Blog

Congratulations, Bracher Elementary!

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 16:01:00 GMT

The District was recently notified that Bracher Elementary will be honored for academic achievement at the SJ2020 Awards Ceremony. Bracher will receive the Title I School Achievement Award. Hearty congratulations to Bracher students and staff! We are proud of you!

Correction

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 22:01:00 GMT

I need to make a slight correction in the data I presented regarding the English Learner Achievement study that placed our District among the top 50 in California. Santa Clara Unified is one of two unified districts in Santa Clara County that made the top 50 --- Milpitas Unified joins us in that recognition. Congratulations to both SCUSD and Milpitas!

First Blog

Sun, 08 Jan 2012 23:01:00 GMT

Welcome to the start-up of my Superintendent's Blog. By using this technology, I hope the blog will add to our District's initiative to seek multiple methods for disseminating information to our stakeholders.

I want to begin by informing you that in an effort to meet the District's projected budget shortfall for the 2012-13 school year, the Governing Board will discuss the feasibility of moving forward with a parcel tax initiative at their January 12th board meeting, with a final decision anticipated at the January 26th meeting. The Board welcomes your input on this very important decision.

As I mentioned in my recent Channel 26 broadcast, we are starting out the year with congratulations to many of our schools. Despite the challenges associated with crippling State budget cuts to education, our District continues to gain recognition and accolades for improvement in student achievement. First, we congratulate Cabrillo Middle School. Cabrillo is one of 20 Santa Clara County schools that will receive the Silicon Valley Education Foundation's "SJ2020 Vision Award," an award given to schools exhibiting outstanding effort in closing the achievement gap. Specifically, Cabrillo will be recognized for their work in closing the gap with Hispanic/Latino students enrolled in Algebra.

Secondly, the Riverside County Office of Education recently conducted a study of all school districts with 100 or more English Learners in California. The study examined English Learners' growth in student achievement. We are proud to announce that both Santa Clara High and Wilcox High, plus Peterson and Buchser Middle Schools, and Laurelwood and Millikin Elementary School ranked in the top 50 schools in that study. Moreover, our District ranked 18th, and was the ONLY unified school district in Santa Clara County to break the top 50 ranking.

The Riverside County findings, plus the SJ2020 Award indicate that our students, teachers, and support staff work diligently to meet the needs of all students. In short, we continue to move in the right direction!

This is only my first post . . . many more to come! At a minimum, I will post on a weekly basis, so you may check by returning to our website, or subscribe to the RSS feed to automatically receive updates. Information about our District, comments about educational issues, or late breaking news will comprise the blog. I look forward to the blog as a means to deliver information via a quick and easily accessible method.

Thanks for "clicking in!"

Happy Holidays

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 23:12:00 GMT

To all our students, staff, parents and community members:

I wish you the best of holidays and a safe holiday break with family and friends. We look forward to the return of our students on Tuesday, January 3rd as we continue our instruction and begin preparation for standardized testing later in early spring.

The second half of our school year provides some exciting events, particularly for Santa Clara High School as they return from the break and move in to a newly renovated classroom wing. Buchser Middle School staff recently moved into their new office space and construction continues at all our secondary sites. We thank the community for their previous support of Measure J, which provides the funding for much-needed renovation and modernization at all of our secondary sites. Quality, up-to-date facilities provide the necessary environment for teachers to deliver instruction as our students prepare to take their place in the 21st century world of work.