FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) — Fresno Unified School District has secured funding to restore several centrally funded student field trips for the upcoming school year after plans to eliminate them sparked backlash from parents, educators and community members.<\/p>\n
District leaders announced Thursday that the Foundation for Fresno Unified Students will contribute $1.5 million to preserve the programs for one year.<\/p>\n
“Thanks to the generosity of the Foundation for Fresno Unified Students, our children will continue to have these opportunities this year,” Superintendent Misty Her said.<\/p>\n
The funding comes after Fresno Unified announced that popular experiences, including trips to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and sixth-grade camp, would be cut amid ongoing budget challenges.<\/p>\n
The decision drew swift criticism, prompting parents, teachers and community members to organize petitions and demand answers from district leaders.<\/p>\n
“This is a community win because parents, teachers, and community members stepped up, and they said no to the district,” said Fresno Teachers Association President Manuel Bonilla. “They said this item, field trips, is important.”<\/p>\n
Bonilla credited public pressure for helping preserve the trips but said significant questions remain about how the district communicated the cuts and explained the funding shortfall.<\/p>\n
“I think any layperson looking at the timeline should have some concern,” Bonilla said. “The district tells principals and parents that there’s no money for field trips. Then, when we bring attention to it, they say that the reason for that is because they were cut because of COVID funds, despite documents showing that they’ve been funded for the last 10 years.”<\/p>\n
Some parents said they first learned about the cuts from their children rather than directly from the district. During Thursday’s meeting, Her acknowledged those concerns and apologized.<\/p>\n
“I take full responsibility. It is not how I want Fresno Unified to operate, and we will learn from this experience,” she said.<\/p>\n
District officials spent much of the meeting responding to what they described as misinformation surrounding field trip funding and the district’s budget.<\/p>\n
Chief Financial Officer Patrick Jensen disputed claims that Fresno Unified promised field trip funding in its Local Control and Accountability Plan, or LCAP, and then removed it.<\/p>\n
“You can see there’s a reduction, but you can also see that the 2.3 million dollars stated in the LCAP, those funds are still there,” Jensen said.<\/p>\n
Jensen explained that some field trip programs had been supplemented with federal COVID-19 relief funding that has now expired. Combined with declining enrollment, he said, those financial realities forced the district to reconsider expenses.<\/p>\n
“We try to keep those cuts as far away from kids in classrooms as we can, but eventually, you know, something has to give,” Jensen said.<\/p>\n
Bonilla challenged that explanation, arguing district financial documents show field trips were funded through the general fund long before the pandemic.<\/p>\n
“Any COVID money that they may have used would be an enhancement to it, but it wouldn’t have impacted the fundamental component that our public said that they wanted, and that is the TK through sixth grade field trips,” he said.<\/p>\n
Bonilla also questioned why the district needed a foundation donation if the funding identified in district planning documents remained available.<\/p>\n
“If it was supposed to be funded by the school site, and supposedly the money is there, then why the need for the foundation to come in and pay the additional money?” Bonilla said. “A lot of questions still need to be answered.”<\/p>\n
Despite those disagreements, both district leaders and union representatives celebrated the restoration of the trips for the coming year.<\/p>\n
Still, officials cautioned that the solution is temporary.<\/p>\n
“Change is the new normal. As the district shrinks, more difficult decisions will be made,” Jensen said.<\/p>\n
Bonilla agreed that the issue is likely to return, noting that the foundation’s contribution covers only one school year.<\/p>\n
“This is one year, and although we’ll celebrate it for the year and for the win for our students that it is, we’re going to be back into the same idea within the next few months,” he said. “Transparency is important. Process is important. We need to get the answers to that.”<\/p>\n
District officials said the donation does not fully close the funding gap. Fresno Unified still needs approximately $700,000, which leaders say will come from repurposed funds and salary savings generated by currently vacant positions.<\/p>\n
For now, the district’s elementary students will retain access to the field trips, but questions about long-term funding and district decision-making are likely to continue.<\/p>\n
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