{"id":282686,"date":"2026-04-23T21:57:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T21:57:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/282686\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T21:57:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T21:57:11","slug":"fresno-unified-trustees-debate-board-jurisdiction-on-seda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/282686\/","title":{"rendered":"Fresno Unified trustees debate board jurisdiction on SEDA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fresno Unified board members are split over whether they should take a public position on the Southeast Development Area (SEDA) plan<\/a> backed by Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer.<\/p>\n

At Wednesday\u2019s board meeting, board President Veva Islas called for a vote to oppose SEDA, which the district projects would result in enrollment declines for Fresno Unified. Trustees were scheduled to vote in opposition of the plan in February before they narrowly decided not to take a position at the last minute.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the board approved a proposal by Trustee Elizabeth Jonasson Rosas that amended the board\u2019s bylaws to limit advocacy to issues \u201cwithin the subject matter of the school district.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wednesday evening\u2019s board discussion came weeks before the board is expected to vote again whether to take a public stance on SEDA, a 9,000-acre mega-development project in southeast Fresno that district officials fear could worsen Fresno Unified\u2019s declining enrollment.<\/p>\n

In February, when SEDA first appeared on the board\u2019s agenda, Jonasson Rosas and Trustees Claudia Cazares, Susan Wittrup and Keshia Thomas voted to table the item, reasoning that taking opposition on a city\u2019s development plan fell outside the school district\u2019s jurisdiction.<\/p>\n

According to a Fresnoland report,<\/a> Dyer texted each trustee the night before the February board meeting, pressuring them not to interfere with the development plan. Recently, Islas said that she would bring back the item for a second vote.<\/p>\n

Jonasson Rosas said her proposal aims to \u201c put the guardrail of things that are within our purview, that are focused on our student outcomes, schools, guardrails, and student outcome-focused governance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trustee Claudia Cazares agreed on the motion, stating that a legislative committee was originally established to monitor the impact of state and federal laws on the school district.<\/p>\n

Their suggestions were opposed by board President Veva Islas and Clerk Andy Levine, two of the three members of the Board Bylaw Subcommittee. The committee is among several that consist of trustees appointed by the board president to bring recommendations to the full board for action.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t be in support of making a specific subject matter,\u201d Levine said. \u201cFor instance, in terms of state legislation, we\u2019ve weighed in on several bills around immigration enforcement that are not in the educational subject matter per se, but definitely we\u2019ve weighed in because they have a direct threat and impact on our students in our schools.\u201d<\/p>\n

Islas criticized the intent of the motion, saying it will undercut the board\u2019s ability to weigh in on local issues that would directly impact student safety, welfare and the fiscal solvency of the district.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s to tie our hands around things that some members of this board do not want to vote on or take action on,\u201d Islas said. \u201cI think if the worry was about the advocacy of the Legislative Committee acting without consent of the board, then I\u2019m fine to adjust that. But I don\u2019t think what we can discuss, what we choose to advocate for, what we hope to bring forward to the broader board for support should be restricted in any way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jonasson Rosas\u2019s motion to define the Legislative Committee\u2019s jurisdiction as \u201cpurview of Fresno Unified,\u201d as well as clarifying that the governing board has \u201cultimate authority,\u201d was approved by a 5-2 vote, with Islas and Levine opposed.<\/p>\n

Islas told The Bee that the data is not yet available to show the impact of the development plan on Fresno Unified, but a presentation will be provided in May before the board decides whether Superintendent Misty Her could speak on the issue publicly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing that prevents me as an individual board member from making comments at the city council meeting, but it\u2019s entirely different to mobilize staff and to educate parents about what\u2019s happening,\u201d Islas said. \u201cWhen the district adopts it, we\u2019ll be in a more strength-based position to educate our community, so that they may want to participate in discussions at the city level, being armed with information about how it will negatively impact the district.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story was originally published April 23, 2026 at 11:09 AM.<\/p>\n

Related Stories from Fresno Bee<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Leqi Zhong<\/a><\/p>\n

The Fresno Bee<\/p>\n

Leqi Zhong is the Clovis accountability\/enterprise reporter for The Bee. She is a graduate of UC Berkeley with a Master\u2019s 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.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fresno Unified board members are split over whether they should take a public position on the Southeast Development…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282687,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-282686","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\/282686","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=282686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}