Five candidates vie for Fresno Unified Area 1 trustee seat in crowded November race

Miguel Arias, Rizpah Bellard, Daren Miller, Deshunna Ricks, and Michelle Longoria are running for the Fresno Unified Area 1 trustee seat representing the Edison region in southwest Fresno. The seat is currently held by Keshia Thomas, who has served since 2018 and is not seeking reelection.

Arias, 48, currently represents district three on the Fresno City Council. He will term out of that seat in 2026. He previously worked at Fresno Unified for over 10 years, including as chief information officer, and served on the Mendota Unified and State Center Community College District boards.

Bellard, 32, is a cattle rancher and agriculture educator at Fresno Unified. She also operates housing for people with psychiatric disabilities through Fresno County’s Independent Living Program.

Miller, 60, spent 34 years in K-12 schools across Fresno, Clovis, Madera, and Central Unified, with 30 of those years in administrative roles. He retired in 2024 but now works as a substitute vice principal.

Ricks, 42, is an adjunct instructor in social work and education advocate. She spent eight years as a counselor in schools on the west side of Fresno Unified and worked as a program manager for the district’s Advancing Academic Acceleration & Achievement (A4) department.

Longoria is an education advocate focused on bilingual education access. She declined an interview with Fresnoland.

Arias, Bellard, Miller, and Ricks all say they want to improve early childhood literacy. Arias, Miller, and Ricks all say they want to cut administrative spending before touching classrooms. Arias and Ricks both emphasize career and technical education programs. Multiple candidates say the district needs better communication with families.

Arias is running on fiscal responsibility and safety reform. He says the district’s communication with the community hasn’t been transparent on budget cuts and school closures. “For years, it will tear down the quality of life and the value of that neighborhood, because schools are the hub of a good neighborhood and that’s what’s coming extremely near soon to us as a community, is closure of schools,” Arias said. He added that the problem is “the financial, academic, and programmatic mismanagement of the district, and all I see is people pointing the finger at each other.”

Arias criticized the district’s handling of the discovery of a deceased person at Fresno High earlier this year. “You’re not looking at it from my perspective as a parent, a body was discovered, nobody was held accountable,” he said. He wants follow-up responses to let community members know the district is aware and working on issues.

Arias says the way to save neighborhood schools is to improve them with strong academic programs and athletics so families send their kids there instead of leaving the district. He says cuts should come from administrative and central office levels first.

Bellard wants quarterly meetings in her area so families can give her feedback without having to attend board meetings. “Whenever progress reports come out, to have sessions or get-togethers with community members, different languages in different areas that are accessible to folks either on the bus line or within a walking distance in their community so they can come and talk and just ask what’s going on and what are they seeing,” Bellard said.

On enrollment, Bellard says she wants to hear from community members at school sites to understand why families are leaving. “I don’t think anybody really knows, you can talk to five different families that have taken their kids out and you have five different reasons,” she said. She also wants to offer support for parents of young children, including help with transportation.

Miller wants to separate transitional kindergarten through second grade as their own campuses to shrink classroom sizes. He says decisions like changes to magnet school bus stops should be communicated with school and community members multiple times. “Those types of communications should have come out from each individual elementary school to their circle of parents,” Miller said.

Miller says the district needs to invest more in meeting kids and families where they’re at because absences have multiple root causes. He also wants to expand online instruction to accommodate students and regain attendance levels.

Miller says relationships between unions and Fresno Unified have become adversarial. He wants to be clear and honest about finances with union partners. “I may not get what I want, you may [not], but we have to agree that the reason why we’re here is, baseline, bottom line, is for kids,” he said.

Miller says Fresno Unified “has consistently been overstaffed administratively” and that’s where cuts should start. He wants to expand athletics but says the district’s finances need to be improved first. Miller officiated football, softball, and basketball for 35 years and played college football on a scholarship from Roosevelt High School.

Ricks says she wants to implement career and technical education pathways into K-12 so students can imagine themselves in successful careers. She also wants to add more life skills into curriculums. “Making sure that they are college and career ready, not just with a degree but with real and relevant skills, so that they can meaningfully contribute to their communities,” Ricks said.

Ricks wants monthly meetings in her region to communicate updates and gather feedback. She wants a “thorough root cause analysis” to understand why families and students are leaving the district. “Our students are experiencing some real issues, some real problems, and so doing that root cause analysis and aligning the resources to make sure that our students are getting what they need so that they can get to school,” she said.

Ricks says negotiations with unions need to be transparent and in good faith. “If they are not well and if they’re stressed and if they’re not supported, then it is actually going to come out in their teaching and how they show up in the classroom,” she said.

