Parents and staff members filed into Sunnyside High School’s cafeteria Tuesday night, as they prepared to share their biggest needs and concerns for students in the new school year.
It’s one of a series of forums underway through November as Fresno Unified gathers input on how it should use state funding next year. The meetings are part of the LCAP process, or Local Control and Accountability Plan. The process will determine how the district will spend nearly $900 million in state funding - the largest chunk of its $1.5 billion budget.
Parents like Miguel Gonzales raised issues with learning loss following distance-learning during the pandemic.
“No, it was tough. Yeah, we're happy that they're back in school, of course. The at-home learning just wasn't working out for our kids, at least,” he said.
But Tammy Townsend, executive officer of state and federal programs at Fresno Unified says the biggest theme this year so far is school safety with concerns ranging from sanitation to campus violence.
“This is the first year I've ever heard of that come up in these meetings. So, it's interesting how the trends kind of change with time,” she said.
Officials will compile the comments and send them to key district leaders. They’ll also present the findings to the school board ahead of the annual budget development process.
The meetings will be held at 5pm at each of these dates and locations:
- Thursday, Oct. 27 at Edison High School’s cafeteria
- Tuesday, Nov. 1 at Roosevelt High School’s cafeteria
- Monday, Nov. 7 at Fresno High School’s library
- Tuesday, Nov. 8 at Hoover High School’s cafeteria
- Thursday, Nov. 10 at Bullard High School’s cafeteria
Each person attending will receive an adult ticket and a child ticket to the Fresno Chaffee Zoo. Dinner and childcare are also provided, as well as translation services.