‘We are not doing enough for kids.’ Meet Fresno school board candidate for Hoover area

Dan Bordona comes from a family of educators. His mom was a teacher at Fresno Unified (and Bordona struck as a Bullard High senior to support his mom in the district’s teachers’ strike in 1978); his sister was a teacher; and his daughter is an English teacher.

So was Bordona, who spent 33 years serving Fresno Unified as a teacher and an administrator. He worked at multiple secondary school campuses in different regions: Fort Miller Middle School, Edison High, McLane High, Hoover High, Gaston Middle School, Sequoia Middle School and the district’s office’s climate and culture department.

He is now a substitute administrator at Hoover High, returning from his retirement because he “missed the work” and “values developing relationships with kids and staff, which makes the work even on difficult days enjoyable,” he said.

Bordona has a higher goal this fall. He is running his first election for the Fresno Unified school board trustee in the Area 6, Hoover region. His opponent is incumbent Claudia Cazares, who has been on the school board since 2016.

“I just feel like we are not doing enough for our kids. We need to do a better job, and for me, this is an opportunity to try to serve in a larger capacity,” said Bordona. “My whole life is in Fresno, I love my community, I’ve never moved to Clovis.”

Bordona said he intentionally sent all his children to Fresno Unified schools because the diversity they experienced would help prepare them for the bigger world.

“I did not want them going to school with a bunch of kids that looked like them and were more or less the same socioeconomic level, I want them going with kids from all over because that’s the world that they’re really stepping into,” he said.

A lifetime educator, Bordona said he has zero interest in any other political office and will stay on the school board as long as he feels he’s effective.

“Don’t pad your resume on the backs of our children,” he said. “If in four years, you see I’m running for something else, you can put on both headlines and call out ‘he’s a liar.’”

For Fresno Unified’s school board races, The Fresno Bee sat down to talk to every candidate. Here are the five questions for Bordona. Answers are edited for length and clarity.

What is the expertise you will bring to the board?

I have years of experience at the school sites, so I understand the needs of school sites and the frustrations of teachers. I don’t think teachers in general, feel like they have a voice on the board. Board members - they are all well-intentioned, but sometimes they don’t get down there and rely almost exclusively on what they’re getting out of the district office. I mean, the agendas say “superintendent recommends…” and I’m just wondering how much questioning they are doing outside of that bubble? That’s something I have no issue doing, because if I get to be on the board, if I’m voting on something, I want to be able to defend my vote to members of the public, and I think the only way I can do that is to hear all those voices. As a school site administrator dealing with students having a disagreement with teachers or other students, I have to listen to all sides and make the best decision possible, so that experience would serve me well on the board.

What does it mean to have Fresno Teachers Union’s endorsement and what do they want from you?

I’m not a politician at all so they really opened my eyes. The first time I sat down to talk to Manual Bonilla and their executive board, my attitude was, I’m gonna fill out the paperwork, I knew I could get a list of registered voters for the area, and I was just gonna go knock on doors.

And then, FTA was saying, no, it costs money to do this. So they’ve been very supportive in sort of guiding me on how this process works. They put me in touch with a campaign consultant… They put me in touch with some of the other labor organizations that give some money or support to school board races. So I would go and talk to these groups. The good thing for me is, since I’m not a politician and I just believe in our schools, I always have the same message for everybody. The labor guys aren’t quite as interested in the education piece - they want to know a bit more about building facilities.

They (FTA) have asked me really for nothing other than just to make sure, let’s not wait three more years before we start bargaining. Let’s have those conversations ongoing.

What do you think about the last contract negotiations?

We’re all adults, there’s no reason why we can’t sit down and start to talk early and reach some decisions. What I observed during that time in the spring of 2023… the district people were unprepared, FTA would come with questions, and questions would never be answered. I don’t fault the people who are on that team, I think they were just being told what to say, but I felt that it was disrespectful to the teachers. I was frustrated because there were no board members publicly coming out and saying things about the negotiations, and I felt there should at least been some pressure on Bob Nelson, “Hey Bob, let’s get this done.”

Then they offer teachers a longevity bonus, which I think is a great way to retain people. What frustrated me was, what about our other groups? I applaud the teachers for getting that, but I’ve worked with our educators, custodians, and kitchen staff, who were just as dedicated to our district, and they get none of that. So certainly, something that I would be pushing for if I’m a trustee is to get that same kind of bonus for other employees. We should honor their work as well.

What are other issues you see in Fresno Unified and how would you address them?

I think we need a larger community push to get parents more involved in their kids’ education. It drops off dramatically at the secondary level. A lot of kids get poor grades in the first semester (at high school), and after the Christmas break, schools invite parents to sit down and talk about strategies to help the child do better. I was talking to the head counselor at Hoover the other day, she says they invited over a hundred families but fewer than ten parents showed up. I think they just don’t understand how important it is.

One thing that really exploded after the pandemic is that students can rely on makeup courses through the Edgenuity program, which is an online learning thing that you can complete a semester-long class in four or five days. It’s not the same value as going to school. There are kids who basically have the attitude “I’m not going to do any work in your class because I can make it up in summer school.” That needs to stop. There should be a limit as to how many credits they can earn (through the Edgenuity program) that go towards their diploma.

How do you see the superintendent search, since it will be the first and most important thing if you are elected to the board?

Unfortunately, because of the mess up with the internal vs. external candidate thing, I think they’ve put Misty Her in a difficult situation. I’m glad she’s having an opportunity to sort of audition for the job, but let’s say they do an external search and she is the best candidate, there are always going to be people who feel like this was the plan to put her in. So I think it will weaken her position. It’s also interesting to me that she’s wearing an interim title, and usually an interim just keeps the ship on, but she’s making policy changes, which is fine, we need it. But to me, that sort of suggests that it’s her job. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, I know Misty, she’s incredibly intelligent and dedicated to our community. So as a board member, do I feel like she’s someone I could work with? Yeah, absolutely.

But I think they should do a national search. We are the third largest district in the state. We should at least take a look and see what’s out there. That also benefits Misty.