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Pleasanton Unified School District Superintendent David Haglund delivered his annual State of the District speech this month at the Firehouse Arts Center, where he highlighted the district’s equity work, bond measure projects, workforce housing and successful programs.
He also broke the news that morning of the district having reached a tentative agreement with the teachers union the night before to avoid a strike after months of being at impasse.Â
However, despite all the good Haglund did touch on, some of the economic challenges the district will be facing in the coming months as PUSD continues to experience a decline in enrollment, attendance and less in state funding.
“It’s difficult though to fully celebrate this and all of the special things that go on in our schools, knowing that the situation with the state economy is what it is,” Haglund said during his speech on March 12.Â
The Pleasanton Partnerships in Education Foundation (PPIE) hosts the State of the District event annually, where the superintendent goes over notable achievements from the previous year and focuses on what lies ahead for the district.
PPIE also uses the event as a reminder for the community to continue using the nonprofit organization as a way to support the district financially during these tough economic times, which is why the organization also presented its Pillars of Pleasanton Awards to several local businesses that contribute to helping out the schools.
“It is imperative that we continue to do what we can to help provide and support our students,” PPIE Executive Director Andrea Wilson said during the event.
Some of the most notable achievements from last year’s school year were the completion of several Measure I1 projects. The $270 million general obligation bond that Pleasanton voters approved in 2017 was aimed at helping fund infrastructure projects like the recently completed Lydiksen Elementary School rebuild.
Haglund also pointed to the $395 million Measure I bond that voters passed in 2022 and the projects that are already in the design phases. He said that as the schools and the district work on the design plans, he reminded the audience that community engagement was an important factor when it came to these various Measure I projects and that the community’s input will have a large role in how these projects will look
“The schools are working with the architects to finalize the designs of the various projects,” Haglund said. “Especially with the larger projects, we came up with conceptual designs … of what the projects could look like but we also made a commitment to the community, the stakeholders at the school in particular, that we were not driving the bus on these. The design processes are coming back to you.”
Some of the Measure I projects already in the pipeline include the construction of new athletic and visual arts facilities at both Amador Valley and Foothill high schools; the construction of an Educational Options Center, which will replace Village High School; new athletic fields at the middle schools; a new early education facility at Harvest Park Middle School, additional transitional kindergarten classrooms; and various other improvements to kitchens and other facilities at the schools. (Haglund’s speech occurred before Amador’s small gym was damaged by a fire on March 17.)
Haglund also talked about how the area that currently houses Village High and other district offices will be mostly turned into workforce housing.
Haglund touched on PUSD’s continued diversity, equity and inclusion work that it has done at a district level as well, with implementation of new board bylaws and policies.
He also applauded the work being done by after school programs like the Mariachi, Folklórico (which is a traditional Mexican dance style) and Step programs to create spaces where kids can pursue different interests.
He even said PUSD will be using state funding to implement mariachi and folklórico as courses during the school day and will look to expand the courses into the high schools.
Another achievement Haglund highlighted was how the school board approved new elementary, middle and high school boundary lines so that kids can stay with the same group of friends from kindergarten all the way to high school graduation.
“I heard from parents over the last several years about the difficulty of having these friends split up … and so it was nice to see the community come out and support this option so that they now graduate from the same school,” Haglund said.
He then went on to talk about probably one of the more pressing matter the district will have to face in these next few months; reductions to staffing, programs and overall services.
Haglund said that shifting economic indicators like the state’s cost of living adjustment (COLA) — which he showed was predicted to be 4% last June but was actually 0.76% according to the governor’s recently released budget — and government priorities have been affecting PUSD’s funding.
And he pointed out that with the COLA for next year already being predicted to be zero percent, state funding is going to be a big issue for PUSD moving forward.
“Why does the state’s economic condition affect schools so much? Because … a good deal of our funding comes from state dollars,” Haglund said. “48% of the state budget goes towards schools. So when the bucket size of that 48% shrinks, and a good deal of our revenue comes from that bucket, that means our dollars come down as well.”
So as the district gets ready to have these difficult budget discussions, Haglund said this spring the district will assemble a superintendent’s budget advisory committee. The members will look at having those difficult conversations as the district builds its budget for next year and will look at reductions, revenue enhancements and reallocation of expenditures.
Some ideas he threw out for generating more money is expanding PUSD’s Kids Club, increasing the number of students in the Pleasanton Virtual Academy and transitioning to full day transitional kindergarten programs.
He also said that things like the recent sale of the Neal property and having the tenants at the new district office on West Las Positas Boulevard will also start bringing in more money for the district.
PPIE Pillars of Pleasanton Award recipients
Chuck Deckert
Jersey Mike’s
Jim’s Country Style Restaurant
Lucky California
Meadowlark Dairy
Mochiholic Mochi Donuts
Omron Robotics and Safety Technology
Porky’s Pizza Palace
Rancho Grande Taqueria
Schlicher Orthodontics
Shamrock Development and Construction
Service Champions
SideTrack Bar & Grill
Stanford Health Care Tri-Valley
The Bay Club
Valley EyeCare Center
Vic’s All Star Kitchen
