Superintendent's Update - August 30, 2024

Aug 30 2024

From the Office of the Superintendent

Board Agenda Calendar

View Calendar of Board Items 2024-25

Superintendent Austin’s Message . . .

I hope our families enjoyed our Back-to-School events this week. Thank you to everyone who prepared for the events and serve our students each day. It is common for questions about goals, priorities, budget, and direction to come up more regularly during election season. I work directly with the Board of Education to set agendas and calibrate our goals. Our PAUSD Promise goes through a process each year that includes two or more public meetings with presentations and discussion. In recent years, the PAUSD Promise has five priority goals. The big topics this year are Literacy, Equity and Excellence, Serve and Celebrate Others, Innovation, and Mental Health and Wellness. Like a lot of things right now, we are heading to a transition point with our Board of Education. We will have three new members elected to our five-member board in November. We have no incumbents on the ballot, so we will have a newly elected majority. Some decisions about future goals and plans will be revisited or determined after the upcoming election. Of those, a number will be continuations of things our current board has put in motion.

Our school board provides feedback to me in a variety of forms. We believe there are topics that are ripe for discussion and possible attention in the future. One example is looking deeper at elementary school math. As I have shared publicly many times, I think it is important to focus intently on topics if we want to make progress. After adoptions in English Language Arts and Science, I requested a delay in the examination of another discipline area at the elementary level. Our teachers have widely embraced some significant shifts in curriculum and instruction and needed time to get comfortable in those areas before looking at something as broad as math. While our current board had a desire to examine elementary math now, I was given permission to provide one more year of focus on reading for our elementary teachers. I think that was a good decision for many reasons. We have moved our presentation of data from our Every Student Reads Initiative (ESRI) to January. There is a desire to examine our outcomes and possibly develop long-term goals and metrics. We believe long-term planning is more appropriate for the new board taking over in a few months. It may provide a nice space for the board to examine potential efforts in math with the context of our progress in reading. Additionally, we have moved the date for new course approvals at the secondary level to January. This will allow time for the Ethnic Studies pilot to conclude and for teachers to submit other courses for consideration. In PAUSD, all new courses are created and submitted by our teaching staff. Of course, these are only a few examples. We should expect to hear a lot about priorities and direction throughout and beyond this election cycle. The PAUSD Promise will always be a living document with opportunities to examine beliefs and calibrate goals. I am looking forward to these discussions, soliciting input from stakeholders, and being a part of our future growth together.

Empowering Futures with Industry-Recognized Certifications

PAUSD was recognized for its accomplishments at the annual National Academy Foundation (NAF) conference for building NAF Pathways at our high schools. These pathways are learning communities that provide students with industry opportunities and offer a lifetime NAF industry certification. Since PAUSD introduced NAF certification at the high school level in 2019, the program has grown to encompass a variety of NAF track academies, including:

Child Development
Engineering
Business
Journalism
Work-Based Learning

Developed by education and business leaders, NAFTrack measures student performance in career-related areas. The requirements include:

Kudos to the more than 200 students and their innovative teachers for embracing the NAF Pathways program and fostering their varied career aspirations.

Student Wellness Surveys - Grades 3-12

Student wellness is a priority for our district. Each year, we invite students in grades 3-12 to share their perceptions and feelings about school and their well-being through our three Panorama surveys: Student Well-Being, Student Supports and Environment (Equity), and Homework.

During the week of September 16-27, students in grades 3-12 will take the Student Supports and Environment (Equity) survey. Middle and high school students take the Homework survey. Students will have the opportunity to share their perceptions of different aspects of their school experience, such as sense of belonging, school safety, and diversity and inclusion.

The Student Well-Being survey is administered October 15-25 to students in grades 3-12. This brief, 5-minute survey provides information about how students are currently feeling and how they regulate their emotions. Student responses are confidential. This means that student information is protected and is only shared when a student expresses a concern regarding wellness or safety so that school staff can check-in with the student. Our primary goal is to ensure the well-being and safety of our students.

Our student wellness surveys provide us with invaluable information that helps us make better decisions for kids. You will receive detailed information about the surveys next week, including a sample survey. If you do not want your child to participate, you will have the opportunity to share your request through Parent Square. Thank you for being valued partners in the emotional health of our students.

District Student Nutrition Services

Are you interested in learning about the PAUSD District Student Nutrition Department?

Come to the Student Nutrition Service Department Open Forums held the 2nd Wednesday of each month at the PAUSD District Office, Aspen Room from 3:00pm-4:30pm.

Our first SNS Open Forum is Wednesday, September 11th from 3:00pm-4:30pm

The Manager of Child Nutrition Services, Alva Spence, will be on hand to discuss the USDA and CDE regulations and standards which govern the National School Breakfast and Lunch Programs that we offer and answer any questions that you may have concerning the programs.