PAUSD Weekly Update - August 7, 2026

From the Office of the Superintendent

Board Agenda Calendar

Superintendent Glass' Message . . .

Before we begin …

Part of coming into a new organization is learning both what needs to change and what is going right and needs protecting. This weekly message falls in the second category. It has been a fixture at PAUSD, and I have heard from many of you that you looked forward to it. So I plan to continue it rather than reinvent it, though over time I will put my own touch on it.

A few dates before anything else. While some staff and administrators reported earlier this summer, most teachers and certificated staff start Monday. Most classified staff report Wednesday. On Wednesday morning, our staff gathers for the PAUSD Reunion - a staff recognition event. Students return Thursday, August 13. I'll be sending separate notes to students, staff, and families over the course of the week.

Most of the work of getting a school year ready is quiet and steady. Our maintenance and custodial crews have been in and around the buildings all summer, and our office and registration staff have been answering family questions. Our principals have been busy planning and thinking about how the beginning of school will go. Much of what will be ready on Thursday was built by people our students will never see doing it. While largely behind the scenes, that work matters immensely, and I am grateful for all their effort.

For my part, I've spent July and the start of this month learning. I've been present in as many conversations as my schedule could hold, hearing about the people and the stories that make up this community. I also spent time with the input from all 1,434 people who participated in the superintendent search process. What stands out to me is how much people wanted the Board and the new superintendent to understand their actual experiences, and how this school district made them feel, as students, as parents, as staff members, and as human beings.

Elementary students wanted the new superintendent to know about water fountains that needed repair and their lunch lines. Middle and high school students wanted me to know that while the adults making decisions for them cared about them, their perspectives on the issues that affected them felt like a second-level consideration, at best. Parents wanted me to know how this district had supported their children and helped them accomplish their dreams, and also that we have sometimes let them down. Staff wanted me to know how proud they are to be associated with Palo Alto Unified, and that they have ideas about how we could be better than we are.

It is a rational temptation for people in roles like mine to focus on the big picture: strategy, policy, budget, systems-level work. That work is important and necessary. But real change happens at a very small level. The parent, the teacher, the staff member, the child, and the individual experiences they have. Those small interactions add up, and they make PAUSD what it is, for better or worse. As we begin this school year, I'll be working on the small things and asking our team to do the same.

I begin this year not only as a superintendent but as a parent. Our kids start their first year at PAUSD next week. Sarah and I are working through the same list as everyone else. Clothes, supplies, bike repair, schedules. And wondering the same things: whether our children will be connected, happy, learning, cared for. Like many of you, we look to next week with anticipation and with hope.

Enjoy this beautiful weekend.

Kind regards,

Jason E. Glass, Ed.D.
Superintendent & Chief Learner