Fashion is more than pretty colors and shapes — it’s a trade that, with the right skills, can open doors to lucrative careers, Roosevelt High fashion design students told the Fresno Unified school board.
A group of Roosevelt students and graduates urged board trustees at Wednesday’s meeting to reverse the district’s plan to end the first-of-its-kind fashion design career and technical education (CTE) programs as part of Fresno Unified’s sweeping budget cuts.
With declining enrollment and attendance rates, Fresno Unified has faced budget cuts in consecutive years. This coming June, the district board will need to make difficult decisions with a deficit of at least $25 million, according to Patrick Jensen, the district’s chief financial officer.
Roosevelt High is the only high school in Fresno Unified that hosts a fashion design CTE pathway. More than 1,000 students have received training at the fashion design CTE course since it launched a decade ago, according to Tamara Norris, the fashion design CTE program teacher at Roosevelt High.
Fresno Unified has invested tens of thousands of dollars in this pathway, Norris said. Her classroom has two sets of industrial-grade desks, cutting tables, sewing machines, embroidery machines, LED light boards, embroidery hoop stands, along with walls of fabrics, buttons, and jewelry, she said in a video posted on social media.
As part of the course, students learn how to use the sewing machines, alter clothes, and are taught about styling and marketing. The program provides practice opportunities for students to become make-up artists, said Norris, who is among the hundreds of educators and workers in the district who received a pink slip this month.
“Not only was I laid off and given a pink slip and told that I would no longer be at this school, but they were, what they’re calling in very quiet, polite terms, sunsetting the fashion design program,” Norris said in a social media video.
At Wednesday’s board meeting, Norris and her students told the board how the class is important to the school and the community.
“We give clothes away to students who don’t have access to clothes,” Samuel Alviar, a senior student at Roosevelt High, told the school board. “The program also personally benefits me as a bigger guy, buying clothes has been hard. What I’ve been learning in the fashion program is how to alter or make clothes fit me better and just all around make me feel more comfortable.”
Roosevelt students go to Norris’s classroom for help when they have clothing or a backpack to repair, the students said. Twice a month, fashion design students host “Wardrobe Wednesday” and give away prom dresses or formal attire for students who cannot afford the appropriate clothes for the occasion. They help alter and repair garments for the dance department and resize cheerleader uniforms or swimsuits for sports teams, fashion students and alumni told the school board.
Ian Durant, a recent graduate of Roosevelt High, said the fashion CTE program equipped him with the skills and experience to secure a full-time job right after graduating high school.
“I do art cleaning and restoration stuff, so essentially if someone’s house burns down or floods, any art pieces they have that get damaged end up going to me, and I clean them and restore them to the best of my ability,” Durant told The Bee.
Durant said his boss was almost ready to hire someone completely different, but Durant won the opportunity because of his four years of experience in textiles and inventory management.
“No other school in the district teaches a course like this at this comprehensive level,” Durant said at the board meeting. “I ask you all to reflect on the importance of the fashion design course at Roosevelt, and how it impacts our community, and students like me, who may not necessarily want to go to college, but still want to get a comprehensive education about something they are passionate about.”
This story was originally published March 12, 2026 at 3:48 PM.
Leqi Zhong is the Clovis accountability/enterprise reporter for The Bee. She is a graduate of UC Berkeley with a Master’s degree in journalism. She joined The Bee in 2023 as an education reporter. Leqi grew up in China and is native in Cantonese and Mandarin.