{"id":190005,"date":"2026-02-23T14:27:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T14:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/190005\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T14:27:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T14:27:07","slug":"debate-opens-this-week-around-potential-fresno-unified-layoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/190005\/","title":{"rendered":"Debate opens this week around potential Fresno Unified layoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\tWhat’s at stake?<\/p>\n

Fresno Unified\u2019s Board of Education weighs vote on job cuts and layoffs for employees, along with the district\u2019s first cellphone policy update since the flip-phone era.<\/p>\n

Fresno Unified\u2019s school board debates worker layoffs this week \u2014 which is just one of several major decisions the board faces Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The district\u2019s trustees will also vote on a new districtwide phone policy<\/a>, and formally declaring their opposition<\/a> to the city\u2019s Southeast Development Area (SEDA) plan.<\/p>\n

The FUSD board of education will vote on possible job cuts and layoffs for classified<\/a> and certificated<\/a> employees for 2026\/27 school year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The district could not immediately confirm the number of expected cuts or layoffs on the table Wednesday.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Currently, the district projects a deficit of $59 million for the 2026\/27 school year. Classified workers for the district represented by SEIU Local 251 urged the board against hiring freezes and layoffs at the Feb. 11 school board meeting<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The district\u2019s classified workers have noted that any job or pay cuts would be particularly hard to swallow on the heels of the Board recently doubling their own take-home pay.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As the state\u2019s third largest district, Fresno Unified becomes the latest big California district<\/a> to grapple with budget cuts<\/a> amid declining enrollment and revenue losses.<\/p>\n

The district\u2019s new phone policy follows a state law requiring school districts, charter schools and county offices of education to create and adopt new phone policies by July 1. Passed in 2024<\/a>, the state law requires policies that limit or prohibit the use of smartphones by students while at school or in class.<\/p>\n

The new policy replaces the district\u2019s previous policy, which was adopted in 2002 and last revised in 2004.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to AJ Kato, the district\u2019s communications manager, the new policy restricts phone use in classrooms with certain legally-required exceptions, including individualized student education plans and emergencies.<\/p>\n

\u201cSchool sites have flexibility to adopt stricter rules based on campus needs,\u201d Kato said via email.<\/p>\n

On top of the layoffs and phone policy revision, the school board\u2019s consent agenda this week also contains a resolution to formally oppose the city of Fresno\u2019s SEDA plan.<\/p>\n

The resolution draft says that the original proposal for SEDA would cause populations to move away from existing neighborhoods and schools.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This redistribution of families from SEDA, according to the resolution, would exacerbate current declining enrollment, potentially increase per-student operating costs and cause reductions to staff and student supports in the district.<\/p>\n

On top of formally opposing SEDA in its original form, the board\u2019s resolution urges the city to reconsider, revise or delay SEDA until its impacts on schools are mitigated and addressed.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What’s at stake? Fresno Unified\u2019s Board of Education weighs vote on job cuts and layoffs for employees, along…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95385,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-190005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}