Tiny school district wins turf war against Fresno developer. It was the right call | Opinion

Score a victory for the little guys and for democracy, and give thanks that not all rules and regulations are meant to be broken.

A little known Fresno County education committee, which rarely meets more than once a year, rejected a petition by residents to have its gated community and more than 400 acres of undeveloped land near Millerton Lake moved from Sierra Unified to Clovis Unified.

The petition was a thinly disguised effort to spike the value of Ventana Hills property, home to million-dollar homes nestled about 10 miles north of Clovis.

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Last week, the Fresno County Committee on School District Organization scolded petition supporters for wasting the county’s time and resources. Following the second mandated public hearing, the committee unanimously rejected the petition and not-so-politely asked the petitioners to stop wasting the public’s time.

“The law does not permit territory transfers based on convenience, individual preferences, or the benefit of real estate developer interests,” the 11-member committee said in a statement following its Nov. 7 decision.

That was a blow to Granville Homes CEO Darius Assemi, who told the committee in September that the homeowners “want to have freedom of choice to send their kids to whichever school district they believe is best for their kids.”

The committee and its staff saw through the smokescreen. The petition, said a staff report, “does not best serve local educational concerns and needs, and moreover it fails to meet minimum Education Code requirements for approval.”

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Additionally, the committee agreed with a staff finding that Ventana Hills is more identifiable with a foothill community than an urban center.

“The geography and topography of the area proposed for transfer is much more like the majority of Sierra Unified’s territory than the majority of Clovis Unified’s,” the staff said.

Sierra Unified, the report said, would suffer if it loses future student enrollment, which would harm the overall educational health of the county.

The committee, composed of current and former school board members, was right in following staff recommendations in denying the petition. It accepted staff findings that the petition failed to meet seven of nine criteria, including one responding to the question if the “proposed reorganization is primarily designed for purposes other than to significantly increase property values.”

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The committee found that the petition would severely harm the financial stability of Sierra Unified, which has an enrollment of about 1,300 in grades TK-12. About 10 school-aged children live in Ventana Hills. Sierra Unified’s annual budget is less than 4% of that of Clovis Unified.

Four previous petitions had been filed

Ventana Hills resident Marc Thurston, who submitted the petition, described his community as being more of a suburban neighborhood rather than a standard foothill or mountain community. He also wanted to have his daughter attend a Clovis Unified school instead of driving her to a Sierra Unified school.

Thurston could have saved time. Bee columnist Marek Warszawski pointed out that he could easily request an interdistrict transfer for his kid.

Why does this matter? Because money and influence should never ever trump the future of a school district that has had to deal with declining enrollment after nearby school districts built schools that drained some of their students (Clovis Unified took no position on the petition).

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Thurston, with the help of Assemi and his team, submitted three previous petitions to move the 200-acre Ventana Hills subdivision and 430 acres of undeveloped land to Clovis Unified. Those petitions were rejected by Fresno County Superintendent Michele Cantwell-Copher for legal insufficiency. The Assemi Group, Inc. failed on two previous petitions.

Hopefully, Ventana Hills residents and Assemi get the message that trying to spike property values to benefit themselves at the expense of a small school district is frowned upon.

And Sierra Unified received more good news last week: Voters approved a $24 million school bond that will help upgrade the 100-year-old Sierra High School and other school facilities. Voters had twice rejected a bond measure.

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