Five and a half years ago, I had the privilege and honor of becoming the superintendent of the Poway Unified School District. As I reflect on where we were as a District in 2017 and how far we’ve come since then, I am filled with gratitude for our school board, students, staff, families, partners, and community.
Over the past several years, while many school districts were struggling to navigate through the pandemic, Poway Unified continued to push forward with innovation and high expectations, garnering national awards and attention. In fact, we have served as a stand-out district and model for the rest of the country, with other educators replicating our efforts and turning to us to learn how to accomplish all of the following, which is nothing short of amazing: providing one-to-one devices, inclusion for students with special needs, expansion of global languages and career technical education for all elementary grades and underrepresented students, creating equity and belonging on our school campuses, rolling out Universal Transitional Kindergarten, implementing early literacy intervention and dyslexia screening, serving free breakfasts and lunches for every student, providing award-winning and innovative professional development, ensuring better school safety measures, building an eco-friendly bus fleet and solar energy program, placing a priority on mental and social-emotional health and staff, increasing wages for our hard-working staff, all while having the best budget in decades!
The annual State of the District, held Nov. 17, is PUSD’s opportunity to share these and other initiatives with our community. We were especially excited to bring the event back to the beautiful Poway Center for the Performing Arts due to our longstanding partnership with the City of Poway.
One of PUSD’s greatest strengths is the partnerships we have with businesses, civic leaders, faith-based groups, and community organizations. Many people do not realize we are the lowest-funded unified school district in San Diego County. This means we receive fewer dollars per pupil than any other neighboring school district, so we count on our partnerships with strong organizations to help us do more with less.
One example is our Global Language and Culture Program, which is partially funded with a generous $1.08 million grant from the Avery-Tsui Foundation. This has helped make my vision a reality, to be one of the first school districts in the country to make world language exposure a universal experience for all elementary students districtwide, allowing our students to be more competitive for future careers in the global market.
Another example of our extraordinary partnerships is our Youth in Transition program, which serves students and their families experiencing homelessness or housing instability. The number of students and families in need within PUSD has more than doubled to over 200 in recent years, and our community has stepped up in every way.
From volunteers collecting toiletries and school supplies to donors providing grocery and gas gift cards, our partners are helping us remove barriers to students’ attendance, academics, transportation, health, and wellness. It is these kinds of partnerships and relationships that continue to fuel PUSD’s success. Whether our partners are serving as mentors or employers, volunteers, advocates, or donors, we are truly grateful for the gift of time, treasure, and talent invested in our schools and students.
Likewise, the success of our community depends on the continued success of our school district. From providing an educated workforce for our local businesses, to training the next generation of leaders, to ensuring strong home values, the Poway Unified School District will continue our tradition of excellence and make our community proud of our students and schools.
In collaboration with the school board, PUSD developed a strong vision statement that has served as our North Star, by providing the direction and describing what our organization hopes to achieve in the future: “to create culture and conditions to empower world-class learners.” This vision sets the big picture and is both inspiring and challenging so that it unifies the efforts of everyone involved with our school district.
This vision statement considers the wider impact that we hope to have on the world through our students and future generations, and allows us the room to explore and develop innovative practices and new experiences.
With this vision statement as our guide, PUSD will aim high, dream big, and achieve great things. Together, we can move our district toward maximizing each and every student’s potential for greatness. The leadership scholar Warren Bennis once said, “leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.” Thank you to our partners for coming alongside the Poway Unified School District in making our vision into reality.
