October 16, 2023

Dear Piedmont USD Families,

I hope you are looking forward to a great week! This week's topics include the following:

• Student Attendance & School Funding
• Superintendent's Advisory Council
• Pulse Check - Private Tutoring & Private College Counseling
• PUSD News & Notes

In Partnership,

Jennifer Hawn, Ed.D.

Superintendent

One aspect of the budget that I have been looking closely at is how student attendance impacts our revenue. You may not know this, but every time a student is absent, the school does not receive funding for that student for that school day. This includes absences for illness. Even though an absence due to illness is considered excused, the district receives no funding if a student is absent for any reason. Senate Bill 727 in 1999 determined that districts would no longer receive funding for students who were absent from school for any reason.

During the pandemic, the state suspended this requirement during distance learning and froze funding for school districts to the previous year. After schools reopened, districts experienced a loss of enrollment across California, and the State recognized this phenomena and funded districts based on their average attendance over the three years preceding the current year if that number exceeded their current and prior year attendance.

In the chart below, you can see the LCFF column, which reflects the loss per day of funding each time a student is absent for any reason. For example, if you have a 7th grade student who is absent for one day, the result is a loss of $58.06 for that day. You can imagine how this adds up quickly. For PUSD, our total loss of funds in 2022-23 due to absences totaled over $1M.

PUSD is in a difficult situation with our declining enrollment and 94% average daily attendance rate. One of my goals is to increase our enrollment, specifically toward enrolling every resident in our outstanding schools. However, daily attendance is also important. Let me be clear that we have no interest in seeing students who are ill attend school. If your child is ill, please do keep your child at home. However, if you are taking a vacation or any activity that may take your child out of school, please know that PUSD is losing funding for that day. Please consider scheduling vacations and activities during our calendared breaks. Imagine what we could do with the $1M we lost in daily attendance. Student attendance = school funding.

Our Superintendent’s Advisory Council has met twice, and we have organized into two subcommittees focused on two central questions:

1. How can we ensure enrollment in PUSD schools from every Piedmont resident?

2. How can we ensure outstanding program offerings that make PUSD a destination school district within budget constraints?

We have an outstanding group of participants working on these two critical questions, and already, the ideas are outstanding.

For the resident enrollment question, we are exploring surveying and focus groups, specifically looking at several groups: 1. families who currently have kids in private schools, 2. families who previously had kids in private school but returned to PUSD, and 3. Families who considered private school but ultimately selected PUSD. If you are a family or know families in either group that we should survey or talk to, please feel free to share more HERE.

We are also looking at marketing strategies, with the clear awareness that we do, indeed, need to market our schools to our resident families. More to come on all of these strategies, and my thanks to staff, students, or families who have ideas to share at the link above.

For the program analysis question, we are looking first at the high school program, including the master schedule of courses and enrollment. We are exploring what course options would be most advantageous and exciting to students along with course options in comparable public and private schools. We are also examining enrollment criteria to determine whether we can make decisions about course options that maintain courses that are not under or over enrolled. We already have committee members exploring comparable schools, and we are exploring the design of a survey for students and parents that helps us understand how students might choose between various course options. If you have ideas on survey design, please let me know HERE.

I am thrilled with the outstanding caliber of ideas of our SAC members, and I have no doubt the collective wisdom of our group will help PUSD continue to improve.

Students & Parents, I have heard from a number of parents that having a tutor and/or private college counselor is a must in PUSD. My review of our instructional program and high school counseling program indicate a solid foundation for students that should not require tutoring or additional counseling. Below is a pulse check on these two items, and I invite you to share your thoughts. Thank you! Pulse Check - Tutoring & College Counseling

If you have topics you are particularly interested in, please reach out to me at jhawn@piedmont.k12.ca.us.

Piedmont Portal - For all of the latest school and community events, please visit the Piedmont Portal linked HERE

Filipino American History Month - The CDE recognizes October as Filipino American History Month. We celebrate our Filipino American students, staff and families this month and ALWAYS.

PEF - The Giving Campaign - We are grateful to our community for their support of our outstanding programs. If you are able to give, go HERE.

The Great Shakeout - October 19th at 10:19AM all PUSD schools will participate in California's Great Shake Out, an annual emergency earthquake and evacuation drill. More information HERE

ALPS Meeting on Math Pathways & Differentiation - October 19th at 7:00PM at the Piedmont Community Hall. More information HERE

Piedmont Boosters Oktoberfest - October 22nd from 12PM - 5PM. More information HERE

The History of Racism and Redlining in Piedmont - October 23rd at 6:30PM at the Alan Harvey Theater, presented by Piedmont High School Associated Student Body (ASB) students, supported by the Piedmont Anti-Racism and Diversity Committee (PADC).

Moraga Canyon Specific Plan (City Survey) - Help shape the future of Moraga Canyon and enter to win a $100 gift certificate to Mulberry's Market by completing a brief online survey.

This survey marks the first opportunity for you to inform the Moraga Canyon Specific Plan, an initiative that will study all City-owned land in the Moraga Canyon area with the goal of creating a detailed plan for how to incorporate 132 units of new housing, 60 of which would be reserved for households earning lower incomes, maintain and improve existing City facilities, and improve traffic and wildfire safety. Survey link HERE

Witter Field Renovation Project Updates - For updates on the Witter Field Renovation Project, please go to our Facilities page on our PUSD website.

Community Pool Construction Update - Safety measures around the Community Pool Project construction site on Magnolia Ave. across from PHS/MHS are currently in effect. Visit the City of Piedmont's website for details.

Work for PUSD - PUSD is seeking candidates for a variety of positions. Visit the District's Edjoin page for a complete list of jobs available and to apply online.

Substitutes Needed - Support students while earning up to $200/day. PUSD seeking substitute teachers for the 2023-24 school year. Visit the District's EdJoin page for more information and to apply.

Follow PUSD - Please read our school newsletters sent out weekly for update to date information. The District Facebook (@piedmontunified), Twitter (@piedmontunified), Instagram (@piedmontusd) and Threads (@piedmontusd@threads) pages are active.

Email: communication@piedmont.k12.ca.us
Website: www.piedmont.k12.ca.us
Location: 760 Magnolia Avenue, Piedmont, CA, USA
Phone: 510-594-2600