AV UNIFIED NEWS
Dear Panther Community,
Happy New Year!! I hope that your families had plenty of time together to relax and enjoy one another. January brings an annual opportunity to reflect, plan, and commit to those things that are most important. We in AVUSD are deeply grateful for our families and students in this tight-knit community.
The new year brings exciting things! Many of our Seniors have completed college applications and will be hearing from universities in the coming months. It is a time of anticipation, dreaming of what may be the “next step” in life. As Spring sports approach, we are thrilled to have a beautiful new facility for soccer and track athletes, and for our families and fans. Wonderful memories will be made there for years to come. Our teachers and staff are refreshed and ready to bring the best learning experiences to all our students over the coming months. We are also thrilled about our district’s new Community Engagement Initiative team, who will be working together to create expanded opportunities for welcoming family involvement in our schools and programs.
Please join us as we embrace 2026 with enthusiasm and commitment to great things for the students of AVUSD!
Upcoming District Events
- Jan. 13 at 4:45 School Board Meeting
- Jan. 20 at 4:00 AVJrSrHS Exhibitions
- Jan. 29 at 4:30 AVJrSrHS School Site Council & ELAC
- Feb. 09 at 4:00 AVES School Site Council
- Feb. 10 at 4:45 School Board Meeting
- Feb. 19 at 5:00 District-wide DELAC
Please Attend Our Events!
The above events are important and we hope to see you at one or more of them! With school funding being tight, we need to be sure we are spending it where it makes the best impact on our students. We are hoping to hear more from our parents! We will make these meetings as short and sweet as possible, and there will be time for parents to talk with each other and with teachers and administrators too. Every parent’s input is so important! We will always have Spanish translation available.
The parent input in 24-25 resulted in improved intervention (academic help) for students in 25-26, as well as an increase in social/emotional supports at both schools. Help us make more decisions like these! Here is a quick explanation of what each meeting is about:
ELAC / English Language Advisory Committee:
This is a very important meeting for parents of English Learners (ELs). Each school has an ELAC, which meets several times per year. The committee learns about, and provides input on programs for ELs at our schools. We focus on how a student is identified as an English Learner, what instructional supports they receive, and how they can “graduate” from the program. We would like to have every English Learner represented by a parent at these meetings, if possible. Your voice counts!
DELAC / District English Learner Advisory Committee
This is an important district-wide meeting for parents of ELs, that happens about 4 times per year. The DELAC committee advises the school board on programs and services for students. A majority of the members of this committee have to be parents or guardians of English Learners. We would like to have at least 5 parents of English Learners from each school for these meetings, and we would welcome many more.
School Board Meetings:
These are and they are mainly about district policies and practices. Parents may wish to attend if they are interested in district-level decisions.
Instruction & Learning
Math and Science Teacher Training
Our AVJrSrHS Math and Science departments will have a training on Monday, so students will have substitutes that one day in Math/Science. This is part of a series of teacher trainings focused on providing engaging and multifaceted tasks, and requiring the students to think critically and collaborate with one another. The teaching strategies are already making a positive impact on student learning! When we teach challenging concepts in ways that are fun and engaging, learning increases fast! Ask your child about their favorite recent lesson in math class. You may be surprised!
At AVES, Math consultants continue to work with our teaching staff on January 27th. On this day, the consultants will be doing “Learning Walks” during class time. This gives teachers the opportunity to observe each other as they implement new and engaging instructional strategies. The staff will discuss what they have observed at end of the day and will make plans for next steps. Math instruction is going strong at AVES!
Essential Standards
AVJrSrHS department teams will work together Jan. 26-30. This means all the teachers in a particular department (i.e. English, History, Science, Math) will get together on a particular day and decide what the most important concepts are for each class. They then make a plan to ensure that all students understand those concepts. This important practice increases our focus and helps us to provide intervention when students struggle and enrichment / additional challenge when needed. Our teachers are awesome and they are working hard!
AVUSD Facilities Improvements
We continue to renovate and improve our school facilities!
Track to Health and Fitness
The track is up and running, and available to the community! It has been fun to see students, parents, alumni, and other community members running on the track over the past couple of weeks. It is a beautiful facility! Please come on out and enjoy it.
Hangar (Storage) Building
You may have noticed that part of the roof and side of the Hangar was destroyed by the storm on December 24th. This is a very old building (built in the 1970s) that was previously used for airplanes and is currently used as a storage building. We have had the insurance company out and the building has been made safe while we determine whether it will be repaired or replaced.
AVES Kitchen
This is finally finished and we are just waiting on the installation of a new water heater before it can be up and running. The kitchen looks good!
New AVES Project
Now that AVJr/SrHS has its beautiful, new facilities, it’s time to focus on AVES! We have sent plans to DSA for a project that will replace old windows and cafeteria flooring and, if the budget works, create two new adult bathrooms, which are very much needed. This is an exciting project that should go out to bid by March!
AVES Garden
With our old fence disintegrating and weeds starting to grow in the old garden space, it is time to spruce it up! We look forward to replacing the fence surrounding it, shoring up the raised planter beds, and preparing the ground for some new plants! Stay tuned: we’ll be doing another Family Work Day in this area and we look forward to seeing you there!
We Care About ALL Our Families!
There is new legislation in California called AB 49 and SB 98, in response to strong concerns about the impacts of immigration enforcement on students, families, and school communities. If you would like more information, see the CDE Resources for Immigrant Families web page at https://www.cde.ca.gov/immigration-toolkit or talk to your school principal or Mrs. Larson Balliet, AVUSD superintendent.
If you would like to be more involved at school, please contact your school’s principal, Ms. Jenny Bailey at AVES or Mr. Heath McNerney at AV Jr/Sr High, or our district superintendent, Ms. Kristin Larson Balliet. We are deeply grateful for our AVUSD families.
Sincerely yours,
Kristin Larson Balliet, Superintendent,
AV Unified School District
Be First to Comment