At its meeting on Tuesday, May 27, the Alameda Unified School District (AUSD) Board of Education heard an update on the 2025-2026 school year budget and discussed a proposal to name the scoreboard at Alameda High School (AHS) in honor of Richard Bullock, Sr.
Racism in schools
Prior to the general business portion of the meeting, Trustees Jennifer Williams and Meleah Hall both remarked on a racist prom proposal during which an Alameda High School student used a sign that included the “N” word and referenced racist institutions—an incident that was first reported by KTVU Fox 2.
“These things are matters that deeply weigh on my colleagues and on senior administration at AUSD,” said Williams. “I just want families to know that not a day goes by that folks aren’t diligently working on these issues and coming up with plans and ideas on how to move forward and hopefully create a more welcoming space for all of our students.”
“I hope that as a Board, we can consider possibly having a workshop to direct how we can look at our policies, look at the programs that we have, and how we can best provide direction to the Superintendent,” added Hall, who also suggested learning from neighboring school districts about how they address hateful incidents.
State budget revision
Assistant Superintendent of Business Services Shariq Khan provided the Board with the second presentation in a multipart series that outlines AUSD’s 2025-2026 budget adoption process. During the previous Board meeting on Tuesday, May 13, Khan presented on the District’s expected revenues and expenditures and the assumptions used to make those determinations, which include student enrollment, cost of living adjustment (COLA) and the consumer price index (CPI), student-to-teacher staffing ratios, parcel tax revenues, and the allocation of remaining one-time, COVID-era funds.
At the May 27 meeting, Khan gave an overview of Governor Gavin Newsom’s May Revision to the 2025-2026 State Budget, which attempts to resolve a $12 billion deficit amid a forecasted “growth recession” driven by higher tariffs and marked by a slowdown in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth, lower job growth, and higher unemployment. He also highlighted potential changes to federal education funding, which maintains special education funding but consolidates several grants into one block grant, eliminates adult education grants, and eliminates Title III English proficiency programs. However, Khan noted, the state budget does include new funding to implement a 10-to-1, staff-to-student ratio in Transitional Kindergarten (TK) classrooms as well as programs to support literacy and mathematics.
The remainder of the presentation included slides detailing expenditures for each AUSD school site, department, and major programs. In summary, AUSD expects to spend just over $9,000 per elementary student, around $8,300 per secondary student, about $45 million for special education, and just under $13 million to be distributed between education services, teaching and learning, student services, research and assessment, and equity and inclusion.
A public hearing on the full 2025-2026 budget will take place at the next Board meeting on Tuesday, June 10. The budget will go before the Board for adoption at its meeting on Tuesday, June 24.
Proposal to name new AHS scoreboard
Later in the meeting, Susan Davis, Senior Manager of Community Affairs, presented a community proposal to name the scoreboard in Alameda High School’s New Gym after Richard Bullock, Sr., an Alameda native who had a lifelong involvement in playing and advocating for local sports.
Bullock, who died in 2022, played baseball and basketball at AHS as well as ARPD basketball and men’s softball. He coached Catholic Youth Organization basketball and Babe Ruth baseball, and served as president of the AHS Athletic Boosters. Later in life, to stay involved once his grandchildren started playing local sports, Bullock became the announcer for AHS women’s basketball and softball, and for football games, according to Mike Bullock, one of Richard Bullock’s sons.
“He didn’t just jump in and help—he was the head guy!” Mike Bullock said during public comment. “If you lived in Alameda for the last 75 years, he either coached you, played against you, raised money for you, and probably screamed at you a lot when he was watching all of those games.”
Andrea Long, current president of the AHS Athletic Boosters, revealed that when Bullock passed, his family asked people to donate to the Boosters. Long created a special fund and sought to use the $5,000 received in donations to “do something important…more meaningful, impactful, and long-lasting.” In an effort to honor the “Voice of the Hornets,” Long came up with the idea to name the scoreboard after Bullock.
Possible designs include a decorative truss or ad panel to be installed on the scoreboard with the words “Voice of the Hornets” and “In Memory of Richard Bullock, Sr.” The donations will fund the display, with the exception of AUSD staff time and, potentially, the cost of installation materials.
Davis walked through the logistics for naming the scoreboard, including Board policies that outline four steps to name a currently unnamed facility. In early May, staff met with and sent surveys to AHS coaches and physical education teachers to solicit their feedback—those who responded said “yes” to the scoreboard naming. Following the announcement of the proposed naming at the May 27 Board meeting, AUSD will publicize and solicit public comment before the Board votes on the naming at its meeting on Tuesday, June 24. Comments on the proposed naming can be sent to Susan Davis, Senior Manager of Community Affairs, at [email protected].
Other notable items
Other items discussed by the Board:
- School staff from the Alameda Science and Technology Institute (ASTI) shared an update on its Single Plan for Student Achievement (SPSA) to prioritize programs and efforts to support students and families. Also, Superintendent Pasquale Scuderi gave a presentation on progress made by key District departments on several priority initiatives during the 2024-2025 school year.
- In addition to discussing the budget adoption process at its meeting on Tuesday, May 13, the Board heard staff recommendations for new curricula for middle school social studies and secondary world language (French and Spanish) classes, as well as strategies to reimagine continuing education at Island High School.
- At its meeting on Tuesday, April 29, Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services Kirsten Zazo provided an update on enrollment trends within the District’s Special Education program and highlighted next steps and a “theory of action” that focuses on improving pre-Kindergarten to third grade literacy and integrating students with autism into Tier 1 (i.e., general education) classrooms. “Our students are changing, and we have to be able to change with them,” reflected Zazo.
Ken Der is a contributing writer for the Alameda Post. Contact him via [email protected]. His writing is collected at AlamedaPost.com/Ken-Der.
