Fresno Unified renews $80,000 board coaching contract for two years

The Fresno Unified board unanimously renewed an $80,000 governance and leadership coaching contract with the Council of the Great City Schools, keeping the outside support in place for two more years even as the district faces a projected $88 million deficit and a board self-evaluation that came in at 53 out of 100.

The coaching dates back to spring 2024, when infighting over the superintendent search prompted trustees to bring in the council for help. After Fresno Unified adopted an interim superintendent and implementation plan in May 2024, board members and senior leaders began monthly check-ins, governance workshops, community engagement work and board self-evaluations. By early 2025, they had added a superintendent search timeline, a position description, exclusionary criteria, a monitoring calendar and a superintendent evaluation tool. Trustees also gathered at Fresno City College’s West Center in September 2024 for a two-day retreat focused on board leadership.

Board President Veva Islas supported continuing the work, arguing the board had learned a great deal and set hard goals and guardrails. Superintendent Misty Her and other district leaders have framed the effort as a push to make the board more effective on student outcomes, not just more orderly in its internal politics.

Those goals are now tied to specific academic targets. Fresno Unified says its long-term guardrails include raising first-grade literacy proficiency from 48% in June 2024 to 80% by June 2030. The Council of the Great City Schools says its mission is to help large urban districts improve academic standards and public confidence in public education, a fit Fresno Unified appears to believe still has value.

The renewal comes as the state’s third-largest school district is under severe financial and operational pressure. Enrollment fell to 70,163 students for the 2025-26 school year, down 988 from 71,151 the year before. At the same time, the district moved to eliminate its Designated Schools program, which had given about 40 schools an extra 30 minutes of instruction each day and affected about 24,000 students and more than 1,250 educators.

That decision sparked a protest by about 100 educators in February 2025 and drew sharp criticism from Fresno Teachers Association President Manuel Bonilla, who said the unilateral cut damaged trust and respect. Taken together, the coaching renewal looks less like routine professional development than a bet that stronger board discipline will eventually lead to better academic and financial decisions.