“Broke and Broken” was the headline of a special section in the Fresno Bee last year. The headline portrayed the region’s entrenched unemployment, but it might well have portrayed the condition of the Fresno Unified School District. As painful as it is, as unfair as that portrayal might be to some schools within the District which are performing admirably, the fact is that, academically and financially, FUSD is broken. We must face up to the truth in order to work together to create a new truth.
In July 2004, shortly after being appointed interim Superintendent for Fresno Unified School District, Dr. Walt Buster asked a group of citizens to conduct an independent assessment of the District. It was Dr. Buster’s perception that a high level of mistrust had developed between different stakeholders in the community who were all crucial to building a successful future of FUSD, and that restoration of trust might be facilitated by an independent evaluation of the District, carried out by a group of civic leaders with a passion for education and a track record of collaborative problem-solving. The group that was assembled, nine people with diverse backgrounds, became known as the Superintendent’s Advisory Task Force (“the Task Force”). A short bio of each of the Task Force members is included in Appendix “A”.
Shortly after the formation of the Task Force, Dr. Buster concluded that the District’s budget was out of balance and could not be balanced without serious jeopardy to the children of the District. This, in turn, resulted in assignment by the County Superintendent of Education of a Fiscal Management Crisis Assistance Team (FCMAT) as a Fiscal Advisor to help develop a District budget in compliance with the standards and criteria of the State Board of Education.
The Task Force might have chosen to await the results of the FCMAT report before conducting its work, but concluded instead that producing a balanced budget was only part of the solution to the problems of the District. In fact, the Task Force concluded that the shape of a sound, balanced budget required that the community first reach consensus on the academic performance goals of the District. In a school district where over 50% of the schools are in the bottom “decile” (lowest 10%) of the State in terms of academic performance, it is imperative that all resources be directed to improvement in student achievement. That, after all, is the mission of the District; and the obligation of the Board and Superintendent is to ensure that all resources, human and capital, are aligned in support of this objective.
It is important to state early in this report that the Task Force has seen plenty of evidence during the course of its work, that the overwhelming majority of employees of the District – teachers, support staff and administrators – are dedicated and hard-working people who care deeply about our children and our community. Indeed, we have seen many instances of heroic dedication on the part of teachers, classified workers and administrators. It is, however, much harder to guide a boat when not everyone is rowing in the same direction. At the end of the day, everyone is exhausted, but the boat hasn’t gone anywhere, which doesn’t do much for morale. What has been lacking in the District has been alignment behind an agreed set of goals and strategies.
The preceding paragraphs are not intended to downplay the urgency of addressing the fiscal situation of the District, but rather to ensure that the fiscal fix is arrived at in the context of an unrelenting focus on student achievement. As will be discussed later in this report, the threat of a State take-over is real and imminent. FUSD’s opportunity to fix its academic achievement issues will be foregone if it does not promptly get its fiscal house in order.
The Task Force, therefore, defined its mission as follows:
- Recommend student achievement goals and success indicators for consideration by the board, administration, teachers and all other community stakeholders.
- Recommend instructional and operational strategies to achieve the goals.
- Recommend human resource policies and organizational approaches that support the goals and strategies.
- Recommend budget and financial management strategies that create a clear nexus between the District’s goals and strategies and the use of financial resources
- Recommend engagement strategies for all stakeholders in the District and community.
The Task Force is convinced that we can not only turn the District around and avoid a State take-over but that we can once again take our place among the highest performing school districts in the State. Our hopeful outlook is based on the commitment to change expressed by the new leadership of the District; the unprecedented spirit of collaboration from all stakeholders that is emerging as we face this crisis; and, most of all, the quality of our employees. Despite the present crisis, we have a strong base from which to build. If we are to bring about beneficial change for the children who will be attending the District’s schools in the 2005-06 school year, the budget must be produced in February 2005, which requires that the process of aligning goals and strategies be completed by January 2005.
It will take some difficult fiscal decisions to get us where we want to go. Our Task Force is committed to the notion that those decisions should be aimed at creating a teaching environment that enables our teachers to do the best possible job of exercising their passion for teaching our children. That is priority one.