At the April 18 meeting of the Sacramento City Unified School District Board, the Board recognized Vivian Toddy as a Stellar Student. Vivian attends Albert Einstein Middle School where she participates in the GATE program and advanced band. She is very involved in the American Indian community, SCUSD’s American Indian Education  Program, and is a member of the Native Youth of Sacramento youth group. Vivian is a talented musician and artist and is an accomplished student. Her teachers describe her as an excellent role model for her classmates.

The Board announced the appointment of Mary Hardin Young as Deputy Superintendent. Ms. Young has been serving as Interim Deputy Superintendent since last summer.

The Board took action to approve a superintendent contract with Lisa Allen and appointed her to serve as Superintendent of the Sacramento City Unified School District. The Board issued the following statement about the appointment of Ms. Allen:

“We are thrilled to announce that Lisa Allen has accepted the position of Superintendent of our District. An educational leader with three decades of experience in SCUSD, she has served in positions like private school specialist, multilingual director, area assistant superintendent and for the last year as our interim Superintendent. She is eminently qualified for this role.

“A trailblazer, Lisa Allen is the second woman, and first Black woman, to serve as Superintendent. And it is her heart for students, her keen mind, and her calm presence that shape her leadership. She is collaborative, she approaches all situations with an open mind, and she is effectively managing negotiations with our labor partners. She is hiring dynamic and representative staff members serving in key roles throughout our district. She is the epitome of a leader and she is the right person to continue serving as Superintendent of our wonderfully diverse district.”

The Board congratulated two teachers from SCUSD, Jennifer Nakayama (Fern Bacon and Leonardo Da Vinci schools) and Mollie Morrison (McClatchy HS), who were recently recognized by Friends of Sacramento Arts.

The Board approved a resolution to recognize April as National Sexual Assault Awareness Month to raise public awareness about sexual violence and educate communities on how to prevent it.

The Board received informational updates on the following topics:

• Programs offered by the District over the summer that are essential in preventing learning loss when students are out of school, and summer programs that accelerate learning and provide enriching activities.
• SCUSD’s Special Education program, including demographic data on the student populations served, current and historical student progress and performance data and information about the various program options and initiatives within SCUSD’s Special Education Department.
• Earth Day and how SCUSD is mitigating and adapting to climate change through projects and programming focused on buildings and energy, restorative schoolyards, waste reduction, and transportation.
• The design and construction of a new Pacific Elementary School campus. Construction of the new campus is estimated to begin in September 2025 and it is anticipated that the new school will be open to students and staff in Fall 2027.
• Potential school facilities projects that could be placed on a proposed General Obligation Bond ballot measure with guidance from the District’s Facilities Master Plan equity index.

More detail on all of these items can be found at https://www.scusd.edu/boe041824.

For more information about the SCUSD Board of Education, including the schedule for future Board meetings and to submit a public comment at future meetings, please visit https://www.scusd.edu/board-education.

The next SCUSD Board meeting will be held on May 2, 2024.