Fresno Unified Budget Approved. Wittrup Votes No, Alleges ‘Backroom Deals’

Fresno Unified School District’s usually sleepy final budget approval heated up as trustees dealt out pointed criticism towards leadership and each other.

The budget passed on a 6-1 vote Wednesday night with Trustee Susan Wittrup casting the lone no and saying she couldn’t support a budget amidst the district’s current level of performance.

“As board members, we have a duty to provide oversight and to call out conditions that undermine the success of our students,” she said from the dais. “I remain concerned about our ability to execute initiatives at scale, the quality of leadership and adult performance in key areas, and a culture that too often rewards the wrong behavior.”

Fresno Unified spending has come under intense scrutiny as the district continues to battle budget deficits due to declining enrollment and low average daily attendance. Recently the district overcame a deficit which ballooned to $89.5 million. This year’s budget is $1.66 billion, down from a high of $2.3 billion for the 2023-2024 school year.

To stay afloat, Fresno Unified has scaled down reserve levels, authorized an early retirement incentive, and eliminated hundreds of positions. This includes an overall decrease of 172 teaching positions due to elimination or retirement.

Amidst this, the district has attempted to redirect funds towards its goals and guardrails, hoping to turn around decades of underperformance.

Trustees still held concerns surrounding contracts, third-party analyses, and low teacher pay, which they requested the district address.

Tensions Grow Among Trustees

Budget discussions brought seemingly long-standing concerns to light with Wittrup publicly accusing Superintendent Misty Her of “backroom deals.”

“Inputs into the system are ultimately the responsibility of the superintendent,” Wittrup said. “When those inputs are low quality, ineffective, poorly communicated, or compromised by favoritism and back-room deals that lead to the promotion of problem employees, student outcomes will not improve.”

The comment created a tense atmosphere,  but Her did not respond.

However, at the end of the meeting, Board President Veva Islas took time to call out Wittrup, saying that trustees’ comments and critiques should remain respectful and civil.

“It is very hard to come back from comments that accuse people of making backroom deals,” Islas said. “I am hoping that we can find improved ways to communicate things that we’re dissatisfied about as colleagues.”

Islas emphasized the importance of calling out shortcomings in order to become more successful, but clearly thought there were better ways to do so.

Fresno Unified Projections Look Up

The ending of one-time pandemic era grants coupled with falling average daily attendance has led to a string of budget shortfalls for Fresno Unified.

However, new projections are less daunting with deficits significantly decreasing thanks to the state granting an additional $33 million in ongoing unrestricted funding and roughly $19.5 million in one-time funds to Fresno Unified.

The district predicts $23.29 million in reductions next year, a big improvement from the previously predicted $55 million. And the 2027-28 deficit is projected to fall from $16.48 million to $5.78 million.

Still, producing a balanced budget in coming years will require tapping district reserves — dipping below 5% during the 2028-29 school year.

California requires school districts to maintain a minimum 2% reserve level in the General Fund. Comparatively, Clovis Unified, which is gaining students, has a 15.44% reserve.

Trustees unanimously approved the Local Control Accountability Plan, a three-year plan that outlines goals and expenditures. The LCAP targeted academic achievement, social-emotional learning, operational excellence, and equity multiplier.

Fresno Unified Moves into Bargaining

The district’s chief financial officer, Patrick Jensen, has previously said that the district, while making gains, is not yet in the clear financially.

District leaders are heading into what is expected to be tough bargaining with FTA. In October 2023, the district avoided a threatened teachers strike at the last minute after weeks of contentious public comments by both sides.

“There’s going to be asks for additional salary. There’s going to be asks for additional benefits. And there’s going to be an ask to preserve jobs,” Patrick Jensen said during a previous meeting. “Unfortunately, with the revenue stream we currently have, we cannot full fund all three of those.”

FTA President Manuel Bonilla questioned if the district was directing every dollar towards student impact and support.

“We are we willing to work with the district in regard to any items. Absolutely. But we’ve already worked with them,” he told GV Wire. “And in the meantime, in the last few years, they have spent a lot of money that they didn’t have to spend and has gotten us into some of these situations.

Bonilla hopes the district will listen and take meaningful steps to change behavior, the structure, and systems of support. The union is also pushing for smaller class sizes and workloads for special education workers alongside higher levels of accountability for negative behaviors that are disruptive to the classroom.

The last time Fresno teachers went on strike was in 1978.

Trustees Request More Equitable Pay Structures for Staff

Trustees Elizabeth Jonasson Rosas and Islas requested more equitable pay structures, looking to boost the district’s lowest paid employees.

“I know that we have staff who are often working two jobs to make ends meet,” Islas said. “At what point would we have the ability to explore a potential increase to our lowest paid staff?”

The district has provided percentage pay rises to all employees annually for the last three years, as previously negotiated with the FTA. However, raises based on a percentage actually increase the pay gaps among employees.

Looking forward, the district could explore alternate methods of pay raises, Jensen said.

For example, the district could do a fixed pay raise across the district, which would help shrink expanding pay gap.

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