Monday, August 27, 2012

Start of a New School Year

Students are back in classrooms today, at the start of the 2012-13 school year.  The district was buzzing with excitement this morning as I visited several schools. 

District employees were busy during the summer getting things ready.  Personnel services made sure staff is in place to meet the student demands.  Education services was managing enrollment and making sure curriculum is meeting the needs of our students.  Enrollment was particularly challenging as a couple of our schools have reach overflow capacity.  The nutrition department made sure food services staff are ready to serve the kids. 

The district IT department greeted the new year with a newly revamped district website.  If you haven't seen it yet, check it out at www.berryessa.k12.ca.us.  It looks great.

As usual, summer is a busy time in the maintenance department.  The most visible upgrade this summer is the new roof on Piedmont Middle School.  It is the 13th and final school in the district to get a new roof paid for by our 2000 bond measure.  Noble School has a new fire alarm system and a great looking, educational garden.  Several schools got fresh coats of paint and resurfaced black top. 

My favorite scene at the start of a new year is watching parents dropping off new kindergarten students.  Most are taking photos as they watch their little ones head into class for the first time.  Their excitement is matched all over the district by students who have new teachers and new classmates.  I wish everyone nothing but success in the upcoming school year.

3 comments:

Andres said...

Good to know It got a new roof paid for by our 2000 bond measure and it has a new fire alarm system and a great looking, educational garden..I think children will be very excited to go to this great school.!!

Anonymous said...

It is good to see update on your blog. But I think the superintendent shall also keep updating information to public. For example, we are interested in how superintendent improves the education quality(API is a good measurement); how the school district handles the financial crisis; how to add more programs(hopefully no cutting). Over the whole year, I don't see anything from him.

David said...

Anonymous, thanks for the feedback. It is important that the district's constituents feel like they are hearing from the Superintendent. He does write a monthly column in the Berryessa Sun, but we will discuss other ways to update the public.

As for cutting, if the state ballot measures (30 in particular, 38 to a lesser extent) don't pass in November, we are likely to be facing massive cuts and the board is discussing possible plans. I will blog on this topic more in the next month.