Our next board meeting is Tuesday, June 18, 2013. The meeting will be a Board Study Session from 5:00 p.m to 7:00 p.m.   View the live webcast here > http://www.tri-valleytv.org/live-tv28.html.  Click here to view the June 18, 2013 Agenda.

Leaders in the Pleasanton Unified School District are pleased to announce that a mutually acceptable Tentative Agreement has been reached on a new labor contract with the Association of Pleasanton Teachers (APT). The new three-year agreement begins July 1, 2013. The Tentative Agreement has been ratified by unit members to go before the Governing Board for approval on June 18th.

Click here to view the APT Tentative Agreement

Click here to view Fact Sheet about the Tentative Agreement

Recently the Pleasanton Unified School District (PUSD) has experienced some graffiti and vandalism at a few of our school sites. When incidents like these occur, PUSD as a public school district must take disciplinary action per California Education Code 48900. This discipline process takes time as all citizens, especially minors, are entitled to due process under the law. The results of the process are also confidential, per California Education Code 49076, which states, “A school district is not authorized to permit access to pupil records to any person without written parental consent or under judicial order…” with very few exceptions.

“While we appreciate the level of concern in the community, we are prohibited from sharing confidential information about disciplinary actions taken in response to any incident where minors are involved,” said Superintendent Ahmadi, “Even if it would help clear up misinformation.”

The District follows education code regarding discipline of any student found to commit an act of vandalism or destruction of property. These matters are taken very seriously, fully investigated in collaboration with the Pleasanton Police Department, and when identified, serious consequences are implemented including paying restitution for any damage.

“We trust that the community understands the need for privacy for our students and that we as a District take all necessary steps to ensure our students take responsibility for their actions and have the opportunity to redeem themselves,” said Superintendent Ahmadi.

The Board of Trustees celebrated the District’s Valedictorians and Salutatorians from both Amador and Foothill High Schools.

Pictured (left to right, front row) are Foothill Principal John Dwyer, Colin Wei (FHS Sal), Christopher Wen (FHS Sal), Miromid Abrishamchian (FHS Val), Hanying Mo (AVHS Sal), Edward Wang (AVHS Sal), Aditya Sinha (AVHS Val), and Amador Valley High School Principal Jim Hansen.

Foothill High School Jazz A students joined forces with Dublin High School and Dougherty Valley High to put on the fourth annual “Jazzin’ for a Cure” concert on May 17th, 2013.  The event took place at the Shannon Center in Dublin and together the bands raised over $1,200 for the American Cancer Society.

For more information & pictures of the evening, visit http://onedublin.org/.

During the May 14th Board meeting, the Board of Trustees unanimously approved a recommendation to use $112,000 in district funds to match a $213,000 contribution from Pleasanton Partners In Education (PPIE) to set class size in first grade at 25 to 1 for the 2013-14 school year.  Class size is currently 30 to 1 (student to teacher ratio), and this change to 25 to 1 is  for first grade only.

The Board of Trustees appreciates the work of many volunteers who contributed to the fundraising efforts.

If you have any questions, please contact staff in your school office.

Staggered reading/literacy will continue to be in place for the 2013-14 school year, providing opportunities for students in grades one, two and three to receive small group, targeted literacy instruction in groups of about 12 to 16 students.

Schools will communicate with parents and request input from parents regarding any preference for morning or afternoon group placement. Attempts will be made to honor requests, however the first priority is to create heterogeneously balanced groups for instruction.

Key dates for the beginning of the school year related to staggered literacy is as follows:

Monday, August 26th - First day of school

Friday, September 6th – Parents will be notified about their child’s schedule

Monday, September 16th -First day of staggered schedules

Prior to September 16th all students in grades one, two and three will be “morning readers”.

Congressman Eric Swalwell congratulating AVHS’s We The People Competition Team!   Take a minute to watch the youtube video and share as you wish.

We sincerely thank Congressman Swalwell for his continued support of public education and for highlighting this incredible achievement.

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PUSD is pleased to announce that the Teacher of the Year for 2013/14 is Christie Carnahan from Valley View Elementary School.

Ms. Carnahan has been with Pleasanton Unified for 17 years.  Her colleagues and parents describe her as an extraordinary teacher with the ability to recognize the unique gifts of each child and the ability to help each of her students reach his/her greatest potential.  Ms. Carnahan is a SMARTBOARD certified trainer who provides SDR classes for PUSD teachers.

Ms. Carnahan’s name will be submitted to the Alameda County Office of Education for the county’s Teacher of the Year program.

Please join us in congratulating Ms. Carnahan!

How will schools teach in the Cloud era? How is innovation fostered within communities and what drives innovation? How will the workplace evolve? Find out on June 8th at TEDxLivermore when global thought leaders, entrepreneurs, authors, artists, innovators and local educators present their ideas on the theme:

“Creating our Future: Innovate + Educate”

PUSD’s Lisa Highfill, 5th grade teacher at Fairlands Elementary, will be a featured presenter at the TEDx Livermore event.  As a Google-certified and You Tube Star teacher, Ms. Highfill will be presenting on, “Time-tested and new tools (such as flipped classrooms) which are shifting elementary education away from a teacher-centric model to a student-led, self-directed approach that incorporates technology, fosters creativity and nurtures children’s innate curiosity.”

Click here for more information.