District News

Sometimes, a change in one part of a system leads to changes in other parts. As two of our current school principals retire in June, the vacancies opened opportunities for others. Because of this, several of our schools will experience a change in leadership. 

Also, as school principals’ responsibilities have expanded over the years, we have added part-time assistant principals to two of our elementary schools. They will spend the other half of their time supporting programs for students with additional learning needs.

Blackford: Current Principal Anne Ajlouni is retiring. Blackford’s new principal in 2023-24 will be Veronica Valencia. She has worked in our district for 16 years as a teacher and site administrator, most recently as Assistant Principal at Monroe Middle School.

Campbell School of Innovation: Principal Kami Thordarson is retiring. Xyzzy Godfrey, currently the principal of Village School. An employee of CUSD for 16 years, she has been a teacher and site administrator, and will join Assistant Principal Stephanie Day in furthering the CSI mission. 

Capri: The new school year will bring a new part-time Assistant Principal: Lisa Wiseman. She has worked in our district for 15 years as a teacher and district-level Teacher on Special Assignment.

Village: The new principal for our parent participation school will be Alicia Mommer. Principal Mommer brings a unique combination of administrative experience in both public schools and the nonprofit sector, as well as extensive experience as a classroom teacher at a parent participation school.

Monroe Middle: Current Marshall Lane Principal Patrick Sieler, who has extensive experience as a middle school teacher and administrator, will be moving to Monroe Middle School, working as co-administrator with Principal Ruth Stephens Radle.

Marshall Lane: Marshall Lane’s new Principal for 2023-24 will be Amy Vanderbosch, current assistant principal at Rolling Hills. She will be joined by new Assistant Principal Michelle Beddo for 50% of her time.  She has worked in our district for 19 years, first as a teacher, and currently as Administrator of Accountability & Learning. 

Rolling Hills Middle: The district has begun the hiring process for a new assistant principal for Rolling Hills. When the new administrator has been hired, we will notify Rolling Hills staff and families.

In the words of Socrates, "the secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new."  We are confident in these new leadership teams and hope you will join us in welcoming them.

“The Innovation Grant program encourages students to take ownership of their education and school experience,” said District Superintendent Shelly Viramontez.

Through the grant program, 10 student teams are using the design-thinking process to generate, test and implement ideas for two areas identified in our student survey data as needs: campus cleanliness and building a sense of belonging at their schools. 

“When we provide students with real-world challenges, they see the connections to what they learn in school and recognize they have the ability to make a difference in their everyday lives,” Viramontez added. 

Here are stories of progress at two schools.

Capri School: Using the idea of prevention, not punishment, the Capri Innovation Team set about promoting positive behavior focused on three challenges: campus cleanliness, maintaining play equipment, and reducing conflicts at recess..  

“Our student leadership team has taken the initiative to build community across grade levels through PE Buddies, Recess Buddies, Leadership Club, Design Challenges, and Teacher Green Team (campus clean-up),” said Gloria McGriff. “The students create, collaborate, communicate, and are empathetic.”

The Green Team is a group of students who choose to check out buckets, gloves and “garbage grabbers” to collect litter. “Before, the Green Team was being used for consequences instead of a fun activity to do,” said student Saveh. “We changed it so students and classes that participate earn rewards like a popsicle party, or extra STEAM Lab time.”

The PE Leaders are trained 4th and 5th grade students who join the students in grades K-2 at recess to lead games, resolve conflicts, and reinforce positive behavior among the younger students. The Innovation Grant helped to pay for training student leaders in conflict resolution with Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS), and in the use and care of STEAM Lab and playground equipment.

The students and staff are noticing the difference. The office is seeing fewer students being sent there for making poor choices, and students are more aware of how individual behaviors, like not playing fair or not returning equipment, impact others at the school. 

Monroe Middle School: “The challenge was to try to find a way to communicate with people who don’t speak English so they can learn better and feel welcome,” said Gabriel, one of Monroe's Innovation Team members. The team’s solution: Newcomer Ambassadors. 

Schools across the U.S. have experienced increasing numbers of students arriving from other countries, such as Ukraine and Afghanistan, who have little or no English skills. The Ambassadors help the new students access translation applications on a school iPad.  

“It helps our students continue to be successful in school, by accessing content-specific material in their home language,” said Teacher Cheryl Lee. The project does more than assist students with their studies. It also builds a sense of belonging as communication between all peers increases. “It also helps students know that they can help themselves,” said student Mobasher.

We will know that this project is successful by analyzing student work production and engagement along with student surveys & interviews.

Our survey data showed that parents and students want more art and hands-on learning in schools. Teachers want more time for planning and collaboration to bring effective and engaging instruction to students.

We heard you, and launched the Arts & Innovation Collaboration pilot program this year at two schools, Blackford and Rosemary, then expanded it to some grade levels at Lynhaven. Our team of talented Innovation Specialists facilitate engaging innovation and art experiences with students, giving classroom teachers time during the school day to collaborate as professional learning communities. 

Positive Feedback

Teachers at both Blackford and Rosemary report that the ongoing collaboration time has been crucial for planning next steps for targeted instruction to support students’  learning. According to the survey provided to participating teachers, "It has given us time and a structure to really dig into our data so we can make strategic instructional choices that will move students forward.”

“We are building ongoing access to innovation and the arts for and with our community,” said Coordinator of Innovation, Teaching, and Learning Julie Goo. 

Families worked together at the Innovation Showcase.

Two Innovation Showcases in April highlighted the work at the two elementary schools. Students and parents were happily problem solving and discovering solutions to such challenges as coding mini robots to travel a path, building prototypes with raw materials,  making freehand digital art, collaborating with Minecraft, and more. Displays of student work included their reflections about what they learned in the process.

“Innovation is one of our Profile of a Graduate competencies, and we focus on tapping into students’ natural curiosity and desire to learn,” said Superintendent Shelly Viramontez. “Their future workplaces will demand our competency skills of self direction, critical thinking, collaboration, empathy and innovation, and this is part of  preparing  them for success now and in their future.”

Plans to Expand

With the overwhelmingly positive feedback from our two-school pilot this year, we are planning to expand our Innovation Specialist team to bring the program to more schools. We are building teams to provide experiences of arts, innovation and music. We are planning  to provide these experiences for K - 5 students and through lunch clubs for our 6-8 grade students.

Learn more about what students have been up to in the Innovation program this year on the Innovation Blog. 

The COVID-19 pandemic and closure of in-person schooling impacted students across the country. In a recent report to the Campbell Union School District Governing Board, Superintendent Viramontez outlined how the district used Elementary & Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSR) Funds to address the impacts to our students and staff. 

“We were able to combine ESSR, other one-time funds, and some General Fund dollars to increase academic and social emotional support for students and staff,” she said. Over three school years, 2020-21 through 2022-23, the district expenditures per student increased by $3,401. The average spending per student will increase again in 2023-24 to almost $19,000 per student, an increase of more than $4,000 per student since 2020-21. The State’s average per student expenditure is $13,686.

“We looked closely at our data to see which programs are having the greatest positive impact on students and directed the funding there,” Viramontez said, as she presented a year-by-year list of the allocations. 

Since receiving the ESSR funds in the 2020-21 school year, CUSD has increased professional counselors and behaviorists, instructional specialists for math, reading, special education, and English language development. To attract qualified employee candidates, the district also increased employee wages and pay for substitute teachers and support staff.

While not part of the April 20 report, the district also used the funds for extensive expenditures to enhance facilities’ COVID-19 safety, such as HVAC upgrades and additional outdoor learning spaces. Click to see the April 20, 2023, report to the Board.