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Maurice Ghysels, who served as interim superintendent last school year, will continue to serve as the district’s superintendent for the next two years. The school board asked Ghysels to stay as the top administrator this summer following an extensive superintendent search. (Photo by Christian Trujano) 
A rendering shows the facade design for Amador Valley High School’s new theater, which will be funded by Measure I bond dollars. The school board facility committee recently settled on choosing this design. (Image courtesy of PUSD) 
A rendering shows what the new gym at Foothill High School will look like once the campus renovation project, which is funded by the $395 million Measure I bond, is completed. (Image courtesy of PUSD) 
Teachers participate in a professional development session at Foothill High School on Aug. 4. (Photo by Christian Trujano) 
Construction for the new athletic and performing arts facilities at Amador Valley High School is scheduled to begin in the second half of 2026. (Image courtesy of PUSD) 
An image shows the new synthetic track and field and natural grass field at Pleasanton Middle School. Construction is scheduled to be completed this fall. (Photo by Christian Trujano) 
Another rendering shows a different angle of the proposed Foothill High School gym facility upgrade. 
Construction has been completed for the new playground at Hearst Elementary School, which is designed for first through fifth graders. (Photo courtesy of PUSD) 
Ghysels oversees the construction, which begun in June, currently going on at Foothill High School on Aug. 4. The work consists of demolishing Building F and creating temporary housing for affected programs. This is expected to wrap up in October with a completed building pad. (Photo by Christian Trujano) 
Construction workers pave away at cement in Foothill High School as part of the phase one of the campus renovation project. The scope of work includes demolition of the existing boys and girls PE lockers, team rooms, visual arts, site utilities, and it also includes building interim housing for the displaced programs. (Photo by Christian Trujano)
Ensuring bond projects stay on schedule, improving the district’s financial stability and building a culture of belonging are just some of the major goals and priorities Superintendent Maurice Ghysels has as he begins his next chapter at Pleasanton Unified School District.
Ghysels, who had initially stepped in as interim superintendent last summer for the 2024-25 school year only, said that while he did not expect to stay past his temporary assignment, he intends to do a lot of good work during his upcoming two-year stint as permanent superintendent.
“I was just like ‘whatever you need,'” Ghysels said regarding the school board’s decision to ask him to stay following a nationwide recruitment that spanned roughly a year. “This is my town, these are my folks, I love the people here.”
During a sitdown interview with the Pleasanton Weekly in August 2024, Ghysels said one of his goals was to set the district up for its new, permanent superintendent.
Now, he is determined to leave the district in a better place following his short tenure. However, he made it clear that after his contract ends in June 2027, he will be done and will go back into retirement.
“At some point, someone else needs to step up,” he said. “What I’m hoping to do is … continue to help the board, because we made some great strides this year, keep that momentum going, get a person in and retire again.”
Budget challenges
Ghysels said declining enrollment continues to be the biggest issue when it comes to the district’s financial challenges.
“It’s just killing us,” he said.
That’s why he wants Pleasanton to become the go-to district — so more people are inclined to enroll their students there, which would boost revenues. Ghysels previously noted during his State of the District speech earlier this year that every new student equals about $12,000 in revenue.
Last school year, the district began a marketing campaign that focused on recruiting families who don’t live within PUSD’s boundaries, particularly those whose parents commute to Pleasanton. Ghysels said the plan is to continue those types of campaigns in the future. He said while they don’t have any of the final numbers, the district is already seeing more students enroll this year thanks to those campaigns.
Declining revenue continues to be another challenge that Ghysels wants to help address during his short tenure at PUSD. One way he wants to help address that is by making sure the district is being smart with the property that it owns.
“We got to look at our properties and just be really astute in how we can increase revenue,” Ghysels said.
One example of this, he noted, was the school board’s recent decision to use millions of dollars primarily from the sale of the district’s Vineyard Avenue property to pay off the majority of a $30 million certificate of participation that helped finance the district’s new offices on West Las Positas Boulevard.
He also said the Bernal property, which used to be the district’s headquarters, is another valuable asset that the district can leverage to increase its revenues.
Regarding the district’s current offices, he said because PUSD “downsized so demonstrably last year”, there is now more office space available, which could be leased out. He said staff are already looking into best case scenarios for renting out that space to commercial businesses, nonprofits or even the city.
However, even with all of that, he recognized the district’s financial status is still not where he wants it to be and that right-sizing will continue to be needed over the next year.
Finding new streams of revenue is important to Ghysels and why he is interested in introducing the idea of a parcel tax to the board sometime this fall. A parcel tax would require a two-thirds majority vote by residents in order to be approved.
