We have overcome serious challenges and achieved great successes over the last five years. We need to keep the momentum going and build on it!
When I was elected to the school board five years ago, I had several major goals that have since been accomplished:
- We overcame an $18 million budget shortfall and achieved "positive budget certification" in just four years, with a 3% reserve and a small surplus. We did this while still preserving sports, arts and music programs.
- We replaced the senior administration and improved community trust in the HUSD governance team, by increasing the involvement, support and partnership of the community, and improving communication.
- We passed the first Hayward school bond in 45 years (with a 72% vote) to begin to rebuild and replace our old and crumbling schools.
- Student academic achievement in test scores has significantly improved.
These and other accomplishments are all the more remarkable given the fact that five years ago HUSD was "in serious financial and governance crises," and "as dysfunctional a school district as [we] have ever seen," according to the State Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team (FCMAT).
OTHER ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
- Closure of two schools and the opening of two new, twenty-first century schools. This was done without using HUSD general funds and by collaborating innovatively with the City, HARD and private developers.
- Development of HUSD's first comprehensive Master Facility Plan to rebuild and/or replace every school in the district over a 15-year period. Five more new schools will be built in the next 4-5 years.
- Redistricting of school boundaries for the first time in decades to provide more equitable distribution of students. (Previously elementary schools varied from fewer than 300 students to more than 900 students.)
- Development of a new comprehensive English Learner Master Plan, to improve English language development and give parents a choice of programs: English Immersion, Bilingual Alternative, and Dual Language Immersion.
- Increased instructional minutes and unit requirements in the high schools.
- Implemented "closed" campuses in the high schools and a city-wide daytime curfew to improve student attendance, punctuality and to reduce problems in the surrounding neighborhoods.
- Improved the quality, selection and delivery of food services in all schools.
- Improved district technology available to teachers, parents and students, e.g., wireless web-based internet access for all, improved HUSD website, new school-to-home telephone system, increased bilingual staff and improved other improved communications.
- Completed millions of dollars of improvements to several schools.
- Overhauled the Special Education programs and corrected previous deficiencies cited by state compliance authorities.
The list goes on, but there is much more to do. (See my position statement on "Next Steps.")
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