AUSD Superintendent Addresses Community

From Alameda Unified School District: Over the last several years, we have seen great progress in our district goal of improving our AUSD Career Technical Education (CTE) programs.

For instance, I was delighted to go to Alameda Hospital recently to see Alameda High School (AHS) Sports Medicine students don blue coats and begin their orientations for our new FACES for the Future work-based learning experiences which we have set up via our emerging partnership with the Alameda Health System. Under this program, AHS students have an opportunity to prepare for a career in the healthcare sector by interning at Alameda Hospital, receiving academic support, and benefiting from training in wellness and leadership. The program also aims to bring more diversity into the health professions and address healthcare disparities.

Our goal is to offer the same allied health CTE experiences to Encinal students someday soon. In the meantime, Encinal students can already take college classes in biotechnology and genomics, and in so doing they earn both high school science credits and college credits from AUSD and Peralta Community College District (PCCD). Moreover, it has been exciting to see Encinal staff and students work on building and launching their own FM radio station (96.1/KJTZ) from their new radio/television lab. That lab is allowing Encinal students to learn broadcast journalism through hands- on audio and video production. Be sure to tune in Monday to Friday, 8 AM – 11 AM, to hear news, commentary, and music from our youth!

Upcoming Events

• April 3-April 7 Spring Break
• April 3-April 6 SAT/ACT Crash Course
• April 21 Salute to Education
• April 25 Board of Education Meeting
• May 6 Special Education Resource Fair
• May 29 Memorial Day
• June 8 Last Student Day

Just last week, we also held our 3rd Annual Career Pathways and Youth Job Fair. More than 600 students visited the fair, where more than 50 local businesses as well as tradespeople and representatives from PCCD were available to talk about education opportunities, jobs, internships, and careers. We are so grateful to our many partners here in Alameda who supported this event, including the City of Alameda,

Alameda County Supervisor Wilma Chan, Alameda County Workforce Development Board, KRA, the Alameda Collaborative for Children, Youth, and their Families, and of course our local businesses.

We are blessed and fortunate with the many powerful partnerships we maintain. Our partnership with the College of Alameda (COA) has resulted in the Alameda Promise wherein now every interested AUSD graduate can benefit from a free year of tuition and books paid for by PCCD and its benefactors. For over a decade, COA has been a vital partner to us because they help make possible our Early College High School, Alameda Science and Technology Institute. Indeed, we also now have island High School students also benefiting from college credit classes they are enrolled in through our work with COA. We look forward to increasing efforts of partnership with COA and PCCD in years to come.

Last month, I wrote about challenges we face as a district. In months ahead, we will continue to wrestle with difficult challenges we face, but as we head to our spring break, I hope we can remember to take stock in and stay mindful of the great things we are accomplishing with partners to help us in our goal of ensuring all students can graduate college and career ready.

Image Via Pixabay