What challenges will Clovis schools face this upcoming school year? Here’s what we know
The city of Clovis has grown and diversified over the past decade. This growth, and resulting changes in the community, are reflected in the school district’s student body.
As Clovis Unified undergoes significant changes – expansion in enrollment and four board seats up for election this November – it appears to be more frequently at odds with or challenged by some in the community it serves, based on some of The Bee’s recent coverage.
Throughout the 2023-2024 school year, Clovis Unified seems to be trying to catch up with the needs of its increasingly diverse community. Situations like the questioning of students’ identities and culture on school grounds – sometimes by school staff – have shown that Clovis Unified might be struggling to keep up with the times.
For its part, Clovis schools said it will follow federal and state law related to teacher performance, student gender issues or involvement of parents in the education process, among other issues.
Here’s a review of continuing challenges and potentially controversial issues for Clovis schools this year, and the district’s perspective on them.
1. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
In multiple stories, The Bee highlighted several issues in the district related to religion, culture and LGBTQ+ issues and the district’s positions.
Community concerns for LGBTQ+ student outing
The Bee reported about the district’s request for parental consent if a student wants to change their name, pronouns and/or gender identity on their student record.
Challenge: LGBTQ+ advocates say this practice can potentially out students to their parents and might compromise their safety at home. Other school districts in the state are facing similar issues, but no changes have been made to state or federal law. The unresolved issue is likely to come up again for the district.
District’s perspective: Clovis Unified will continue to use the Student Site Plan, the form that requires parental consent if a student wants to change their gender identity at school. District spokesperson Kelly Avants said Clovis schools will follow the laws as they stand now, but if a student wishes to change their identity presentation informally – not filling out a Student Site Plan – they can verbally ask their friends and teachers to identify them by a different name and/or gender if they want to since California law allows for students to use facilities based on their preferred gender identity.
Facility use by outside groups and religious meetings at schools
The Bee reported that rather than allow a parent, who leads an LGBTQ+ group, to host an ‘inclusive’ reading hour at the elementary school their child attended, the district canceled access to facilities for all outside groups before and after school hours.
Challenge: Before canceling all reservations for the 2023-2024 school year, the district had already approved the reservations for two religious groups. Some months later, after reservations were canceled, The Bee also investigated how some parents believed a religious group on campus appeared to be ‘luring’ students into recruitment meetings using free pizza at lunch.
District’s perspective: So far, the board can still decide if they’ll either approve or deny facility reservation requests for outside groups before or after school hours for the 2024-2025 school year during their future meetings. The district points out that the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, which offered the free pizza in exchange for listening to a pitch about Christianity, was present in schools because it has affiliated student clubs – established by students – across the district. That’s the same as other culture and identity clubs, such as Latino, Pride and hobby-oriented student groups. The FCA and other groups will continue to meet during the 2024-2025 school year as long as students form the clubs and continue with their activities.
Language, Cultural Heritage, and Native American Students’ Rights
The district’s Cultural Proficiency Department is in charge of organizing multicultural student conferences. The district deems these as a successful way to bring students closer to their heritage. This past school year, Clovis Unified hosted its first-ever Native American Student Conference on Nov. 1 and served more than 500 Native American students during the 2023-2024 school year, according to the district’s website. Clovis also received more than $148,000, for attending to these students’ education, through the Department of Education’s Title VI Indian Education Formula Grants Program.
Challenge: The district initially denied Clovis North student Jennie Rocha from wearing a stole gifted to her by the Comanche Nation. The district questioned its authenticity because of the text on it reading “Graduate 2024.” Eventually, Rocha did wear her stole for graduation, but Clovis Unified has denied other students this right – including Rocha’s brother – in the past.
District’s perspective: Going forward, Avants said the district maintains its policy for students of all backgrounds to file a request if they want to wear cultural accessories or regalia during their graduation.
The Bee also reported about the lack of a dual-language immersion program in the district, so some students might learn another language fluently.
Challenge: Clovis Unified does offer some language classes as electives for high school students, yet these change school-to-school and are not offered uniformly across the district. A few years ago, dissatisfied with the district’s language offerings, parents separated from the district and created a charter school that offers a dual-immersion Spanish-English program and electives in Punjabi and Mandarin.
District’s perspective: Avants said the district has “no active plans” to roll out dual immersion programs in the next school year.
2. Election changes in 2024
This year, four Clovis Unified seats are up for election. Compared to past years, only Clovis residents in those areas will vote for one person to fill that seat, instead of everyone voting for all areas. Advocates for this new district-based election method for Clovis said voting this way can help diversify councils, boards and committees to better reflect a community’s demographics and interests.
Challenge: Going from at-large to district-based elections. Only registered voters in Areas 2, 4, 5 and 7 (represented by David DeFrank, Hugh Awtrey, Steven Fogg and Yolanda Moore respectively) will see school district representatives in their ballot. There could be confusion among Clovis residents who want to vote for board members – but do not live in these school district areas – since the district-based elections process only allows for people in a designated area to vote for their area representative.
District’s perspective: The board seats-per-area will remain the same, the new Clovis South school attendance area will not have a sole board member since district areas and attendance areas are different things, but it will overlap within the district’s boundaries. Because of this, Clovis South school area is split between district Area 6, represented by Deena Combs-Flores, and 7, represented by Moore. Whoever is elected to Moore’s seat will help represent the families and new schools in this part of the district.
3. Attendance boundary changes and new schools
Clovis Unified School District is preparing to open three new schools in the recently formed Clovis South Area. It is enrolling students into these schools but the facilities still need to be completely built. Also, across the district, some students will have to either change schools or attendance areas for the 2025-2026 school year.
Challenge: Clovis’s 35th elementary school, Hirayama Elementary, is opening this upcoming fall and then two more schools – Sanchez Intermediate and Clovis South High – will open in fall 2025. Avants said Hirayama Elementary will open with its multi-purpose room, administrative services building (the library, nurse’s office, school psychologist, school office, TK-1st grade classrooms and all playfields. The district expects construction to be completed toward the end of the calendar year. With ongoing construction at the same time as enrollment, there can be confusion about which families need to switch schools.
District’s perspective: As for Sanchez Intermediate and Clovis South High schools – which together form the Terry P. Bradley Education Center – the district is considering adding a bond proposal to the November 2024 ballot to continue funding facilities’ construction, maintenance and upgrades. Without it, district representatives said schools’ construction might not be done by the time they need to be open.
4. Labor and Employee Rights
Last school year began with a new, union-negotiated contract for Clovis Unified’s school psychologists and mental health providers. Yet, teachers in the school district have not unionized, some alleging the district’s unlawful behavior has challenged them to organize as a union successfully. Also, after months of review, the California Public Employment Relations Board declared that Clovis Unified acted unlawfully against employees’ rights, ordering for the Faculty Senate (the district-financed and supported teachers group instead of a union) to disband.
Challenge: The most recent efforts to unionize have been underway since 2020. Among groups wanting to unionize, ACE – the Association of Clovis Educators, affiliated with the California Teachers Association – claimed that the district-supported Faculty Senate and the favorable financial and material resources it received directly from the district kept impeding groups from forming unions and breaking labor laws.
District’s perspective: Avants said the district will “support and collaborate” with its employees. This upcoming year, ACE said the psychologists and mental health practitioners will bargain for their next contract. As for teachers unionizing, the group believes that the disintegrating of the Faculty Senate will allow teachers to be better informed and join representation groups.
