FRESNO COUNTY, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) - The Fresno County Committee on School District Organization ruled this month against a petition that would move over 600 acres of land from Sierra Unified School District to the Clovis Unified School District. Centered around the petition was the Granville Homes' community of Ventana Hills, a 200-acre development featuring luxury homes and two-acre lots. It can be seen off Auberry Road between Clovis and Prather and has under 20 homes built in the gated complex. The community features homes well over $1 million, according to Zillow. Current and future homes and residents would ultimately carry tax dollars and future students for the Sierra Unified School District. They factors from the Ventana Hills community, and the other 430-acre area west of it, the Sierra Unified superintendent says could be vital for the district moving forward. "I think that it really secures the future of Sierra Unified for all of our existing students and community, that invests so heavily in our school district for years to come," said Superintendent Dr. Lori Grace of the Sierra Unified School District. Dr. Grace says without that land and its current and future developments, the district would have faced the most consequences. "It could have been very detrimental," she said. "We would have relied on a considerably less area in our existing school district and I believe it would have opened the door at more territory being chipped away at." In addition to the loss of tax dollars, developments, and students, she believes it could have set a dangerous precedent for both Sierra Unified and other small districts around the state when it comes to the potential of losing more territory in the future. Following the board's denial of the petition, as they deemed the petition failed to meet seven of the nine required criteria, Dr. Grace shares she feels confident that the difficult road can be avoided. "That territory is a large territory of our district, and as it develops it means that we can continue to provide quality facilities for future students to come," she said. The petition came from Ventana Hills resident Marc Thurston, with support from the Assemi Group and developer Granville Homes. They argued in the petition, the fifth to be denied by the county since 2020, that the main reasons for it were the "substantial community identity" tying more to the Clovis Unified School District, and "student safety and access to co-curricular activities." Thurston and others at previous meetings had also discussed the long commute from the Fresno-Clovis area in the event a student had to be picked up, or in the event of an emergency. However, in its staff report and recommendations regarding the proposed transfer, the Fresno County Committee on School District Organization instead reported "a significant increase in property values appears to be the primary intended purpose of the proposal." Those with the Assemi Group and Granville Homes denied that was the case, and instead stated they wanted what was best for residents, including the "freedom to choose" for residents where they can send their kids to school. In a statement responding to the ruling, Granville Homes CEO Darius Assemi said: I hope now that they’ve got everything they got, including the bond that just passed, that the Fresno County Office of Education is going to be watching their academic performance. We need to see a turnaround in academic performance from Sierra Unified that benefits all the kids that attend that district. Darius Assemi.