{"id":292170,"date":"2026-04-29T23:15:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T23:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/292170\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T23:15:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T23:15:07","slug":"central-unified-publicly-opposes-seda-mega-development-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/292170\/","title":{"rendered":"Central Unified publicly opposes SEDA mega\u2011development plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Central Unified school board voted Tuesday to oppose the Southeast Development Area (SEDA) plan<\/a> backed by Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer, making it the school district in the area to take a public stance on the mega-development plan.<\/p>\n

At Tuesday\u2019s board meeting, the district\u2019s seven trustees unanimously passed a resolution stating Central Unified\u2019s opposition to SEDA, and directed the district superintendent to actively participate in SEDA\u2019s public process, according to the resolution.<\/p>\n

The proposed development plan<\/a>, with a total estimated price tag of $4.3 billion, aims to build an estimated 45,000 homes on 9,000 acres in southeast Fresno. The plan is expected to worsen Fresno Unified\u2019s declining enrollment as the new housing developments would fall within the Clovis Unified and Sanger Unified\u2019s attendance boundaries.<\/p>\n

Central Unified, which operates schools in northwest and west Fresno, does not border the proposed SEDA site. But trustees said they oppose SEDA because the project conflicts with long-overdue needs \u2014 such as roads, facilities, parks and public transportation services \u2014 in communities west of Highway 99.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, there\u2019s a limited amount of taxpayer money. There\u2019s a limited amount of benefits that we as a community get, we as Fresno get, and this plan puts Central Unified, again, on the back burner for a different plan proposed in a different part that\u2019s even outside our city,\u201d said Trustee Jaspreet Sidhu. \u201cFamilies that Central Unified serves have waited long enough, and that equitable growth must begin where the need is greatest, not where the land is cheapest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trustee Nabil Kherfan acknowledged that California is in the midst of a housing crisis, but within Central Unified\u2019s service area, there\u2019s a community-led West Area Specific Plan, which was approved by the City of Fresno last fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the opportunity to do that same growth to fill Fresno housing needs here on the west side, smartly filling in the holes that have been left behind through leapfrog development,\u201d Kherfan said. \u201cI support this resolution because we need to see this kind of community-led development in Fresno.\u201d<\/p>\n

About a dozen residents and community members spoke at the board meeting in support of the resolution. They praised the Central Unified Board for taking a public stance on the plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are classrooms, teachers, entire school communities at risk,\u201d said April Henry, a west Fresno resident and leader of a community development nonprofit. \u201cAt the same time, we\u2019re talking about 9,000-acre development, larger than the size of Clovis, being built while our city is already financially stretched, completely boned out, and already struggling to maintain the infrastructure we have today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Central Unified\u2019s neighboring school district, Fresno Unified, which serves 68,000 students and will be directly impacted by SEDA, was supposed to vote on a public stance<\/a> on SEDA in February. But four board members chose to table the item, reasoning that taking an 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 Fresno Unified trustee the night before the February board meeting, pressuring them not to interfere with the development plan. Recently, Board President Veva Islas said that she would bring back the item for a second vote in May.<\/p>\n

Central Unified Trustee Naindeep Singh said he did not receive any communication from Dyer regarding the school district\u2019s resolution. Singh is finishing his second term on the Central Unified board, and he is running<\/a> for a seat on the Fresno City Council.<\/p>\n

Matthew Gillian, a resident of northwest Fresno, said he was deeply moved by the Central Unified\u2019s stand against SEDA that he attended the board meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m raising my son in the city of Fresno, and it\u2019s a shame that our school district hasn\u2019t shown the same courage that you guys have, because it\u2019s showing in our school system and showing in my son\u2019s daily education,\u201d Gillian said.<\/p>\n

Clovis Unified, which will benefit from the proposed SEDA, has no plan for the board to discuss or vote on a public stance on the development plan, according to district spokesperson Kelly Avants.<\/p>\n

This story was originally published April 29, 2026 at 2:54 PM.<\/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":"The Central Unified school board voted Tuesday to oppose the Southeast Development Area (SEDA) plan backed by Fresno…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292171,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-292170","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\/292170","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=292170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}