San Ramon Valley Unified School District

San Ramon Valley Unified School District
SRVUSD Headquarters in Danville, CA
Information
Established	1965
Enrollment	32,000
Website	http://www.srvusd.net

San Ramon Valley Unified School District is a public school district in Contra Costa County, California. The San Ramon Valley Unified School District encompasses the communities of Alamo, Blackhawk, Danville, Diablo, and San Ramon (including the new Dougherty Valley communities) as well as a small portion of the cities of Walnut Creek and Pleasanton. The district operates 35 schools serving more than 30,000 students in Kindergarten through Grade 12.

SRVUSD students are exposed to a Standards-based curriculum with a strong focus on the essential skills including language arts, mathematics, social studies, and science. Strong physical education, health, foreign language, technology, and visual and performing arts programs are also offered. The district has implemented comprehensive K-12 Standards and Benchmarks which define the essential knowledge and skills that students should acquire in every subject area. Students graduating from district high schools are required to have earned 240 designated credits. Opportunities include a rigorous academic program, outstanding technical and vocational curricula, and innovative elective courses. All students have opportunities to participate in a wide range of extracurricular activities.

The district has a wide range of state- and federally mandated special education programs. All district K-12 schools have resource specialist programs and site staff includes at least one resource teacher and a part-time psychologist, speech therapist, and health educator. The district has a 98.4% graduation rate. Almost 40% of students are enrolled in an Advanced Placement course and 95% of graduates plan to attend college.

The San Ramon Valley Unified School District was approved by voters in 1965. In 2016, the superintendent was Rick Schmitt.

Most recently, the San Ramon Valley Unified School District has been rocked by several racially-fueled, hateful events within the past few months, leading many parents to be unsatisfied with the treatment of these incidents.

Racist graffiti was found at both Monte Vista High and Cal High during the 2016 fall semester, with three of the four incidents occurring at Cal High. As of now, only one student has been disciplined at Cal High in conjuction with this racist graffiti. The writing on the bathroom at Monte Vista was specifically reminiscent of the early 20th century when segregation was still legal, and "whites" and "colored" were separated. The district sent out a letter addressing parents to respond to this incident.

In addition, the San Ramon Valley Unified School District initially reacted to a student's racially insensitive video as he ran for ASB president at San Ramon High, stripping him of the presidency and instating another candidate in his place. The video allegedly showed a student being "abducted" by "Islamic terrorists", with the candidate claiming that he would "protect" those who voted for him from ISIS. However, the student was reinstated as ASB president for the 2017-2018 school year by the school district as some parents contend that his parents threatened legal action, claiming this fell under a violation of free speech. The school admits that they were forced to comply, Elizabeth Graswich of the SRVUSD replying "when students exercise those first amendment right how it makes other students feel, it's a classic conflict that we deal with as a school and as a school district." This decision was received with disappointment by almost all the speakers at the SRVUSD board meeting on Tuesday, May 23rd, all agreeing with the sentiment that the student should be removed from his leadership position. Samantha Pearlstein, a senior at San Ramon High, argued that this was contrary to the school district's "ultimate goal of creating an inclusive and welcoming campus no matter one’s race or ethnicity." More than 50 members from the audience spoke on this topic, but the school district was unable to directly respond due to the fact that this was not on their posted agenda. Other students from San Ramon's ASB were upset with the reinstatement of a student who had made a racially insensitive campaign video seen as a "violation of the leadership group's code of conduct" returning to his student leadership position the 2017-2018 year. About 200 students on Friday, May 19th, protested the district's handling of the video by walking out of class.