County leader to Fresno Unified trustees: Next superintendent must be great | Opinion
From my vantage point, it is imperative that the Fresno Unified School District trustees choose the absolute best superintendent to lead the district forward.
I don’t have any children in Fresno Unified, so you might ask, “Why do you care, Brandau?” That answer is easy: Everything we do in a community like ours — every big win, every heart-wrenching statistic — is connected to the education of our children. Crime … connected. Poverty … connected. Homelessness … well you get the point.
Now for the elephant in the room: not everybody can go to Clovis Unified. Please don’t shoot the messenger, but this is the thing we don’t like to talk about, but always talk about. This is not about debating district differences; it is about cold hard facts. We need to demand excellence of Fresno Unified. The students deserve it, the parents long for it and the whole community needs it.
Opinion
The next opportunity to require excellence is in the selection of a new superintendent which the Fresno Unified trustees are grappling with right now. Pressures are likely coming from every direction. When there is a big decision that includes money and power, everybody wants a piece of you. This is too important to screw up.
Finding the right person to fill outgoing Superintendent Bob Nelson’s shoes starts with a good process. I hope the trustees will do a thorough, open-minded search for strong candidates.
Maybe that person is local. Clovis Unified just went through the same process and chose a local person in Superintendent Corrine Folmer, and early indicators are it was a great choice. But that shouldn’t stop the Fresno Unified Trustees from a statewide search for good candidates. They must have a pool of accomplished candidates to choose from in order to make the best choice, a superintendent who can lead the great teachers and staff forward and someone whom parents can trust to make sure their kids are getting the best.
Oh, and getting students at appropriate reading levels. None of this is too much to ask.
Fresno County is one of the fastest-growing counties in California. We have great challenges, but we also have many blessings. Corporations from across the country and around the world have their eye on us. They want to locate here. They want to set up shop right in the middle of the 40 million customers that make California their home. Those businesses need space, and they need an educated workforce.
My colleagues and I at the Fresno County Board of Supervisors are working on the space, and we need Fresno Unified to be working on the educated workforce. Together, we need to plan for these good things to happen.
Right now, we need Fresno Unified trustees to make the best choice possible in the next superintendent. It’s imperative!
Steve Brandau is a Fresno County supervisor representing the north-central part of the county.
