Piedmont Pulse

February 10, 2025

Dear PUSD Families & Staff:

At last week's Board Study Session, the Board provided direction to staff to pursue a number of program options to implement for the fall, including additional performing arts in grades 4 and 5, additional world language in grades 5-7, and additional courses at the high school level, including AP Seminar and Vocal Music. Staff are now collaborating on what the implementation looks like. The deck for the budget study session is linked HERE. If you have thoughts on these options, we sent out a survey several weeks ago where you can still submit ideas, linked HERE. Following collaboration and input from staff and families, we will present information to the Board in the months to follow.

Thank you for your partnership in supporting our students.

In Community,

Jennifer Hawn, Ed.D.

Superintendent

PUSD Accepting Nominations for 2025 Arthur Hecht Volunteer Award

(Piedmont, Ca., January 22, 2025) – The Piedmont Unified School District (PUSD) is excited to announce nominations for the 2025 Arthur Hecht Volunteer of the Year Award are now being accepted. The award is presented annually to individuals who have volunteered their efforts over a period of time and made a difference because of their involvement and commitment to Piedmont’s youth.

Previous recipients include: Hunter McCreary (1998); Ann Chandler (1999); Ruth Cuming (2000); Lisa Lomenzo (2001); jointly by Cathie Geddeis and Marion Souyoultzis (2002); jointly by Fritz and Mary Wooster (2003); Elizabeth (Betsy) Gentry (2004); Cynthia Gorman (2005); Grier Graff (2006); Julia Burke (2007); Maude Pervere (2008); jointly to Anne-Marie Lamarche and Mark Menke (2009); Janiele Maffei Tovani (2010); Andrea Swenson (2011), June Monach (2012), Bill Drum (posthumously) and Mary Ireland (2013), Ray Perman (2014), Jennifer Fox (2015), Katie Korotzer (2016), Hilary Cooper (2017) Holly Hanke (2018), Cathy Glazier (2019), Sue Smegal (2020), Ken Li (2021), Eileen Ruby (2022), David Ragones (2023) and most recently, Sarah Pearson in 2024.

Art Hecht was a tireless community volunteer, and was dedicated to students in both Piedmont and Oakland. He served on Piedmont’s Board of Education from 1970 to 1982. Art also was very active with the Piedmont Continuation High School (now called Millennium High School). In 1998, the Art Hecht Volunteer of the Year Award was established in his memory.

Nominations for this award are now being sought and will be kept strictly confidential. The deadline for nominations is March 14, 2025. A selection committee will vote on the award recipient, who will be recognized at the May 14, 2025, Board of Education meeting, where the honoree’s good works will be acknowledged.

Nomination Forms are available on the District website, in the District Office or by calling Rosalina Barrios, Executive Assistant to the Superintendent, at (510) 594-2614.

Once Upon a Mattress

Once of the many outstanding aspects of our district is our performing arts programs, including use of the Alan Harvey Theater. Congratulations to Amy Moorhead and our students for a fun production of Once Upon a Mattress, the comedic adaptation of "The Princess and the Pea." As always our students were wonderful, with an array of costumes, and an enjoyable evening for all ages.

Partnering Beyond the Classroom...Students from Spain Arrive

It was great to attend a reception on February 2nd for students and staff from Spain (Galicia) who are part of a cultural exchange program for our high school students. Thanks to Deysi Sahagon, Ken Brown, Joanne Guillan along with parent supporters who have made this wonderful exchange program happen. Our Spanish visitors will be here through February 11th, and our students and staff will visit Spain over spring vacation.

Art, Literature & More Literature

Thanks so much to the Beach staff, including Ms. Harris for letting a Board member and me drop into her K art class where kids were creating art based on Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are–wonderful! Later in the week, I visited high school English classes, including Dr. Marks' AP Literature class where students were studying Milton, and Mr. Wolbert's 9th grade English class where students were working on their I-Search projects. Many of you know I taught high school English for many years, and visiting our expert teachers does make me long to teach again. Thank you, teachers, for your amazing work!

Students Learn the Power of Words

I happened upon a lesson at Havens last week in which our students were learning about the power of language, including the meaning and impact of racial slurs and discriminatory language. Thanks to Jean Takazawa for her leadership, along with our high school Affinity Mentors who facilitated the lesson for our elementary students. Thanks also to our Havens teachers for their collaboration on teaching students the importance of appropriate language and behavior.

