A citizens committee that probed Fresno Unified's academic and fiscal ills says that the school district is "broken" but can be fixed through cohesive planning, community collaboration and taking a cue from similar districts that faced dire troubles but made dramatic turnarounds.

The preliminary report from the nine-member group established by interim Superintendent Walt Buster lays out recommendations that wed academic and budget matters, though the district's financial problems could lead to a state takeover.
"The issues are intertwined," said Peter Weber, a retired businessman and co-chairman of the task force. "We think it's fundamental we address those academic issues first so that we know how we want to organize our fiscal resources to support the achievement of our educational issues."

Weber and other members are scheduled to discuss the report at a news conference today in the district's Education Center, at Tulare and M streets.

On Thursday, district trustees will discuss the report — called "Choosing Our Future, A Community-wide Call to Action" — and 36 main recommendations. That meeting starts at 5 p.m. in the Education Center.

The task force proposes that four town hall meetings be held by Jan. 13. After receiving more input, the group plans to issue a final report by the end of January.

The recommendations to help the Fresno Unified School District include establishing a district health benefits trust fund, to be co-managed by the administration and the employee unions.

Last week, the state Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team outlined the district's budget problems and identified rising expenses in health benefits as one of the reasons Fresno Unified is in financial trouble.

Officials for the district and the unions are trying to negotiate changes.

Last month, representatives for the Fresno Teachers Association said the union's ideas include setting up a trust fund.

The report also recommends the district should "fully recognize the unfunded retiree liability" and work with the Fresno County Office of Education and other parties on a plan as soon as possible to deal with it.

"This is the most important long-term issue affecting the fiscal future of the district," the report says. "As stated in the FCMAT report, 'Eventually, the district's net assets could be entirely enveloped by this liability.'"

Chuck McCully, who takes over as the interim superintendent in January, said the report is impressive because it's driven by data, research and information from visits to other school districts.

"That really gives us a blueprint for the future," McCully said. "Not only does it identify the problems and the issues, it puts forth some outstanding recommendations. That's the finest piece of work I have ever seen come out of a task force."

He and other district leaders said that the task force document coupled with the FCMAT report will help detail a recovery plan.
"What I like are the two reports together," said trustee Luisa Medina. "The FCMAT report and this report really lay the framework by which we need to move forward with the best practices for high-performing school districts."

Fresno Unified has a long climb ahead to make changes that produce results.

FCMAT estimates the district, which made $77.45 million in cuts the past four years, must chop $39.4 million in 2005-06. The district in 2004-05 is operating on an $880 million budget.

If the district makes no changes, it will run out of money to pay bills and cover payroll by March or April 2006, which could trigger the embarrassing prospect of a state takeover.

Fresno Unified — when compared with eight California school districts similar in size and demographics plus Clovis Unified — had the highest percentage of schools in the state's bottom 10% of the Academic Performance Index, which is based on state test results.

Besides Clovis, task force members looked at data from the similar districts of Garden Grove, Long Beach, Oakland, San Juan, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Bernardino and Santa Ana.

The report cited Long Beach and Garden Grove as districts that have posted significant improvements. The Long Beach superintendent told task force members it used a "blitzkrieg approach" because a sequential plan would have taken too long.
"The task force agrees with that view," the report says. "The problems of FUSD are so interconnected that progress will be difficult, if not impossible, unless we attack the various contributors of the problem concurrently."

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

The Superintendent's Advisory Task Force members are co-chairmen Peter Weber, retired businessman, and Kurt Madden, executive director of One by One Leadership, a faith-based group working on community renewal; Deborah Nankivell, executive director of the Fresno Business Council; James Aldredge, former Fresno city manager; Nancy Richardson, former Fresno Unified trustee and now a consultant to future interim Superintendent Chuck McCully; Kathy Bray, board chairwoman for the Greater Fresno Area Chamber of Commerce; businessman Lee Schultz; Roy Mendiola, who oversees after-school programs as director of Fresno CORAL; and Sarah Woolf, chief of staff for Rep. Cal Dooley, D-Fresno.
The 36 main recommendations include:

• Primary district goals, such as that students in the district five years or longer will meet grade-level proficiency in core academic subjects as measured by the California Standards Test and the district will reduce its dropout rate.

• Selecting "core" curriculum, textbooks, intervention programs and English language development programs to be uniformly adopted by all district schools.

• A uniform professional staff development program.

• Developing a plan to improve attendance.

• Developing a plan to increase parent involvement.

• Establishing a variety of committees to develop plans or review for specific areas, such as technology and academic performance.

• Submitting by March 1 a balanced 2005-06 budget and a preliminary balanced budget for 2006-07.

• Establishing a district health benefits trust fund to be co-managed by the administration and the unions.

• Increasing class sizes by one or more students over the current school year, but allowing schools the discretion to reduce class size through use of "categorical" funds.

• Developing a plan with the Fresno County Office of Education to fully fund its currently unfunded $41 million workers' compensation liability.