The SSD Superintendent

The information on the SSD Superintendent is amazingly hard to find. So far, I have managed to figure out that the SSD Superintendent is a Benjamin H. Picard, Ed. D.

My opinion is that if supposed public information is hard to find, someone is trying to hide something.

Here's a letter from Mr. Picard on the SSD website:

http://www.sesd.org/education/district/district.php?sectiondetailid=1&

A message from the Superintendent of Schools Benjamin H. Picard, Ed.D.

Fall / Winter 2010 Dear Friends: Sunnyvale School District is focused on student learning and student achievement.  We are fortunate as a school district to have a highly talented and skilled faculty and staff supporting our students in the learning process.  In addition, our current work in Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports, Professional Learning Communities, and School Wide Literacy Supports is centered on the Correlates of Effective Schools.  The Correlates and these three initiatives are researched-based best practices that lead to increased student achievement for all students. Our work is beginning to show success.  This was reflected in our student achievement results released this fall with the district's overall Academic Performance Index increasing by eleven points.  Our students did very well in math as a District this past year  We attribute this success to the implementation of a new math adoption, professional development and coaching to support implementation, and progress monitoring of mathematics achievement. In English Language Arts (ELA), we did not hit the necessary achievement targets. ELA is our focus this year and thus far, teachers have widely embraced the implementation of our new curricula, California Treasurers, Read Well, and Language!  We are also implementing School-wide Literacy Support systems and for the first time, teachers district-wide are using student achievement data within their Professional Learning Communities to guide instruction. Because we did not achieve some of the federal targets as described above, the Sunnyvale School District is now in Year 3 Program Improvement.  Program Improvement Districts in Year 3 move into the Corrective Action phase and are directed by the State Board of Education to engage in a variety of activities.  As a Year 3 Program Improvement District, we will, in conjunction with the Santa Clara County Office of Education (SCCOE): 1) conduct a Needs Assessment; 2) create a responsive and responsible plan of action; 3) receive technical assistance from the SCCOE; and 4) monitor for continued success.  The SCCOE has content level experts who provide support and high quality training for Program Improvement School Districts. The work we have already been doing is fully aligned with Program Improvement requirements due to our focus on research-based systems and practices.  If, however, gaps exist in the work we are doing, this will be identified once a collaborative comprehensive needs assessment and gap analysis is completed. I embrace and look forward to this process.  This will allow us an opportunity to leverage additional resources provided by the SCCOE staff to assist us with the efforts and initiatives we already have in place as well as the initiatives that we have in the pipeline.  I will be communicating more with you on this topic.  There will also be Board of Education presentations and discussions of this work plan throughout the process.  All of these efforts are focused on improving our schools, our school district and reinforcing the "learning for all" environment for our students. Thank you all for your support of the students of Sunnyvale. Yours truly, Benjamin H. Picard, Ed. D. Superintendent of Schools