As we head toward mid-November and the holiday season, Alameda Unified School District staff are already thinking about changes to our instructional programs that we hope will better support students, including and especially students whose academic outcomes have historically been lower than those of other groups. Those changes are being designed to support all students, but AUSD especially has a keen focus on addressing historically inequitable learning opportunities and outcomes.
One of the biggest changes under consideration is the potential expansion of our kindergarten day. At its public meeting this week, the AUSD Board of Education considered how and if to move forward with either a full-day kindergarten or a modified full-day program, in which kindergarten students get out at 2 p.m. every day (rather than the current alternating schedule).
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 our current program poses for families. We will have more details after the AUSD Board’s vote and after staff work out the details of next year’s program.
Looking for background on this topic? The board discussed a potential expansion of the current kindergarten program at its Oct. 25 meeting public meeting; you can see the PowerPoint presentation and video of the presentation online at tinyurl.com/AUSD-BoE-10252022. This week’s materials are available at tinyurl.com/AUSD-BoE-11082022.
A second area of potential change is creating common start and end times for our schools. This fall, the AUSD and Alameda Education Association negotiated a new three-year contract that includes provisions for school sites to schedule collaboration time to plan, problem-solve and participate in educational inquiry together.
To provide for that time, which will be laser-focused on students and instructional practices, school schedules will need to be adjusted slightly and made consistent across school sites (so that all staff — and therefore all students — benefit from this collaboration time). We’ll provide more details once the schedules are worked out. For now we believe the primary change will affect Wednesdays.
Reminder: The public comment period for the renaming of Woodstock Child Development Center remains open until Dec. 13. On that day, the AUSD Board will vote on whether or not to change the name to the Alameda Child Development Center, with a Dr. Ardella Dailey Preschool Program. Community members who wish to voice their opinion on this name change can speak at the Dec. 13 meeting (the agenda will be available at alameda.novusagenda.com/agendapublic) or send emails to AUSD Board members (contact information is available at www.alamedaunified.org/board/board-of-education). Background on the renaming process is available at bayareane.ws/WCDCrenaming.
Susan Davis is the Alameda Unified School District’s senior manager for community affairs. Reach her at 510-337-7175 or SDavis@alamedaunified.org.
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