Dear Parents, Teachers, Administrators, and Staff of BUSD,
Welcome/Bienvenidos to the 2011-12 school year! We are looking forward to the year ahead and continuing efforts to base our decisions upon open, transparent governance and sound fiscal management. We will continue to focus our efforts on the use of data to improve student achievement, strengthen classroom curriculum and instruction and use these efforts to support our 2020 Vision work. As we visit schools, read reports, review data and hear from parents, teachers, principals, the Superintendent and community members, we will focus on aligning our District to meet best educational practices and hearing what is working and not working to increase student achievement.
We are fortunate to have staff that is determined to have a successful school year, and want our schools and students to thrive. While our overall test scores are improving, there is still work to do with our Latino and African American students. This gap is not acceptable. We invite you to join us in finding ways to support your classroom teacher and/or school in reaching their goals: this could be reading with your child every night, taking a trip to the library, or exploring the Bay Area on a field trip. You can also support your child’s school by participating in school governance and/or site councils (ELAC, Safety), attending parent meetings and open houses.
We are committed to the excellence of ALL students and to open, accessible and responsive governance. We welcome your input, whether it is by attending school board meetings or contacting us by email or by phone (for meeting and contact information go to the District’s website: www.berkeley.net or call 644-6550). It is an exciting year ahead. We sincerely welcome back each student, teacher, principal and the support staff that make our schools the best in the Bay Area and reassure you that nothing is more important than creating a safe, caring and responsive learning environment for our students and their families.
Sincerely,
Beatriz Levya-Cutler, School Board President
John Selawsky, School Board Vice President
Josh Daniels, School Board Director
Karen Hemphill, School Board Director
Leah Wilson, School Board Director