I hope you all had a peaceful and joyous holiday season. Your Scotts Valley schools have been back from break since Jan. 5, and I’ve heard that both teachers and students are back to the books with renewed enthusiasm.
We want to welcome new students to our Scotts Valley schools, so please let your friends know that open enrollment for Transitional Kindergarten and Kindergarten is now open. We’re also accepting enrollment for new students in all grades this fall. More details can be found on the SVUSD Pre-Registration website, or simply visit scottsvalleyusd.org to learn more and enroll your children.
We also look forward to welcoming current students back for the 2026-27 school year. As we plan for the upcoming school year, we ask that families complete the 2026-27 Intent to Return survey for each child attending an SVUSD school. We ask that families complete the survey by mid-January.
Both of these processes allow us to plan ahead for how many students we will be able to serve this fall, so we can offer the best classes for everyone.
I’ve heard that there have been a number of questions about our facilities improvement efforts recently. Why aren’t we seeing work being done at our school sites? Unfortunately, progress on the Scotts Valley High stadium project is still stalled because the California Department of State Architecture (DSA) has not yet approved our plans. Our team has responded to the latest list of minor questions, but has to wait until the end of the month for their next response, let alone approval.
We’ve heard that other districts are experiencing similar delays caused by minor issues and concerns being raised by the DSA. I’ve asked for examples that we can share with our local legislators in the hopes we can ask them for assistance to address this logjam.
On the plus side, we continue to make progress on the elementary school modernization, with geotechnical analysis kicking off during the holiday break and continuing this month. We hope to see the next set of plan revisions from our architect in the coming weeks. Once we finalize plans, we will have to submit them to the DSA for approval as well.
Last month, before winter break, I had the pleasure of sitting in on “Math Night” at Scotts Valley Middle School. The room was packed with parents interested in the update from teachers and staff on how students can progress through their math education from sixth grade through to graduation at Scotts Valley High. Even more interesting was getting the opportunity to experience a math lesson in breakout groups.
It had been a while since parents had to deal with “word problems,” but the teachers did a great job helping them break down the problem to really understand what was being asked, and how to approach the problem. The emphasis was not on “getting the right answer” but on how to really break a problem down, consider multiple approaches, then apply the right concepts to solve the problem. I enjoyed watching the process, and was encouraged that our students are being helped to tackle math problems with a very pragmatic approach.
While we’re on the subject of numbers, Gov. Newsom released his state budget last Friday, and we are in the process of analyzing what it means for our budget in the coming year. While the headlines read that his last state budget will provide an additional $22 billion in education funding, the reality on the ground is far more sobering. Nearly all of this “additional” funding is aimed at paying back past deferrals, rebuilding the education emergency reserve fund that was drained to zero last year, and providing one-time dollars for special programs.
What’s missing is a significant increase to the Base Grant that Scotts Valley schools need to meet the increasing costs of running our district. This is another year where Sacramento wants to focus on special programs instead of simply providing unrestricted funds to districts so that we can spend the money where we need it most. Stay tuned for more details, as we go to work on budget planning.
If you read this article in time, I encourage you to check out Scotts Valley Middle School’s “Jam in January” this Friday, Jan. 16, from 5-7pm. Sponsored by the Santa Cruz Warriors, this event is always a lot of fun, culminating in the traditional epic basketball face-off between students and staff.
If you have questions about your Scotts Valley schools, don’t hesitate to contact me.
Roger Snyder is the Board President of Scotts Valley Unified School District. He may be contacted at rs*****@*************sd.org.
