Happy New Year from all of us at the Placer Union High School District! As we enter this new decade, we are happy to share some exciting information about the district, much of which relates to the work we are doing to modernize, repair and construct new state-of-the-art facilities across the district.

We have been busy since the passage of Measure D and G - General Obligation Bonds. We spent most of this past year in the planning and early construction phases for Del Oro and Placer, while also keeping an eye on all of the district’s facility needs.

We are re-tooling our physical learning environments with an emphasis on teaching and learning, while leveraging our Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP) to provide clear educational direction and guardrails for aligning facility resources to these goals. We are excited to pull all this together using all our resources, and I am proud to report we are making significant progress.

Our goal is to prepare all students to be college, career, and life ready, while also continuously improving our teaching and learning. Those goals will be easier to reach with the upcoming classroom modernization, the addition of critical new spaces at many schools, state-of-the-art 21^st century furniture, new teacher collaboration spaces, and by enhancing our classrooms to be more technology-rich allowing students to engage in a rigorous and relevant curriculum.

Additionally, we are working on addressing some of the challenges associated with PG&E’s “Public Safety Power Shutoffs.” Although our staff rose to the challenges of providing lessons without electricity and problem solved most of the challenges associated with communication, we are working on a long-term plan to ensure our campus can be powered up during any power outage and by reviewing our communication protocols  with local fire, police and safety. Our highest priority is the safety of our students.

While the district continues to be challenged by the impact of the Local Control Funding Formula that dictates our state apportionments and its inadequate level of base funding for our schools and programs as compared to most districts in California, we have managed to align our scarce resources to address our LCAP goals of student learning, facility needs and staff priorities. We are very fortunate to have outstanding Board Trustees who hold to their fiduciary responsibilities and honor their constituents,  parents, residences, staff and students.

We aim to honor the entire community by constantly learning and improving our school district. Above all, let’s approach this New Year as an opportunity to keep learning together. 

Please feel free to provide feedback or ask for more information at gsziraki@puhsd.k12.ca.us.