Superintendent's Letter June 2009

My first six months as Superintendent have been a whirlwind to say the least. It’s been such a pleasure getting to know everyone who is involved in making our district a success every day our school doors open and the kids stream in to their classrooms. Now the school year has come to a close and before everyone gets caught up in summer plans, I want to give you an update on some of the big projects we are working on and have completed.

UPDATE ON THE AUSD MASTER PLAN PROCESS

As I’ve written about in my previous letter, at the March 24th Board of Education meeting, I proposed to the Board that we begin a Master Plan process, to be completed by December. The result of the process will be a detailed plan that will provide the district a clear road map for decision-making over the next several years.

Our school district faces many challenges ahead, and important and difficult decisions about facilities, programs and staffing will have to be made. These decisions will impact all of our community so it is imperative that students, families, and staff—as well as the overall Alameda community—participate in the Master Plan process and face these challenges together.

As part of this planning process, I scheduled three community meetings to take a close look at the District’s current and future financial outlook, and to discuss possible solutions to the financial situation we all face.

We have completed the first two of these community meetings that seek to address a series of questions and engage the community in a dialogue about the future of our schools.

Our first two meetings and their topics were:

#1. Can AUSD live on state funding alone?

Wednesday, May 20th, 6:30–8:00pm at Henry Haight Elementary School, 2025 Santa Clara Avenue.

At this first meeting we took a close look at what it would mean for the district to “live within our means,” surviving on only state and federal funds. To live only on what the state provides per student would mean significant cutbacks including school closures, teacher layoffs, and severe program cuts that would significantly change the face of the Alameda School District.

For a more in depth look at this topic and the discussion at the 5/20 meeting, please go to the AUSD website.

#2. What would a district of charter schools look like?

Tuesday, June 2nd, 6:30–8:00pm at Edison Elementary School, 2700 Buena Vista Avenue. The second meeting addressed the potential impacts if the District were to convert some or all of its schools to charters. While this is an extremely complex issue, we did learn that the district would lose a significant amount of money should it convert entirely to a charter district. However, converting one-by-one may not be as adverse financially for individual schools, though the final numbers would need to be examined more closely.

Again, for a more in depth look at this topic and the discussion at the 5/20 meeting, please go to the AUSD website.

Our third community meeting topic will be:

#3. How do we define and provide for a quality education in light of the funding challenges we face?

Tuesday, August 18th, 6:30–8:00pm at Will C. Wood Middle School, 420 Grand Street.

We will be looking at other options for the school district including magnets and school consolidations. It is my intent to put all options on the table for discussion, as we don’t have the relative luxury of simply choosing a few programs to eliminate or administrative costs to reduce in order to put us in the black financially.

Unfortunately, we are in a situation in which there is no easy out and no easy answer that will please everyone. Our choices will be difficult, but I am confident that as a community, we can come together to find a solution that will provide our children with the best education possible.

We will be scheduling more meetings in the fall and will keep you updated as we move forward. Please be sure to come to as many of these community meetings as you can, your contribution is very important to the success of our Master Plan process.

I’ll be working on the Master Plan process over the summer so as always, if you have any questions or concerns, please call me at 337-7060 or e-mail me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

AUSD AND STATE BUDGET UPDATE

Last year AUSD adopted a budget based on the State’s 2008/09 budget promises. In 2008/09 the State would reimburse AUSD $5,779 per student, generating $55,000,000.

In February 2009, the Governor and Legislature passed a historic budget deal that changed the promises for 2008/09 and established promises for 2009/10. The State would now reimburse AUSD $5,627 per student or $53,500,000 for 2008/09 and $5,575 per student or $53,000,000 for 2009/10.

Due to the failure of May 19 ballot initiatives and the worsening economy, the Governor has revised his promises once again. Under his proposed May revision, AUSD would now receive $51,500,000 or $5,408 per student for 2008/2009, and $49,000,000 or $5,223 per student for 2009/10.

If the legislature approves the Governor’s budget, AUSD will receive $3,500,000 less then expected for 2008/2009 and $6,000,000 below 2007/08 funding levels in 2009/2010.

With one day left in the fiscal year, AUSD still does not know the amount of funding the State of California is going to send us for the 2008/09 school year.

Thanks to the combined $7 million in temporary funding from Measures A and H, we are able to cover some of the budget shortfall. However, until we know the exact amount in funding we will receive from the state, the actual shortfall amount remains unclear. This year’s budget crisis is, I believe, an unfortunate preview into the continued funding crises we will face next year and beyond when the $7 million in parcel tax funding expires in 2011-2012, and the future of the state’s fiscal health remains tenuous.

While this financial outlook is difficult to face, I feel it is important to ensure that every member of the Alameda community, whether you have children in school or not, understand the tenuous and ever-shifting financial situation AUSD is in.

Once the legislature either adopts or amends the Governor’s proposed budget this summer, I will send you an updated per pupil budget figure.

UPDATE ON MEASURE C FACILITIES BOND – Phases 1-3 Completed!

I am happy to report that Phases 1-3 of the Measure C facilities bond work has been completed. Measure C, generously passed by Alameda voters in 2004, provided $63 million in funds for a myriad of needed improvements to our schools district wide. The $63 million was maximized by combining it with developer fees and State Modernization and Growth funds for a total of $91 million.

The improvements included:

construction of Ruby Bridges School
eplacement of all fire alarms, intrusion alarms and paging systems
seismic upgrade of Haight Elementary School
bringing school facilities into ADA compliance
window replacement
new roof installations
upgrading and repairing school bathrooms
locker room improvements
installing football field lights
playground upgrades
HVAC installation and repair

…and many other upgrades too numerous to detail in this letter.

Thanks to Measure C, our schools are now safer, more energy efficient, connected to technology, and ADA accessible. The schools where these upgrades and improvements were made include Bayfarm, Haight, Earhart, Edison, Otis, Lum, Paden, Washington, Chipman, Wood, Lincoln, Encinal, Alameda and Island High Schools.

Phases 4 and 5 are scheduled to be completed by the end of this year, weather permitting. I will keep you updated on our march to completion.

GOOD NEWS FOR AUSD GRADUATES!

Alameda’s high school graduates are heading off to a wide variety of colleges and universities, including Harvard, Yale, Howard, Brown, Baylor, Wellesley, Penn, Boston University, USC, all the University of California campuses and California State University campuses. These are just a few of the many post-secondary institutions our graduates will attend.

Once again, we are proud to announce that Newsweek Magazine named Alameda and Encinal High Schools among the top 1,500 high schools in the nation, a distinguished and well-deserved honor of which our entire Alameda community can be proud.

I am very proud to report that our graduating seniors have earned more than $1.3 million in college scholarships, once again demonstrating the quality of AUSD schools and teachers, and the hard work and dedication of our student body.

In addition, I’m happy to report that six high school seniors, out of 1.5 million candidates, were chosen as finalists for the prestigious National Merit Scholarship program. Nationwide, only one half of one percent of students is chosen. Our finalists are Robert Chang, Daniel Chen, Christina Ho, Mingmei Niu, Kristyna Smith and Corey Tan. Congratulations to you all.

Congratulations to all our 2009 graduates. I wish you the best of luck in all your endeavors!

LOOK FOR OUR REDESIGNED AUSD WEBSITE THIS SUMMER

Look for an announcement over the summer debuting our new website. We’ll have an updated look and most importantly, a redesigned site that will provide you with the information you need in a clearer, more concise, easily navigable and visually appealing format. I’m very excited about the redesigned site and look forward to getting it up and running.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please call or e-mail me at

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Sincerely,
Kirsten Vital
Superintendent