Dear Sac City Unified Families,

As we close out the 2022-2023 school year and congratulate the graduates of all our high schools, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on all the wonderful achievements of our students and staff. Here are just a few of the many highlights from this year.

Our Facilities department completed numerous campus improvement projects, including the recent groundbreaking ceremonies for the campus rebuilds at Edward Kemble/Cesar Chavez and Nicholas.

Some of these projects include:

• Hiram Johnson High football stadium lighting and concessions
• Rosemont High stadium turf replacement
• Luther Burbank High pool and locker room modernization
• Albert Einstein Middle new gym floor and roof
• John F. Kennedy High new roof

Throughout SCUSD, many campuses also saw upgrades this year, including:

• Shade structures
• Hardcourt replacements
• New playgrounds
• Exterior LED lighting retrofits
• Refillable water bottle stations
• Intercom and clock replacements
• Security fencing and cameras

We are proud that all of this work was accomplished through an equity lens focused on the schools that have been historically underserved. Our award-winning Facilities Master Plan and equity index steers our approach to investing in schools and improving neighborhoods. While funding provided by the $750 million Measure H bond has helped us to make some of these much needed improvements, we have assessed approximately $4.4 billion in facilities related needs districtwide. At the last meeting on June 8th, our Board of Education began exploring the possibility of seeking a new voter approved bond next year that would allow us to continue this important work without increasing taxes.

Our students and staff received a number of honors and awards during this school year. Some of these awards included the CSBA Golden Bell Award in recognition of our district’s Return to Health plan, our Rosemont robotics team advanced to the world championship in Houston, West Campus’ band had the opportunity to play live at an NCAA Final Four game, a JFK student won the state championship at California Poetry Out Loud, Phoebe Hearst was recognized as a California Distinguished School and California Middle won Outstanding Performance at the statewide Junior Theater Festival.

We celebrated the opening of Floyd Farms with the Food Literacy Center, a non-profit that teaches children to love vegetables and works to fight childhood obesity, serving the students and families of Leataata Floyd Elementary. Our Nutrition Services team, Central Kitchen, took the food truck on tour to our middle schools to serve mobile breakfasts, and was also recognized by Governor Newsom on Earth Day for localizing our lettuce supply as part of our farm-to-school initiative.

This year we also successfully expanded our Transitional Kindergarten programming to 33 locations, distributed life-saving Narcan in our schools and reduced our chronic absenteeism rates through robust family engagement. In addition, we continue to uplift schools and neighborhoods through our partnership with Wide Open Walls. More than 200 new murals were painted at Elder Creek, Bret Harte, Father Keith B. Kenny, Hiram Johnson, John Cabrillo, Abraham Lincoln and Rosa Parks.

While the school year is ending, preparations are well underway for the 2023-2024 school year beginning August 31st. Until then, I hope our families and staff enjoy some rest and summertime fun. If your student needs summer meals, our Nutrition Services department will be serving breakfast and lunch at many sites throughout our school community.

With gratitude,
Superintendent Jorge A. Aguilar