All Alameda Unified School District campuses are on fall break this week, the first real break that students and staff have had since mid-August. We know everyone can use the rest and relaxation! In his Thanksgiving message to the AUSD community, Superintendent Scuderi made a point of expressing gratitude to staff and families and especially to students.

“(We thank them for) their irrepressible candor in discussions, their unbound curiosity and creativity, their hard work and their managing of the range of uncertainty and newness they navigate at all levels of their education as growing people,” he wrote. “Our futures as adults are inextricably linked to the opportunities and outcomes we support and facilitate for all of them.”

You can read the full letter on our website at www.alamedaunified.org.

Enrollment season for new students is just around the corner, so we want to make sure everyone in the community knows when the most important dates are. “Open enrollment” — which is for schools that take applicants from all across Alameda, not just their local neighborhoods — opened last week and will continue through Jan. 20.

The AUSD’s open enrollment schools are ASTI, Bay Farm School’s grades sixth through eight, Encinal Junior & Senior High School (for students who live outside the school’s zone) and Wood Middle School (also for people who live outside the school zone). Maya Lin School’s open enrollment period is from Jan. 23 to March 17.

Kindergarten and transitional kindergarten (TK) enrollment begins in January. TK Information Night will take place via Zoom at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 18. Kindergarten Information Night will take place via Zoom at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 19. Maya Lin’s Kindergarten Information Night, however, will be on Jan. 26. Online enrollment opens on Jan. 23.

More information, including applications and instructions are available online on our enrollment webpage at bayareane.ws/AUSD2023-24enrollment.

We also want to be sure everyone knows about our new kindergarten schedule. As noted in our Nov. 11 column, AUSD officials this fall have been considering a potential expansion of our kindergarten day.

At its public meeting Nov. 8, the AUSD board voted to implement a modified full-day kindergarten next school year (2023-24). Under that program, kindergarten students will get out at 2 p.m. on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, and slightly earlier on Wednesdays, when teachers will have collaboration time.

Research has found that full-day kindergarten confers significant social, emotional and academic benefits to all kindergartners. Most districts in Alameda County offer a modified full-day program. This change would also ease some of the scheduling challenges that our current program poses for families. The board also voted to start planning for a full-day kindergarten program (meaning the same length that students have in first through sixth grades) for the following year (2024-25).

We’d like to wish all of the Alameda community a Thanksgiving weekend filled with comfort and connection. We’re deeply grateful for the many ways the community steps forward to support AUSD staff, students and families.

Susan Davis is the Alameda Unified School District’s senior manager for community affairs. Reach her at 510-337-7175 or SDavis@alamedaunified.org.