Fresno Unified Board has a plan to search for new superintendent. Here’s step No. 1

Fresno Unified has launched its search for the school district’s next superintendent, which it hopes to wrap up by June.

The district will host a series of seven community listening sessions — one for each of the seven high schools in the district — as it seeks a replacement for Bob Nelson, who announced last month he is leaving for a faculty position at Fresno State.

All sessions will be held the evenings of Feb. 20 and Feb. 21. The full schedule can be found on Fresno Unified’s website. An online survey is also available to all staff, community members and parents to provide insights.

Trustee Veva Islas outlined the plan with The Bee.

“We do have a goal that obviously by mid-June, we want to have somebody in place,” Islas said. “Bob is supposed to be here through the end of July. But I suspect he may use some of his vacation, and there’s summer.”

Islas estimated the application window would begin in March. But before that happens, the Board of Trustees hopes to engage the community to participate and make the process transparent and informed.

“We are doing some community conversations to hear from parents, from teachers, from other (community) members about what they would like to see in terms of skills or direction of the next superintendent,” Islas said. “We’re gonna use that information to form a job description, and then that’ll help us in selecting candidates that may apply.”

“We were having a conversation about whether trustees should attend those (sessions) or not, and I think, on one hand, I want to be able to hear firsthand from community members,” Islas said. “But ... I also don’t want to participate, if it impedes in some way somebody’s able to speak freely.”

In addition to meetings set up for the public, the district, with the help of a search firm, will also hold workshops with local advocacy groups, according to a district news release.

At least three local groups received invitations to attend listening sessions later this month “with Dr. Juan Garza from Leadership Associates to hear from your group what characteristics/qualities you would like to see in our next Superintendent,” read the email shared with The Bee.

Leadership Associates has long been contracting with Fresno Unified and successfully led the searches for some leadership positions, including Carlos Castillo, chief of equity and access, in March 2023; Chief of Staff Ambra O’Connor and Chief Academic Officer Natasha Baker in April 2022; and Tangee Pinheiro as Assistant Superintendent of Special Education in August 2021.

The firm also spearheaded the search for the superintendent in 2017 when Fresno Unified terminated former Superintendent Michael Hanson and appointed Nelson as interim superintendent. Nelson secured the role on a permanent basis later that year. His term is ending by the end of July and Deputy Superintendent Misty Her will serve as the interim superintendent if the district is yet to have a finalist.

Garza joined the Leadership Associates in 2019, before which he served as superintendent for Kings Canyon Unified School District for 15 years. Garza received a bachelor’s degree from Fresno State, and a master’s degree from Fresno Pacific University, according to his bio on the firm’s website. He is a member of the California Association of Latino Superintendents and Administrators and serves in other leadership roles in several local groups.

Local organizations shared their expectations for the next superintendent with the Bee.

“Our association has been very fortunate to meet with Dr. Nelson on a regular basis,” said Paul Garcia, a retired educator with 30 years of experience and a long-time member of the Association of Mexican American Educators, which received the district’s invitation for attending the meeting. “We’re happy to have him as a superintendent, always has an open door for policies when we meet with him, and he always accommodated us to meet with any members of his staff, so we would like to see that culture continuing to the next superintendency.”

Garcia said the organization has been advocating for institutional support for Latino students and teachers, especially for English language learners and first-generation students.

“Everybody knows you get a high school diploma, but what about A-to-G requirements so that they’re eligible to go to college or university? I believe many parents are not aware of that requirement, and I think if they knew more about it, they would make sure that their students are taking those courses,” said Garcia.

Most higher education institutions, including the California State University and the University of California systems, require first-time freshmen to complete a minimum of 15 units of courses in certain areas for admission. Since their parents don’t have the experience of college, first-generation students may lack guidance in high school curriculum planning and find themselves disadvantaged in pursuing higher degrees.

The Association of Mexican American Educators has also been working with the district to promote Latino educators, said Garcia. Fresno Unified had 29% of Hispanic or Latino teachers in the year 2018-19, according to the Ed-Data, which is partnered with the California Department of Education. The number for the previous school year was 27.6%.

The district had 68.4% of Hispanic or Latino students in 2018-19, and the percentage increased to 69.3% for 2022-23.

“That’s been like that for at least 10 years. The gap is so wide that if they increased one percentage point every year, (it) would take 40 years to have the same representation as the students,” Garcia said.

Islas also said she values diversity in the district office.

“At the end of the day, we want to have the best candidate possible. But, yes, I am somebody who believes that our district should be reflective of the student population,” Islas said. “I’d love to have an average of more African Americans in the cabinet and oversight superintendent level; I think we need to have more Southeast Asians in these positions of power. ... I want to have more women; I feel like we have a lot of males in leadership.”

Latino Educational Issues Roundtable Organization hopes to go further, proposing to establish a district-wide screening committee to assist in selecting the finalists, the group said at the Jan. 24 board meeting.

“The district-wide committee should include representation of the administration, teaching staff, support staff, students and ethnic community representatives,” said Venancio Gaona during the public comment session. “Fresno Unified services a sizable number of Latino students. There should be proportionate representation on the screening committee that seeks a leader to advance the educational needs of all our students.”

The Fresno Chamber of Commerce has also been invited to the listening sessions.

“I think businesses will want the same thing that everybody wants to see: somebody who’s an established leader who has a great history of accomplishing educational missions, a great history of leadership, and budgetary experience — Fresno Unified is very large, lots of employees,” said chamber president Scott Miller.

The chamber is a long-time partner with the district to develop leadership and entrepreneurship courses, such as the Fresno Chamber Junior Board, in which high-schoolers learn to become leaders in sustaining the business environment and affect change in their schools, neighborhoods and community.

“I think what we all want,” Miller said, “is to reinforce the ecosystem that already exists, that we want the best from pre-K all the way through graduate school for the students who grew up in our community.