Acton Agua Dulce Unified School District wishes you a happy and safe 4th of July!

Topic: School Reopening Information

• AADUSD Rockstar Teachers Awesome and Amazing showcase of EDUprotocol launch
• Acton-Agua Dulce Roadmap to Reopening - Operations

For 9th grade Night of the Stars award winners 

For 10th grade Night of the Stars award winners 

For 11th grade Night of the Stars award winners 

For 12th grade Night of the Stars award winners 

This week, May 4 - 8, is staff appreciation week. During the past 2 years, we’ve had BBQs, delivered food to sites, bought business cards for all of our employees, and done our best to recognize them for all they do for our students. This year was a challenge given the current situation. I have sat in on several video conference platform classrooms this week. I have sat in on leadership class, performing arts, and chemistry. Please join me this week in sharing your gratitude for our teachers. Is there a teacher who comes to mind when you think of someone who had a positive impact on your life?

I had several teachers, but one of my favorites was Mr. Ted Snyder. He was a math teacher who has long since retired. I was struggling in math and Mr. Snyder made the material fun, easy to understand, and engaging. It was partly because of him that I later became a math teacher.

Then there was Tom. Tom wasn’t a classroom teacher. Tom was a bus driver. I remember seeing Tom every morning as I got on the bus. He always had a smile and made me laugh. Is there a custodian, bus driver, secretary, office clerk, instructional aide, or other non-teaching employee that makes a difference in your life?

Please take some time to say thank you to a staff member. Is there someone who made a difference in your life? Or is there someone currently making a difference in the lives of your students? Think about writing a note, recording a video message, or sending a text to that person.

On behalf of Board President, Mr. Pfalzgraf, and all of our Board Trustees, we are thankful to have such a dedicated staff. By executive order of the state governor, Gavin Newsom, school employees are considered an essential service. Our employees are not only essential, but they are committed and present. Thank you for your time and have a good evening. #aadusdstaygold #actonschooldistrict #aadusd #gohawks #gomeadowlarks #gomustangs #firesidechat #staffappreciationweek

Larry King

AADUSD Superintendent

I hope you are doing well and that you are all keeping safe and healthy. This evening I would like to share information about our Distance Learning Plan. If you go to the District website you will see that we have reorganized the format and clearly displayed our distance learning plan. From the Homepage you can access the At Home Learning Dashboard, meal information, instructional enrichment and parent resources, distance learning tech support, and online tutorials.

Last Friday I served meals alongside our food service workers at HDS for a couple of hours. In the past 5 days they have served over 1400 meals. As a side note, this is part of an extended summer meal service program that is fully reimbursable by the government.

I spoke to parents as they drove through to pick up their meals. I asked the same questions of our parents: How are you and your family doing? How are we doing on instructional delivery? Are able to access the instructional materials? Has our educational team made ourselves accessible to you and your students?

What I learned is that our site administrators and teachers are doing an excellent job of ensuring that continuous learning is a reality for our students despite the challenge of adjusting to the new format. I also learned that many families are dealing with financial challenges in addition to balancing the educational needs of their students. Parents have taught me that not only are our students resilient, but the Acton-Agua Dulce community is tenacious and has plenty of grit.

We know a lot about grit in AAD. Anyone who lives in Acton or Agua Dulce knows what grit is. They know that living here we are always dealing with small particles of sand or stone. We get grit in our houses, on our cars, in the tires, and on our clothes and shoes. But grit is also courage, resolve, and strength of character. We’ve talked about Growth Mindset for the past 3 years. What we are all doing here together is a living example of flexibility, adaptation, tenacity, and perseverance. Please continue to implement safe and healthy practices at home. Thank you for your time and have a good evening.
#aadusdstaygold #actonschooldistrict #aadusd #gohawks #gomeadowlarks #gomustangs #firesidechat

Larry King

AADUSD Superintendent

Good evening, this is Mr. King, Superintendent of Acton-Agua Dulce USD.  I am reaching out this evening to share with you a few messages.  There are great things happening at our schools.  Elementary school is utilizing flip grids and YouTube; you would be able to access via our website. At the middle school level, they are using ZOOM videos to demonstrate inspirational quotes, and lesson plans to our students.  At the high school level they are using the same platform, encouraging students to check online to get their lessons and to connect with their teachers. We truly appreciate all of these efforts from our teachers.

