Eagle Era

The Board of Education received updates on several of the district’s education, financial, and infrastructure priorities

Rohan Bhagra

As the district approaches the end of the school year, Wednesday, May 14th’s Board of Education meeting featured a wide variety of updates on key FUSD initiatives, including sustainability measures and the Board’s push for a new parcel tax.

District staff began its presentation to the Board on sustainability updates by recognizing the ongoing tree-planting project at several school sites. Jeremey Scheinder, FUSD’s Operations and Grounds Supervisor, said that a CalFire urban forestry grant has allowed the district to undertake a project of increasing tree coverage throughout the district, starting at several elementary schools.

These efforts, among others presented in the meeting, are part of the district’s push towards embracing leadership in climate education. “Fremont was one of the first districts in the state to pass such resolutions,” Corey Brown, the Director of Curriculum and Instruction and former AHS English teacher, said. “Were doing things that we think will make our community a healthier place for our kids, and then kids are going home and taking what they learned about recycling; they are not just doing it at their school site, but it’s infiltrating its way into their houses and hopefully into their lives.”

To illustrate the success of the initiative to teach students to apply climate lessons in their daily lives, district staff invited representatives from Eco Innovate, a student-run group from Irvington High School placing bird boxes in FUSD elementary school sites, to present their mission to the board. Pooja Verma, a member of the group’s executive team and Irvington High School junior, said that Eco Innovate is working with science specialists at elementary schools to implement the bird boxes, which are designed to teach interactively about the impacts of climate change on bird species in classroom curriculum.

Several trustees applauded this commitment to sustainability practices and climate-related education, even in the midst of an uncertain budget situation. Dianne Jones, the Vice President of the Board, said, “It has never seemed appropriate to create a whole new (sustainability) department when we are in the middle of budget reductions, but I feel like what these climate initiatives have done is created a sustainability department and that’s not a name we give or a title we’ve given to any of you. I’m just so grateful for the incredible work all of you have taken on to make this happen.”

The second half of the meeting transitioned to the district’s fiscal management. First, the Citizens’ Bond Oversight Committee, a legally-mandated committee, provided updates on infrastructure progress made with the Measure E and Measure M bonds. While the committee shared concern that changes in federal tariffs and immigration policy could increase costs and disrupt projects, it presented a largely positive outlook.

Another financial matter, enacting a new parcel tax, was discussed as one of the meeting’s final items. Due to the expiration in Measure I funds, decreasing enrollment, and possible budget cuts stemming from federal actions, the Board has begun to pursue the possibility of a new parcel tax measure. On May 14th’s meeting, it received a preliminary presentation from the Lew Edwards group, a consulting firm, on pathways to implement a parcel tax.

Board trustees weighed the two pathways—citizen-led and district-led—to implement the tax and discussed the support it may receive. “We’ve had a very challenging year. We are only funded at 74% of the state average in per-ADA revenue. Our district is comparatively underfunded, significantly and chronically,” said Trustee Jones. “I wish that the state would fund us in a way that allows us to not ask our communities to increase their own taxes.”

Members of Eco Innovate displayed their bird box and fielded questions on its technical aspects from Trustee Prasad. “Obviously increasing climate education has become more and more important and it’s really important to educate the next generation about it, which is why we’re trying to reach out to so many schools,” said Verma (Photo Credit: Rohan Bhagra (12))