Our resident priority enrollment period began on January 15th. If your child will be 4 years old by 9/1/2025, enroll in TK starting Wednesday. If you child will be 5 years old by 9/1/2025, enroll in Kindergarten starting Wednesday. Enrollment takes place online linked HERE.

More information about resident enrollment can be found HERE, and please note that enrollment for those who live outside the district begins March 1, 2025. We look forward to seeing you this fall!

Please be on the lookout for Infinite Campus messages with sign-up links for the following community meetings:

Special Education Advisory Committee - February 11, 2025 at 4PM - District Office

Director of Special Education, Jean Fagin, will present updates on the District's Special Education program. Meeting Link: Zoom link

Superintendent's Advisory Committee (SAC) - February 27, 2025 at 4:30PM - District Office

Director of Food Services, Gitara Spinks; CBO, Ruth Alahydoian, and I will be inviting input on a requirement for the district regarding having a Local School Wellness Policy (LSWP). This policy is required for all California school districts that participate in the school meal program. The policy is focused on school meal nutrition and focuses on student wellness as a prevention for childhood obesity. RSVP HERE.

Parents/Guardians: We launched a committee last year to establish safety procedures for threats to the campus. Since the launch, we have collaborated with PPD, PFD, and our staff on developing a process for threats that we hope we never need. At this point, we have a draft document that we would like to refine and finalize.

We are looking for 1-2 experts in mental health threat assessment who would be willing to join our committee and advise on our internal procedures. We anticipate two additional meetings this year, and an annual meeting thereafter. The next meeting is scheduled for 2/25 at 11AM in person. If you would like to join us, please let us know HERE. Thank you for your consideration.

This year PUSD launched an Independent Study Program (ISP) for qualifying students in grades 9-12. Independent Study is a hybrid program that allows qualifying students to complete their high school requirements, with most of the work completed online and on-campus meetings at least once a week.

Key Features:

• Uses the Accelerate Education platform, with students completing ~5 hours of independent work daily.
• Weekly 1-hour individual meetings with an ISP teacher for mentoring, tutoring, and organization.
• Optional daily virtual synchronous sessions for core subjects.
• In-person attendance required for PSAT/SAT, state testing, and specific college/career events.

Application Process:

1. Submit the PUSD electronic application linked HERE, including a student-written letter.
2. Attend a Student Success Team (SST) meeting with stakeholders.
3. Receive acceptance and next steps upon qualifying.

Program Highlights:

• Students remain enrolled in their current high school (PHS or MHS).
• ISP provides a flexible, alternative instructional strategy aligned with district curriculum and graduation requirements.
• Access to A–G approved courses and equivalent standards-aligned content.

More information is linked HERE. For additional questions, please contact Principal Irma Muñoz Daniels at imunozdaniels@piedmont.k12.ca.us

Presidents' Day/February Break - The CDE and PUSD recognize February 17th as Presidents' Day. There will be no school February 17-21st.

Black History Month - The California Department of Education and PUSD recognize February as Black History Month. To our Black/African American students, staff, and families, we celebrate you now and ALWAYS!

Support TPH - In order to continue to publish the Piedmont Highlander, we need your help. The Infinite Campus portal is now working to accept donations, which was previously not working. Students and families can subscribe to TPH through the Infinite Campus portal now. Interested community members can also support student journalism by making donations directly to the program by check or through the link PHS The Piedmont Highlander (TPH)

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

Millennium High School is open for enrollment. If you have questions, please feel free to contact Principal Irma Muñoz Daniels directly at (510) 594-2703 or imunozdaniels@piedmont.k12.ca.us, or see more information linked HERE

Piedmont Alumni Network: Last spring, we launched the Piedmont Alumni Network! Linked HERE is a page on our PUSD website to invite alumni of PHS and MHS to sign up. Whether you graduated many years ago, or recently, we would love to have you sign up HERE.

Community Pool Construction Update - Safety measures around the Community Pool Project construction site on Magnolia Avenue across from PHS/MHS are currently in effect. Magnolia Avenue is open to traffic during school hours; however, we recommend avoiding the area when possible due to heavy truck traffic due to construction. Visit the City of Piedmont's website for details.

Follow PUSD - Please read our school newsletters sent out weekly for update to date information. The District Facebook (@piedmontunified) and Instagram (@piedmontusd)

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