“It’s not unusual for a district like this to have a parcel tax,” Ghysels said.
He said while he doesn’t know how all of the trustees feel about such a tax and acknowledged there are a lot of variables when it comes to introducing such an item to the community, he is still “very interested, curious, about the prospect … of something more permanent, local, accountable to the voters”.
He said in order to pay, attract and retain all of the district’s employees in such an affluent area like Pleasanton — especially with the looming worries regarding inflation and a possible recession — PUSD will need some “local funding that’s stable”.
“As far as getting to fiscal stability, that’s an urgent matter,” Ghysels said. “I want to be able to leave the place with financial stability, sustainability and a horizon that is more certain.”
Student and teacher experience
One of Ghysels’ other main goals during his two-year tenure is improving the experience for all students at PUSD, which he says must start with the teachers.
“You start small and you do it rapidly and you learn from it and iterate step after step after step. It tends to be a process that’s more continuous … so the chances of it spreading, especially organically, is much greater than if a bunch of administrators sitting in the room (tell) teachers what to do because they think they know more,” Ghysels said regarding new ways to engage with students.
He was pleased to see teachers undergoing professional development during a session on Monday at Foothill High School ahead of the first day of school this Thursday (Aug. 7).
“Our educators have been working over the break to prepare classrooms and curriculum for our students’ return. We are excited to provide the highest quality education and services,” Association of Pleasanton Teachers President Evan Branning told the Weekly. “APT educators continue to be our students’ strongest advocates and we will do all we can for them. APT educators know our students deserve the best education, classrooms, and services because Pleasanton students deserve the best.”
Ghysels said this year, PUSD is going to focus on helping underserved students while at the same time focusing on overachieving students, which will inevitably improve the overall average student population.
He said while the district has always focused on their underserved student population, by also hearing from high performing students it will allow the district to evolve in a way that would not leave out those high achieving students.
“Those kids have to be served too, otherwise where do they go? Private schools,” he said. “We want to be the go-to district of the Bay Area.”
He said that means starting small and seeing what works. Those things that start to work would be shared to teachers by other teachers, which feeds into Ghysels’ other priority of creating a culture at PUSD where everyone feels they share a sense of belonging and connection.
While Ghysels recognized that employee salaries and benefits make up most of the district’s budget expenditures, he also said talent drives everything at PUSD, which is why paying employees what they think they are worth is important. He said from custodians to teachers to administrators, PUSD needs to feel like a place where they all belong because it’s thanks to all of those employees that the schools perform at such a high level.
“Culture can only go so far,” he said. “People have to feel like they’re getting paid as much as, or at least in the competitive range as the next best alternative and if they don’t, you could lose them.”
Another thing that Ghysels has already begun implementing and plans on continuing throughout the school year is a “boots on the ground” meeting every Friday. The idea is to walk through different school sites and find out everything going on at the school — the good and the bad so that there are “absolutely no surprises.”
Bond projects
Ghysels said he is looking forward to continuing overseeing the various bond measure projects during his short tenure.
“The bond measures that we have are being executed at or under budget,” Ghysels said.
He said all of the projects are on schedule and said this year he has the pleasure of seeing the teams designing the various ongoing projects.
“You see all the renderings and they’re pretty cool,” he said.
According to a facilities and construction update presentation from Aug. 2, some of the highlights for the various projects going on at PUSD include the board facility committee settling on a final design for the new theater facade at Amador Valley High School, which is part of the school’s overall campus renovation project that will build new athletic and performing arts facilities. The design for Amador’s overall project is set to be completed this year with construction slated to begin sometime next year.
Foothill’s similar campus renovation project is already underway with construction workers having been out there most of the summer paving away at the cement near the gym and basketball courts. Ghysels said the next step is to put in portable locker rooms and showers before moving on to the next phase of the project. Construction is slated to finish sometime in 2027, according to the facilities presentation.
Other bond project updates include the Pleasanton Middle School field being set to be fully renovated with synthetic track and field and new turf by this fall; Harvest Park Middle School getting a new asphalt play surface by this fall; new playgrounds at Mohr and Hearst elementary schools; and the modernization of transitional kindergarten classrooms at Mohr being completed.
As the various campuses throughout PUSD get renovated and facilities get upgraded or replaced, Ghysels noted how important aesthetics become to the district.
He said apart from students recognizing deteriorating facilities, people move to Pleasanton because of the highly revered schools and that if those campuses are not well-maintained, it could deter people from moving to the city.
“When (the schools) look good, everybody is happy,” he said. “Including people who don’t have students in school.”