I have been receiving letters and emails from parents. I especially wanted to thank our seniors for their articulate emails and our continuous dialogue.   Back when I graduated in 1982, I could not have imagined what you are experiencing with the anticipation of grad night, graduation and other events that you would have expected during your senior year. 

 There has been a lot of discussion about activities that normally happen during this time of the school year.  In particular, seniors want to know about the prom, graduation, grad night, and so on.  These are traditions, celebrations, and the rewards of working so hard throughout our students’ K-12 years.  I am here to support our VHS principal, Mr. Brockway and our other site administrators to ensure these activities become a reality in one form or another.  If that means events are delayed until we can do them “live” then that’s an option.  At this point all options are on the table.  We want our seniors and all of our students to have memorable and valuable end of year experiences regardless of the current situation.  We are all Mustangs!

Stay tuned for Superintendent Stay Gold Fitness Club!

Wishing everyone the best, stay happy and healthy.  On behalf of our Board of Trustees; President, Mr. Pfalzgraf, Vice President, Mrs. Jensen, Clerk, Mr. Tim Jorgensen, Member, Mr. Brandon Roque and past President, Mr. Mike Fox all wishing you the very best.

Thank you very much!

Please enjoy the Harmonic Bronze performance by our wonderful students and Mr. Larry Rowland!

Culinary Arts Students move on to Careers through Culinary Arts Program!

Congratulations!

State Schools Chief Torlakson Congratulates High- Performing Middle Schools Selected as "Schools to Watch"

Congratulations High Desert Middle School as being recognized as a

2017-2018 Schools to Watch!

We are very excited to introduce our new Twitter feed!  Please sign up using @aadusdstaygold! Check out what is happening at our schools and district by following us on Twitter!

Today, we'd like to share something a little different. This is an article that we at Acton-Agua Dulce USD found truly inspiring and we believe you will too! We hope you enjoy the read, and we thank Education Week for producing such fantastic content!

Carol Dweck Revisits the 'Growth Mindset' - Education Week
By Carol Dweck

"For many years, I secretly worked on my research. I say “secretly” because, once upon a time, researchers simply published their research in professional journals—and there it stayed.

However, my colleagues and I learned things we thought people needed to know. We found that students’ mindsets—how they perceive their abilities—played a key role in their motivation and achievement, and we found that if we changed students’ mindsets, we could boost their achievement. More precisely, students who believed their intelligence could be developed (a growth mindset) outperformed those who believed their intelligence was fixed (a fixed mindset). And when students learned through a structured program that they could “grow their brains” and increase their intellectual abilities, they did better. Finally, we found that having children focus on the process that leads to learning (like hard work or trying new strategies) could foster a growth mindset and its benefits."

Continue Reading on Education Week

Photo by Sean Parker on Unsplash

Vasquez High School has earned a Silver Medal according to US News and World Reports's annual evaluation of our nations's schools.  Vasquez High School has been ranked #2483 Nationally out of 28,496 high schools, placing VHS in the top 9% of all public high schools in the United States.  Rankings are based on state-required test performance, AP participation and pass rates, graduation rate, and how well our high school prepares students for college.

Congratulations Vasquez High School!!!

Article written by Housingwire.com

Where to buy a home? Top 10 improved school districts!

Our district schools have been named  number 7 on this list!  Our ranking went from 49 out of 76 to being ranked 35.   

For a number of years Acton Agua Dulce Unified School District has actively pursued significant improvement in all of our schools.  After much hard work and dedication by our Board Members, District Superintendent, staff, and community members these improvements have come to fruition. 

We are not done!  Our district will continue to improve!

Please read the actual article posted below. 

http://www.housingwire.com/articles/37870-where-to-buy-a-home-top-10-improved-school-districts