![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GVWire-Ad-Get-our-mobile-app-1280x90-1-1.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nEveryone there needed to hear from the superintendent. She approved the transfers, and the buck stops at her desk.<\/p>\n
![\"Image](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/BILL-NEW-PROFILE-IMAGE-150x150.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
By Bill McEwen
Opinion<\/p>\n
Instead, she left the district\u2019s seven trustees twisting in the wind, absorbing complaints and criticism from people who are passionate about their children\u2019s education and from educators deeply invested in Fresno Unified.<\/p>\n
This was the kind of passion that people hoping and working toward Fresno Unified\u2019s rebound want to see. The kind of passion that needs to be converted into more parent participation and closer attention to student learning.<\/p>\n
And wouldn\u2019t it be fantastic if the district had a principal and VP at every school respected, beloved, and seen as indispensable?<\/p>\n
Superintendent\u2019s Silent Message: Tough Luck, See You in August<\/p>\n
But what did the superintendent do? Nothing. As a result, parents and educators went home unsatisfied. The superintendent\u2019s silent message: The decision has been made, tough luck, we\u2019ll see you back in August (except for the 500 to 1,000 students whose parents will move out of the district.)<\/p>\n
A few leadership transfers happen every year and a reasonable person would expect the number to rise given that 14 principals and 11 VPs are retiring, many taking advantage of an early retirement incentive intended to reduce the district\u2019s budget deficit.<\/p>\n
However, given the district\u2019s challenges, there needed to be better planning and improved communication with stakeholders.<\/p>\n
Raw Deal for Leavenworth<\/p>\n
One glaring example of the poor planning: reassignments at Leavenworth Elementary School in southeast Fresno. Two years ago, according to a letter signed by 30 educators there, the \u201cschool went through a difficult administrative change that disrupted our community. Our current administrative team provides vital foundation that allows our students and educators to thrive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, Leavenworth resumes the spin cycle \u2014 the one constant being more change at the top.<\/p>\n
Instead of Her speaking for the district, it was left to Dr. Marie Williams, the associate superintendent of school performance, to face the media.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just sort of had this landscape where there was an opportunity for us to try and balance out teams,\u201d she said. \u201cSites that lost both of their folks, somebody retired or was promoted, there was an opportunity to balance out those teams to respond to the needs of our community.\u201d<\/p>\n
School Board President Veva Islas echoed those points as well. Unlike the superintendent, she and Williams acknowledged the need for district leaders to communicate better with the public.<\/p>\n
Another trustee, Susan Wittrup, criticized the administration\u2019s failure to execute the reassignment plan and was the lone board member to publicly oppose it.<\/p>\n
Confront and Solve Challenges, Don\u2019t Duck Them<\/p>\n
In tough situations, such as those faced regularly by Fresno Unified, virtually every big decision results in unhappy people. However, success in tough situations requires strong, inspired, we\u2019re-all-in-it-together leadership.<\/p>\n
The superintendent should have addressed the public Wednesday night, thanked them for caring, explained the thinking behind the moves, and promised to do better next time.<\/p>\n
She certainly should not have delegated a subordinate to defend the plan. And she certainly shouldn\u2019t have left it up to the board president to explain the district\u2019s reasoning.<\/p>\n
As the meeting made abundantly clear, the superintendent\u2019s \u201choneymoon\u201d period with the community is over. It\u2019s time for Her to step up and tackle challenges head-on \u2014 not hide from them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Facing a major leadership test this week, Fresno Unified Superintendent Misty Her ducked the assignment. Instead of publicly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":367564,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-367563","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\/367563","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=367563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}