Ricks wants to avoid cuts to teachers and students. She would look at vendor contracts and eliminate duplication of services not focused on classroom improvements. “You can’t profit off of students and not produce outcomes, that’s fiscal irresponsibility,” she said.

As a former Edison High athlete, Ricks says the district should invest more in athletics, improving facilities and partnering with local colleges and organizations. “A sports program can determine a child’s future because sometimes that’s all they have to rely on. Playing sports gives students access to not only mentors but soft skills that are transferable to their classroom and career,” Ricks said.

The Breakdown

• The Fresno Unified Area 1 trustee seat represents the Edison region in southwest Fresno.
• Five candidates are running: Miguel Arias (current Fresno City Councilmember), Rizpah Bellard (cattle rancher and agriculture educator), Daren Miller (retired school administrator), Deshunna Ricks (education advocate and social work instructor), and Michelle Longoria (education advocate focused on bilingual education).
• The seat is currently held by Keshia Thomas, who has served since 2018 and is not seeking reelection.
• Arias, Bellard, Miller, and Ricks say they want to improve early childhood literacy. Multiple candidates say they want to cut administrative spending before classroom spending.
• Arias, Bellard, Miller, and Ricks all gave detailed interviews about their positions. Longoria declined an interview.

What This Means for You

You will vote for this trustee seat in the November 2026 election. The person who wins will be one of the trustees voting on Fresno Unified’s budget decisions, school closures, and transportation policies.

Arias and Miller both discussed changes to magnet school bus stops as an example of district decisions that affect families. Arias discussed the district’s response to the deceased person discovered at Fresno High as an example of how the board oversees safety matters. Multiple candidates discussed how the district negotiates with employee unions.

Your vote decides who represents the Edison region on these board decisions and weighs in on district-wide matters affecting every Fresno Unified school.

What You Can Do

The November 2026 general election ballot will include this race. Registration and voting information is available through the Fresno County Clerk/Registrar of Voters.

What to Watch

Three candidates (Arias, Miller, Ricks) all say they want to cut administrative spending first, but none of them say how much administrative spending there actually is, what share of the budget it represents, or what dollar figure they’d cut. The material doesn’t provide that number either. What would confirm or rule out whether administrative cuts alone can solve the budget problem: the district’s actual administrative budget line, broken down by position and cost, and how that compares to classroom spending and the size of the shortfall the district is facing.

Arias says the district’s leaders don’t want to share information that paints them negatively and that there’s a “disconnect between leaders and everyday operations.” He’s currently an elected official himself (Fresno City Council) and previously worked at Fresno Unified for over 10 years, including as chief information officer — a senior administrative role. Is the problem he’s describing one he was part of when he held that position, or one that started after he left? The material doesn’t answer that. What would: Arias stating on the record what he personally did or didn’t do during his own time in district administration, and whether any of the transparency or communication problems he’s now criticizing existed under his watch.

Bellard operates housing for people with psychiatric disabilities through Fresno County’s Independent Living Program. The material doesn’t state whether that housing receives public funding, whether it’s a for-profit or nonprofit operation, or whether any of it involves contracts with Fresno Unified or other school districts. If it does involve public money or school district contracts, that’s a financial interest a trustee would be voting on matters related to. What would clarify this: Bellard disclosing on the record whether her housing operation receives any public funding or has any contracts with school districts, and if so, how much and from whom.

Miller spent 30 years in administrative roles across multiple districts and says Fresno Unified “has consistently been overstaffed administratively.” Was he part of that overstaffing in his own career, or was he in a different kind of administrative role? The material doesn’t say. What would: Miller stating specifically what administrative positions he held, at what cost to the districts that employed him, and whether he considers his own former roles the kind that should be cut or the kind that should be kept.

Ricks says “you can’t profit off of students and not produce outcomes” when talking about vendor contracts. The material doesn’t name which vendors she’s referring to, how much they’re paid, what outcomes they’ve produced or failed to produce, or whether any data backs up the claim that they’re profiting without results. What would confirm or rule this out: the district’s vendor contract list, the cost of each contract, the stated deliverables, and data on whether those deliverables were met. If Ricks has specific vendors in mind, she should name them and state what evidence she’s basing the claim on.

All five candidates are running for a seat that votes on a budget facing cuts severe enough that school closures are on the table, according to Arias. None of them state a dollar figure for the shortfall, a timeline for closures, or which schools are at risk. The district itself hasn’t publicly released that list, according to Arias’s own complaint about transparency. Voters are being asked to choose who manages a crisis whose actual size and timeline they haven’t been told. What would fix that: the district releasing the actual budget shortfall figure, the timeline for potential closures, and the list of schools under consideration, so voters know what they’re voting on.