The Ravenswood City School District has taken great strides in recent years to accelerate student learning in order to best prepare our students for the opportunities and challenges of succeeding in the emerging 21st century economy. Though our students and their families live in one of the wealthiest areas in the world, many in our under-served community have been shut out of the top careers and companies that have fueled the ongoing growth here in the Silicon Valley.
By boosting our STEM curriculum and creating partnerships with leading companies and philanthropic organizations, we seek to aggressively reverse that historical trend.
In addition to modernizing our curriculum, we are preparing for the future of education in Ravenswood by planning for the comprehensive overhaul of our aging facilities, which currently lack modern lab spaces to enhance students’ understanding of science, technology, engineering, mathematics concepts. Over the past several months, we have met with parents, staff, teachers and community members to discuss our future facilities needs. And we heard wide consensus about a vision for the future of the Ravenswood City School District:
* The need for more robust academic programs in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, literature, language, and humanities;
* Modernized facilities with improved lab spaces for students and cross curriculum teaching/learning opportunities;
* Greater team teaching and teacher collaboration opportunities;
* More electives, such as Makerspace labs, arts, and music; and
* Greater access to Kindergarten and Pre-K programs at neighborhood school sites.
The Board of Trustees and my administration share this ambitious vision, and have begun to develop potential options to achieve our mutual goals. This is a long-term vision, one that will not happen all at once, but will steadily be implemented across the District to ensure progress and equity each step of the way.
Throughout our schools, we have begun making significant investments in campus safety and infrastructure improvements. This summer, we invested over $2 million into critical facilities needs, such as roof replacements and safety upgrades, which were long overdue. Despite these investments, however, there is much more to be done in coming years to improve and modernize our school sites and classrooms.
We have been grateful for the support private, corporate and philanthropic donors have provided our students over the years. In the past two years, specifically, we have enjoyed unprecedented financial support, from new laptops for our 8th graders provided by Facebook, to individual donors that have funded enhanced literacy programs.
However, as we look to overhaul our school campuses and classrooms, we will need even more partners to join our mission, to invest in the future of Ravenswood students,and to help prepare our region’s future workforce to lead the next wave of Silicon Valley innovation and growth.
To add your name to our long list of partners and sponsors, contact me or the Ravenswood Education Foundation and learn more about the educational and future career opportunities your support can provide our students.
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Dr. Gloria M. Hernández-Goff currently serves as superintendent of the Ravenswood City School District in East Palo Alto and East Menlo Park, California. Dr. Hernández-Goff has served in a variety of capacities during her distinguished career in education, including as a classroom teacher, reading specialist, Title I resource teacher, staff development trainer, school administrator, school district assistant superintendent, and lecturer at Sacramento State University, where she taught for over nine years in the Bilingual Multicultural Education Department. Before joining Ravenswood City School District in 2013, Dr. Hernández-Goff served as Assistant Superintendent for the Twin Rivers Unified School District, where she was instrumental in bringing together community stakeholders, employee unions, and management to find common ground for district wide education reform efforts.
