Summary of the Board of Education Meeting on February 3, 2021

Virtual Meeting

The February 3, 2021 meeting of the Board of Education began with no announcements out of Closed Session.

Next, Amanda Hun, SAB representative from Duncan Polytechnical High School, shared that their pathway classes are staying on track by providing material and supplies to all their students. Students are raising awareness of Black History Month through several activities that include their sophomore class sharing love with virtual candygrams and Instagram video activities. Duncan teams are not missing out even though they cannot be physically together. Academic Decathlon team, Skills USA, and JROTC are all working hard to perform well in their new virtual competition platforms. Congratulations to JROTC for taking first in the Region and good lick at the State competition. 

The School Student Ambassadors from Tioga Middle School also shared what they love about Tioga Middle School.

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

  • Superintendent Nelson started by acknowledging and thank everyone that was involved in making our 7th Annual Edison Region Black History Month program happen virtually this year. The program was incredible and such a powerful, beautiful way for our district and community to kick off Black History Month. If you did not get to watch it live, take some time, and check it out on our Fresno Unified Facebook page or our Fresno Unified Vimeo page. Black history is American history and should be celebrated and learned throughout the entire year.
  • Next, the Superintendent also acknowledged this week as National School Counseling Week and shout out to all our amazing counselors here at Fresno Unified. We know how much of a difference our counselors make with our students, whether you are working on academic counseling, restorative counseling, or mental health counseling. Our kids need you more than even and I cannot thank you all enough for how you have stepped up to take your services virtual for our students.
  • Superintendent Nelson shared that February is National Teen Dating Violence Awareness month. This is not an easy topic to recognize, especially when we consider the high prevalence of dating violence among our teens. Our friends at the Marjoree Mason Center reminded us that 81% of adults do not think teen dating violence is an issue or are unaware that it is an issue, when in fact 1 in 3 teens will experience intimate partner violence. Let us spread awareness, educate ourselves, and make sure that we are making safe space for our teens to reach out to us for help.
  • Superintendent shared with everyone that this week we pivoted back to our primary function of serving meals to children ages 1-18 at our 63 meal distribution sites across the district. We are so grateful to our board here, and support from the City of Fresno, to allow us to also serve meal to adults since last March which resulted in one million of our 10 million meals served going to adults. While we have gone back to serving just children at our sites, the City of Fresno has continued funding to our community partners to ensure adults and families are still being fed in this incredibly though time. Those partners include the Fresno Economic Opportunities Commission, the Central California Food Bank, Fresno Metro Ministry’s Food to Share program, and Every Neighborhood Partnership. Check in with these partners to find food distributions any day of the week.  
  • Superintendent Nelson thanked and congratulated everyone involved in our Winter Session for making it such a success for our students. We had over 1,000 students recover five semester credits in just those 10 days of instruction over the winter break. Next, I also want to thank and congratulate everyone involved in our second Professional Learning Summit of this school year. The summit was attended by almost 1,400 teachers with almost 6,500 logins for the 95 different course offerings. Congratulations are also due to Patino High School for receiving the AP Computer Science Female Diversity award for expanding female representation in computer science courses. And my last congratulations tonight goes to Tim Carey, our athletic director and girl’s lacrosse team coach at Hoover High School, for being named National Coach of the Year. 
  • Last, Superintendent Nelson took a couple of minutes to share a great video from our team regarding self-care. As this pandemic stretches on, it is important that we all are truly taking care of ourselves so that we can continue to serve others. Vulnerability is key to true leadership – thank you to everyone involved in the video for sharing your story and encouraging support from our Fresno Unified Family.

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

  • Approved Personnel List
  • Approved Minutes from Prior Meeting
  • Approved the 2020/21 Classified Hourly, Classified Food Services Hourly and Management 261 Duty Days Revised Salary Schedules
  • Approved Grant Application to the California Department of Education for the 2021/22 Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act
  • Approved Independent Contractor Services Agreement for Dr. Olivia LynchPhase 2
  • Denied Award of Bid 21-15, Bullard High School Fencing Improvements
  • Approved Award of Bid 21-24, Columbia Elementary School Classroom Building Addition
  • Approved Award of Bid 21-25, Hoover High School Career Technical Education Building and Construction Trades, Classroom Shop Improvements
  • Approved Award of Request for Proposals 21-21, Inspection Service, Repairs and Parts for Vehicles, Food Service Equipment and Warehouse Equipment
  • Ratified Change Orders for the Projects Listed Below
  • Bid 20-19, Fresno High School Career Technical Education (CTE) Building Construction
  • Bid 20-34 Section A, Gibson, Holland, Manchester Elementary Schools Multipurpose Building HVAC Upgrades
  • Bid 20-36 Section A, Hoover High School Shade Structure and Site Improvements
  • Bid 20-48, Computech Middle School Parking Lot Improvements and Modular Classroom Infrastructure
  • Bid 20-55, Modular Classroom Infrastructure for Centennial, Eaton and Pyle Elementary Schools
  • Bid 21-04, McLane High School Career Technical Education (CTE) Classroom Improvements
  • Ratified the Filing of Notices of Completion
  • Bid 20-34 Section B, Powers-Ginsburg Elementary School and Baird Middle School, Multipurpose Building HVAC Upgrades
  • Bid 20-50, Hoover High School Interim Modular Classroom Infrastructure
  • Ratified Purchase Orders from November 01, 2020 through November 30, 2020

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

  • Discussed and Approved a Five-Year Petition of the Golden Charter Academy
  • Presented and Discussed the 2021/22 Strategic Budget Development
  • Ratified the 2020/21 Negotiated Collective Bargaining Agreement between Fresno Unified School District and California School Employees Association and its Fresno Chapter 143  

The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Board of Education will be a teleconference meeting on Wednesday, February 17, 2021. Complete minutes and agendas are available online at board.fresnounified.org

Back to top