education discussed the below conference/discussion agenda items:

  • Presented and Discussed Sixth Grade Camp Clothing and Supplies
  • Presented and Discussed the Initial Proposal for the 2023/24 Budget

The Board of Education received no Information or Reports at this meeting.

The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Board of Education will be on Wednesday, May 10th, 2023. Complete minutes and agendas are available online at board.fresnounified.org.

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