Supt. John Puglisi: A Look At Rio Schools (2017-2018)
By Michael Hernandez
(Editor’s Note: The first Rio School District Board of Trustees meeting for 2017-2018 is scheduled for Wednesday, Aug. 16 at 5 p.m. at the District Board Room on 3300 Cortez Street, Oxnard, CA 93036. Board of Trustees meetings are held every third Wednesday. The first day of school is Tuesday, Aug. 22.)
Supt. John Puglisi
OXNARD—The Rio School District is breaking ground using technology to connect educators and students with parents according to district superintendent Dr. John Puglisi who says: “Technology allows more parents to support the learning content at school. The software we use connects parents with the school and with students actual work. Parents can look at reading scores, look into multiple layers of reading development, and look at a child grade level fluency.”
Whether using software, websites or blogs such as Learning Priority, Remind, Class Dojo, BrightBytes, and Google classroom, “We are having interactions and connections to parents, we never had before.
“Some 85-90 percent of our students have internet access and over 90 percent have smart phones. We are a 1:1 school district where every student has access to a computer or other device, to be connected to information and teach others beyond the classroom.”
A Look at Supt. John Puglisi:
Dr. John Puglisi, a 31-year educator, is beginning his sixth year with the Rio School District. The former Hueneme School District administrator (elementary and middle school) became Superintendent in both the Warner Unified School District (northern San Diego County) and the Mesa Union School District (Somis) before assuming his current role at Rio School District.
Dr. Puglisi, who has an art and music background, started out as a fourth grade bilingual teacher at 93 Street (Los Angeles) and then spent eight to nine years in the Central Coast at Greenfield Union School District. He has been an adjunct professor at CSU Channel Islands and for Cal Lutheran in Thousand Oaks. Dr. Puglisi did his doctorate work at the University of California Santa Barbara in student and teacher learning in online projects.
“We want to re-emphasize developing student literacy achievement (in reading, writing, math, and technology) and challenge students to go to the next level,” said Dr. Puglisi. “We have done a lot of work to bring about innovation as well as networking.”
Measure G building a new school
“Before Measure G was passed we had not a school bond for 17 years. “Now we have raised $38 million and we will be able to open Rio STEAM Academy (a 78,000 square footage K-8 campus) in 2018 (in River Park adjacent to Windrow Park on North Ventura Road near Forest Park Blvd on a 10.2 acre site with Phase I costing $32 million and Phase 2 costing $13 million). his will be our second K-8 school. The other is Rio Real, a dual immersion school with both Spanish and English.”
Providing oversight of the project is Board President Joe Esquivel; Board Clerk Eleanor Torres; Trustee Ramon Rodriguez; Trustee Felix Eisenhauer; and Trustee Edith Martinez-Cortes.
“This board is deeply engaged in bringing diverse points of views and supporting our innovation and leadership in general,” said Dr. Puglisi. “Support from the board is critical and without this support, it would be impossible to manage the other challenges.”
A Look at Rio School District:
“We’ve been around for 135 years and we need to plan for the next 100 years,” said Dr. Puglisi. The Rio School District is comprised of five elementary schools, two middle schools, and one K-8 school until next year when Rio STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) Academy will open up as the second K-8 school.
The Rio School District has over 5,000 students (85-90 percent Hispanic; 80 percent low income; and 40 percent identified as English Language Learners) and approximately 500 employees as well as an annual budget of $55 million. The Rio School District has three themes or goals stated Dr. Puglisi:
- Maintaining organizational momentum which includes focusing on transforming learning environments by adopting 21st century thinking.
- Re-emphasizing the development of student literacy achievements (reading, writing, math, and technology).
- Becoming an educational leader by doing work to bring innovation, networking—as well as the 5c’s (Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, Critical Thinking and Caring) into the local community.
“We want to provide learning environments that are world class—environments that create hands-on connections, work in groups that is deeply engaging, and focus on literacy development so that students from all demographic groups can do well,” said Dr. Puglisi.
“We want our students to learn to read, write, do math and use technology at levels that are demanded by state standardized testing. We want more of our students to achieve at each grade level. We want to blend rich world-class learning with high quality teaching. We want to see human, academic, and literacy development. We want to be educational leaders in our local community, county, state, nation and world,” said Dr. Puglisi.
Rio Elementary School Bell used from 1895 until 1950 on display at Rio School District headquarters
Michael Hernandez, Co-Founder of the Citizens Journal—Ventura County’s online news service, founder of History Makers International—a community nonprofit serving youth and families in West Ventura County, is a former Southern California daily newspaper journalist and religion and news editor. He has worked 23 years as a middle school teacher. Mr. Hernandez can be contacted by email: [email protected].
Mr. Hernandez is dedicating himself to advance the 13 spheres –as a “City Upon A Hill”; developing an interactive California citizens news platform as an alternative to mainstream media; while building local school-community partnerships.
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