Summary of the Board of Education Meeting on August 25, 2021
The August 25, 2021 meeting of the Board of Education began with no announcements out of Closed Session.
Next, Superintendent Nelson provided a brief report to the Board of Education, including:
- Tomorrow is Women’s Equality Day, and I cannot say enough about the amazing women we have leading across our system from our Board of Education, in our cabinet, across district offices, and at our school sites. Our students are better because of the amazing women they see in action every day, and I want to take a quick minute to shout out two amazing women who have been honored for their work to advance women in our community. First, I want to say congratulations to Board President Davis for being honored as one of Marjaree Mason’s Top 10 Professional Women this year! Second, I want to congratulate our Deputy Superintendent, Misty Her, for being honored with the Women’s Equality Day award from the League of Women Voters last night. This recognition is well-deserved for both of you! Your work every day, and the work of all the women across our district, show our young girls that they can do ANYTHING they set their mind to.
- I need to respond to concerns about the district shutting down or returning to a hybrid model of learning. First, I think we can all agree that most of our students do their best learning in-person, in classrooms with their teachers, so we want to do everything we can to ensure that option stays open for our families. This is in alignment with our health experts at the Fresno County Department of public Health, who have agreed that priority right now is keeping our students safely in classrooms where they can do their best learning. We are doing this with several layers o safety in place, most importantly our continued use of masks indoors. Now, we know that we can never predict what mandates and directives may come down from our state or federal leaders, but at this time we do not have any plans to shut down. We have worked hard to ensure we can provide as much choice as possible for our parents and students. Currently, we have three learning options available:
- Full-time in-person learning at our school sites, 5 days per week
- eLearn Academy with the option of two in-person check-ins per week,
OR
- eLearn Academy completely online
The vast majority of our almost 74,000 students have opted for in-person learning, with just over 3,000 students in our eLearn Academy options at this time. We know that one drawback at current is that our students in specialty programs and schools do not have the option to continue in those specialty learning environments if they choose to join our eLearn Academy. Unfortunately, to keep our full-time, in-person option available, we do not have the capacity to offer specialty programs through our eLearn Academy options at the same time. However, any students currently in a specialty program or school will have the opportunity to return to that program or school when they choose to return to in-person learning.
- I want to share a quick video from our first weeks of returning to our campuses full-time. Our communications team created three different back to school videos this year, one highlighting our parents and students’ reactions, one highlighting site leaders and psychologists, and one highlighting our classified staff. I encourage you to each all three videos on our Vimeo page or on our social media channels, but tonight I just want to take a couple of minutes to share our classified staff’s video.
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
- Adopted Variable Term Waiver
- Adopted Variable Term for Waiver for Career Technical Education Credential Holders
- Approved Provisional Internship Permits
- Approved 2021/22 Spring Release Consolidated Application to the California Department of Education
- Approved Representatives to the State Center Adult Education Consortium Executive Board
- Ratified Seven Retiree Contracts for Teachers at Fresno Adult School
- Ratified Agreement with Eurgubian Academic Center
- Ratified Memorandum of Understanding between Fresno Unified School District, State Center Community College District and State Center Adult Education Consortium
- Ratified Third Amendment to the Manchester Center Lease for Fresno Adult School
- Ratified Change Orders
Bid 20-19, Fresno High School Career Technical Education (CTE) Building Construction
Bid 21-25, Hoover High School Career Technical Education (CTE) Building and Construction Trades, Classroom Shop Improvements
- Ratified Purchase Orders from June 01, 2021 through June 30, 2021
- Approved Proposed Amendment to the 2021/22 Board Meeting Calendar
The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Board of Education will be Wednesday, September 8, 2021. Complete minutes and agendas are available online at board.fresnounified.org