FRESNO, Calif. (FOX26) \u2014 Fresno Unified School District trustees have put a $5.7 million agreement with the Fresno Police Department on hold as they question the cost and role of police officers on school campuses.<\/p>\n
The district was asking trustees Wednesday to ratify a one-year agreement with the City of Fresno for 26 School Resource Officers at 26 school sites.<\/p>\n
The agreement runs from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2027, and totals $5,729,706, according to district documents. The money is available through Fresno Unified’s Safety & Security Department budget.<\/p>\n
Instead of voting to ratify the agreement, trustees moved to table the item to allow more time for questions about the contract and the district’s spending.<\/p>\n
Parents question cost of police on campus<\/p>\n
Several community members also questioned the agreement during public comment.<\/p>\n
FUSD trustee candidate Riley Talford argued the nearly $6 million expenditure reflects a broader decision about where the district puts its resources.<\/p>\n
“Spending $5 million dollars a year on police contracts is a values decision,” Talford said. “It chooses enforcement capacity over prevention capacity.”<\/p>\n
FUSD parent Sandra Celadon questioned why the school district should pay the police department for officers assigned to its campuses.<\/p>\n
“As parents and as taxpayers we should not be doubly taxed for services that are already provided and are already paid for,” Celadon said.<\/p>\n
Others questioned whether having police officers on campus makes students safer.<\/p>\n
Christina Holmes McIntyre, co-founder of the Fresno Community Parent Coalition, pointed to research she said shows SROs do not increase campus safety.<\/p>\n
“The DOJ has several different research reports that show that the presence of SROs on campuses do not increase safety,” Holmes McIntyre said.<\/p>\n
Former Fresno SRO says officers provide more than emergency response<\/p>\n
Retired Fresno Police Officer Melody Hughes sees the issue differently.<\/p>\n
Hughes spent 16 years with the Fresno Police Department, including 11 years as the School Resource Officer at Edison High School.<\/p>\n
When she retired in 2022, Edison students and staff held a rally in her honor.<\/p>\n
Hughes told FOX26 that having an officer already on campus can make a difference when a dangerous situation develops.<\/p>\n
She recalled receiving a call from a parent who reported seeing someone with a gun riding a bicycle in front of Edison High.<\/p>\n
“Myself and my probation officer immediately responded to the front, and then found the kid on the bike, got him, got the gun away from his waistband, and it was loaded,” Hughes said.<\/p>\n
Hughes also argues an SRO’s value cannot be measured only by arrests or emergency responses.<\/p>\n
She said spending years at the same school allowed her to build relationships with students who might otherwise distrust law enforcement.<\/p>\n
“Some kids don’t trust police officers on the street,” Hughes said. “Although you’re still the same police officer, you’re working in the school. They constantly see you on a day-to-day basis.”<\/p>\n
Fresno Police responds<\/p>\n
In a statement to FOX26, the Fresno Police Department defended its partnership with Fresno Unified and the role of officers on campuses.<\/p>\n
“A strong partnership between the Fresno Police Department and the Fresno Unified School District demonstrates that we are united in protecting the students and staff in our schools,” the department said.<\/p>\n
FPD said student safety is essential to a productive learning environment and that having a trusted officer on campus plays an important role in overall school security.<\/p>\n
The department said it looks forward to continuing to work with Fresno Unified to keep schools safe.<\/p>\n
Fresno Unified has debated SROs before<\/p>\n
The debate over police officers on Fresno Unified campuses is not new.<\/p>\n
In 2021, a Fresno State research team surveyed Fresno Unified students, parents and staff as the district considered the future of its SRO program.<\/p>\n
Most parents and staff who participated supported keeping officers on campuses. Students surveyed overwhelmingly reported they would feel unsafe if police officers were removed from their schools.<\/p>\n
Five years later, trustees are again weighing the role of SROs, this time as the district faces a nearly $6 million agreement and broader budget pressures.<\/p>\n
Other Valley districts continue SRO programs<\/p>\n
FOX26 also reviewed SRO programs in several other Central Valley school districts and found multiple examples of districts continuing or renewing agreements.<\/p>\n
Merced Union High School District has four full-time SROs, with an agreement extended through 2029.<\/p>\n
Porterville Unified renewed an agreement for four SROs for the 2025-26 school year, while Madera Unified continues to have three dedicated SROs.<\/p>\n
Six SROs also serve schools in the Tulare area, including Tulare Union, Tulare Western and Mission Oak.<\/p>\n
Outside the Valley, some California districts have taken a different approach.<\/p>\n
Natomas Unified School District, near Sacramento, recently ended its SRO arrangement with the Sacramento Police Department. The district, which serves about 16,600 students at 21 schools, has moved to a different school-safety model.<\/p>\n
Fresno Unified trustees have not yet made a final decision on the $5.7 million Fresno Police agreement. The item was tabled to allow additional questions to be answered before trustees vote on whether to ratify it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRESNO, Calif. (FOX26) \u2014 Fresno Unified School District trustees have put a $5.7 million agreement with the Fresno…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":460298,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-460297","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\/460297","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=460297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}