FRESNO (KMJ) — Elaborating on his announced departure, Fresno Unified Superintendent Michael Hanson reveals that the school district has a long way to go.
But he highlighted its achievements: including more students taking AP coursework, the number of partnerships being made throughout the city, and how well its budget has been managed.
“One of the strongest in the urban settings up and down the state, and that has allowed us to continue doing this work.”
In the press event Tuesday morning, he also cited the fruitful connections made with the various colleges throughout the Central Valley.
“The State Center Community College District, specifically Fresno City College and Carol Goldsmith, now have been incredible partners for us. Fresno Pacific University, I can’t say enough about John Welty and now Joe Castro as the head and leader at CSU Fresno,” continued Hanson. “UC Merced and the partnership that we have with Doctor Aguilar and our equity and access work is a standard that no one in the state can touch.”
But when the floor was opened to questions, it didn’t take long for the subject to switch to why he had chosen this time to leave the position he had held since 2005.
“So I will tell you that the average tenure is about two and half years, 12 is a long time. I actually backed up the appointment date…so that I could get back up to Southern Memorial Hospital for the birth of my first child.
“I mark time like everybody else does in the world: by family, and my unborn child at the time is now going to be finishing sixth grade [and] will be making the all important transition to middle school…I’m doing it at a time that makes sense for me and my family, and that also makes sense for the district.”
He even had some strong words to say about those who focus on the negative news coming out of Fresno Unified.
“I expect that it’ll probably continue to happen here. I would say to Fresno ‘you should be on the lookout for it in the future’. You need to dig deeper into the public record that exists in this city…I’m not running from a damn thing, I’ll tell you that.”
Hanson states that he’ll be continuing to fulfill the terms of his contract until August 2017.
“I anticipate that I will then be having a conversation with my board that is not for the purview of this room right now in front of cameras,” he concluded. “It’ll be with my employers.”
Hear the report from KMJ’s Dominic McAndrew as it aired:
