Central Unified: Blueprint for SEDA

The Central Unified School District is no longer just a district struggling with inequity. It has become a blueprint for it, an example of how poor planning and uneven investment divide students by geography and leave entire communities behind. Nowhere is that inequity more visible than at Central High School.

The pattern is unmistakable. Central Unified acted quickly on the north side around Garza High to satisfy developer-driven growth, a troubling pattern in Fresno where school boards too often prioritize development over students.

On the south side, historically underserved, like most south sides of major cities, Central High was forced to absorb boundary changes, overcrowding and increased demand without the facilities or resources required.

Many families voiced strong disapproval of the new boundaries, raising clear concerns about fairness and access. Those concerns were ignored.

Students who live just minutes from Central East High were reassigned to Central High, which was then left outdated and under-resourced. This was not an oversight; it was a deliberate failure to provide equitable access.

Central High was required to take on more students after boundary lines were redrawn, yet it received none of the necessary upgrades. It remains one of the most outdated high schools in Fresno, a symbol of what happens when growth is planned without equity. Students were shifted, but opportunity was not.

Nothing exposes this inequity more clearly than athletics, specifically water polo. Central High has a championship-caliber water polo program. Its athletes compete, win and represent the district with pride.

Yet, Central High is the only high school in Fresno without its own pool. Students train off campus, lose instructional time and compete at a disadvantage despite their success.

Central Unified loves to celebrate this team at board meetings and in front of the cameras, but it does not truly support them. A championship team without a pool is not ironic. It is indefensible, and embarrassing.

This is not about sports alone. It is about access, safety, time and opportunity. It is about what the district chooses to fund and what it chooses to delay (with a lot of excuses).

As development surged on the north side, the district acted with urgency. Facilities appeared. Resources followed.

But when it came to the south side, that urgency vanished. Students were told to wait while inequity became policy.

These investments on the north side were made to satisfy developers, not to serve students.

This is why Central Unified increasingly resembles a blueprint for the Southeast Development Area (SEDA): a system where planning follows developers instead of students. Resources flow to new development on farmland while older schools are left behind because infill is more expensive.

Yet, infill is critical. It ensures that established neighborhoods and historically underserved communities, like south Fresno, are not allowed to decay while the district shifts resources toward new schools and away from old ones.

When district leaders point to funding challenges, they miss the truth. Lack of money is not an excuse, it is a responsibility. Central Unified chose the boundaries. Central Unified redirected resources. Central Unified decided which campuses would benefit first.

The obligation to fix the inequity created by those decisions belongs to the district, and that obligation is urgent. There is no time for more excuses. To suggest otherwise would be like telling students of color during desegregation in the South that schools could not afford to accommodate them because of poor planning, a claim that was unacceptable and unjust then, and is unacceptable and unjust now.

Students did not design this system. Students did not profit from development. And students should not be paying the price.

A truly student-centered district would treat this as an emergency, not a long-term discussion item. It would not allow a championship program to exist without basic facilities. It would not ask students to sacrifice opportunities while others receive immediate investment.

Equity delayed is equity denied. At this point, delay is a choice.

Central Unified still has a decision to make: Continue down a path that mirrors SEDA-style inequity or act now to correct what it created through poor planning and misplaced priorities.

The question is not whether the district can afford to upgrade Central High and build a pool.
The question is why it hasn’t already.

Because every minute of inaction cements inequity, and every student who passes through Central High without equal access is denied opportunities they deserve, the failure belongs to the district, and the district must own it.

When students make mistakes, they are expected to correct them, not make excuses. Central Unified should be held to the same standard.

The time for waiting is over.

Central Unified must act, now! Anything less is a deliberate choice to continue failing its students.