Fresno Unified says Southeast Fresno development plan will lead to closure of several schools

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- With a captious Fresno City Council ballot conscionable days away, Fresno Unified leaders are sounding the alarm, saying the projected Southeast Development Area (SEDA) could origin a crisp diminution successful enrollment.

"My connection to anybody retired determination that's listening is to conscionable see Fresno Unified arsenic well. Consider the students of Fresno Unified," pleaded lawman superintendent Ben Drati.

Mayor Jerry Dyer believes the concerns are overblown and that the program is needed to bring affordable lodging and lucrative businesses to the city.

"Fresno has mislaid its competitory borderline successful presumption of being capable to vie against cities similar Visalia," the Mayor said, "to beryllium capable to enactment successful flexible probe and improvement to beryllium capable to pull precocious manufacturing to an area."

The metropolis plans to commencement small, opening up lone the confederate information of SEDA adjacent Jensen and North.

But the eventual program would spot this caller improvement agelong retired arsenic acold arsenic Temperance, wherever it would conscionable Clovis Unified's $500 cardinal Terry Bradley Education Center.

Drati fears this volition displacement affluent and middle-class families retired of Fresno Unified and into Clovis Unified, akin to erstwhile Clovis West opened.

"A batch of students that would person gone to Hoover and Bullard automatically went to Clovis West, and that's a abstracted territory for Fresno Unified," helium said.

"So we did suffer pupil colonisation from there. It would bash precisely that. We person a impervious of conception already."

Fresno Teachers' Association President Manuel Bonilla sent america a connection against the project, writing,

"SEDA is simply a ballot against Fresno Unified students and educators. By pulling enrollment and backing retired of vicinity schools it leads to larger people sizes, cuts to arts and career-technical acquisition programs, less counselors and enactment staff, teacher layoffs, and yet schoolhouse closures. That benignant of instability hurts students archetypal and puts educators successful an intolerable presumption of doing much with less."

Dyer is present vowing not to repetition past mistakes.

"I wholly recognize what happened successful the past successful our distant, distant past was wrong. The information was, we allowed for municipality sprawl," Dyer said.

The Mayor says developers, not taxpayers, volition wage for the development.

The Fresno City Council volition ballot connected the substance this Thursday.