District News

“Learning to read, for some students, is much more complex than it may seem,” said District Superintendent Shelly Viramontez. “And it is a fundamental skill for success in life.”

Campbell Union School District intensified literacy training and resources for teachers under its “Every Child a Reader by Third Grade” initiative. The efforts are making a difference!

Through classwork, i-Ready and DIEBELS assessments, teachers are seeing positive results from their training and focus on strengthening literacy skills for every student, especially in the early primary grades. 

A long-term study by the Annie E. Casey Foundation found that students who were not proficient in reading by the end of third grade were four times more likely to drop out of high school than proficient readers. Reaching literacy by third grade is a goal of California schools and a key benchmark in measuring and predicting student success. 

Ideas on how to help your child become a proficient—even an enthusiastic—reader are available from your child’s teacher, school and community libraries, and online.

Online Resources for Parents and Students

• The Campbell Library has given all CUSD students access to online library accounts. If your student has not used it yet, please ask your child’s teacher or the school library staff for information. 
• Million Book March, is part of the Reading is Fundamental celebration of National Reading Month, a campaign to encourage kids nationwide to collectively read one million books in the month of March.
• National PTA’s “Raising Ready Readers” offers tips for parents to start early and practice often.

“Educating students to their highest potential is a big job, and our partners in the community help to remove some of the obstacles for our students,” said District Superintendent Shelly Viramontez. 

Toothaches, earaches, food insecurity, vision problems, and other non-academic issues make it difficult for students to focus on lessons and tasks. Thanks to our many community partnerships and grants, our students have access to professionals who can address these barriers to learning.

For example, neighboring dentists conduct oral screenings for kindergarten and TK students to determine those who need follow up care. A grant from El Camino Hospital supports funds for two additional school nurse positions. Local counseling agencies supplement our counseling services for students. And the Healthier Kids Foundation is providing fifth graders with Wellness Check screeners to identify those students who may be struggling and in need of additional support.

These are just some examples of our partners working with us to benefit all of our students. To learn more about our multi-tiered system of support (MTSS), please visit our Supporting Learning web page.

This month, Governor Newsome released a proposed budget for California, kicking off months of analyzing, planning and discussion about school funding. In our district, we base our planning for 2023-24 on the proposed budget and have begun analyzing how it impacts our district.

In May, the Governor will release a revised budget, and then California legislators will finalize it from May through July.  

It’s a complex process. For some insight into how it works for California schools, please see our “District Funding Overview”.

Each December, the CUSD Governing Board holds an Organizational Meeting where they swear in newly elected/re-elected members, elect officers, and establish their meeting calendar for the new year.

2023 Board Organization

• Officers: President Danielle Cohen, Vice President Chris Miller, and Clerk Michael Synder
• Meeting schedule: See dates on the Board’s web page.

Campbell Union School District’s Governing Board consists of five locally elected public officials who work together with the superintendent to make decisions that will best serve all of the students in our community. Each board member is assigned to a trustee area, although they represent the interests of the entire district: