The preschool class at Roosevelt High School.
Fresno Unified School District
Fresno Unified is closing 19 preschool classes at various locations due to a loss of $7 million in state funding.
The closure is part of the 274 layoffs pending in Fresno Unified as the district faces a current deficit of $77 million and a projected deficit of $59 million for the following year.
Ninteen preschool teachers, 21 resource counselors, along with preschool program managers, paraeducators, are among the certified and classified employees whose positions will be cut at the end of this school year, according to the layoff proposal district staff presented to the governing board Wednesday night.
“They said that our site will be closed, and that’s basically it,” said Valerie Velasquez, a paraeducator at Birney Elementary. “They did not say whether we’ll be moved to somewhere else or if they’re gonna lay us off completely.”
Carlos Castillo, Fresno Unified’s chief academic officer, said the district previously received a fixed amount, approximately $24 million annually, in state funding for the preschool program. The state revised its funding distribution method to calculate allocations based on enrollment, which will result in a $7 million funding decrease for next school year, Castillo said.
Castillo said the district eliminated classes with insufficient student enrollment.
“In some places, we have maybe 10 kids in our class, and we can’t afford it,” Castillo said.
The three-hour preschool program in Fresno Unified, which accepts children as young as 2 years and 9 months old, has expanded significantly over the past decade. Some secondary school sites also hold preschool classes, Castillo said.
“Now we’re going back to some of the schools not having them, and we’re trying to prioritize the elementary sites, because it makes sense to be at the elementary,” Castillo said. “Some of the secondary sites, like Duncan and others, are being closed for different reasons.”
The district does not rule out the possibility of reopening the preschool sites if enrollment increases, Castillo said.
Districtwide, there are 1,600 kids currently attending preschools, said Marie Williams, Fresno Unified’s instructional superintendent. No current students will be impacted by the closure, Castillo said, since transitional kindergarten has expanded to all 4-year-olds by this school year in California.
Families residing in areas where preschools are closing should enroll their children in nearby preschools, district officials said.
“Some schools, like Norseman Elementary and Erickson Elementary, are five blocks away, so we strategically did that so our families wouldn’t have to be burdened with having to drive across town,” Castillo said. “They just have to go a little farther to find the ones that are not closed.”
Eight of the 19 preschool teachers who are facing layoff are retiring, according to Williams. The district is trying to reassign the 11 teachers to other assignments.
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Leqi Zhong is the Clovis accountability/enterprise reporter for The Bee. She is a graduate of UC Berkeley with a Master’s degree in journalism. She joined The Bee in 2023 as an education reporter. Leqi grew up in China and is native in Cantonese and Mandarin.