CUSD Superintendent Gives “State of the District” Address

CUSD Superintendent Eimear O’Farrell addresses the audience during the CUSD Superintendent’s Breakfast at the Clovis Veterans Memorial District on Oct 3, 2019. PHOTO COURTESY OF CLOVIS ROUNDUP

The Clovis Unified School District held their annual State of the District breakfast at the Clovis Veterans Memorial District on Thursday October 6th.

The breakfast, starting at 7:30 in the morning, afforded the opportunity for speakers like Clovis Superintendent Dr. Eimear O’ Brien and also gave the district the opportunity to hand out a 2022 report to the community.

In that report, Clovis Unified highlighted certain accolades that relate to their vision of being a “benchmark for excellence in education.” Boasting numbers such as a 97.2 % graduation rate out of 42,699 students, the pamphlet also portrayed Clovis Unified’s three key words also written in their boardroom, “Mind, Body, Spirit”.

But not only did the pamphlet handed out to patrons of the breakfast have a message from Dr. O’Brien, she also spoke at the event, giving the fabled “State of the District”.

According to district officials, Dr. O’Brien’s comments focused mainly on students’ wellness, academic performance and safety, in addition to highlighting two new schools that intend to be open within the next two years.

A new elementary school, the school district’s 35th, looks to be opened in 2024 at the corner of Fowler and Mckinley, and an intermediate school that plans to be grown into a full 7th-12th grade school intends to open in 2025 near Clinton and Highland avenues.

Dr. O’Brien spoke about student wellness in terms of a comprehensive wellness program established by Deputy Superintendent Norm Anderson.

Emotional wellness and mental health are the key in addressing this comprehensive wellness program and a number of other services and teams have expanded throughout the district.

These groups include the Clovis Support and Intervention group, the Behavior Consultation Team, mental health support providers assigned to each high school area, Fresno County Office of Education Superintendent Jim Yovino’s “ALL 4 YOUTH” program, in addition to multiple other PBIS (Positive Behaviors and Interventions) programs.

Dr O’Brien then went on to address other topics that included an academic performance summary and the issue of school safety on campuses.

This included a new feature of school safety added this year called “CatapultEMS”, a tool that makes the notification process and communication to CUSD staff quicker and more efficient.

The Foundation for Clovis Schools’ Treasurer and Fundraising Chair Adam Holt also gave a rather large announcement for CUSD.

A $4.9 million dollar donation was given to the Foundation for Clovis Schools by Mr. Franklin Antonio, founder of the telecommunications conglomerate Qualcomm.

Mr. Antonio was a graduate of Clovis High School in 1970, and has been “quietly donating to the Foundation since 2013.” Prior to this year, he has contributed more than $440,000 towards programs of the Foundation for Clovis Schools.

The announcement of Antonio’s passing was made in May of this year.

Clovis Unified looks forward to the school year and it is their official position to continue their mantra of “Building Tomorrow, Today.”

With the help of their past graduates such as Mr. Franklin Antonio, Clovis Unified hopes to continue to get students to realize the importance of a valued education as their most recent generous benefactor once did.

One aspect of this is a continued expectancy of growth, and with advanced technology of the day, CUSD continues to measure that growth with the anticipation and tenacity that they hold for their students.

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JT is a recent college grad with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication. He is mainly interested in sports and entertainment but covers a wide array of subjects. He currently writes for the Fresno State Baseball Dugout Club. JT looks forward to continuing his career at the Clovis Roundup and is excited to be working closely with a community that is very proud of its people.