Superintendent's Message 

On behalf of the Susanville School District Board of Trustees and all of the staff in our district, I welcome you back to school for the 2010-2011 school year.  As we face the new challenges this year will bring, we, as always, will keep our focus on the important mission our school district serves.

Our District's mission is to educate all students to their fullest potential, and to promote responsible, self-reliant, independent, caring students who have the skills and attitudes necessary to become successful and productive citizens.  We believe that all children can learn and experience success in school.  We also believe the community's influence is an important part of a child's life.

The hard work of district staff, when combined with the work of the Board and the ongoing partnerships among our district, parents, guardians and our community as a whole, enable us to meet our mission.

California's ongoing financial crisis continues to hit our community hard.  Many of our families are directly and adversely affected as the State furloughs its employees, and reduces services to families.  With the uncertainty of what the future will bring, particularly in a city such as Susanville, where so many families are directly employed by state agencies, our District, with our own financial struggles, does not want to compound the stresses families in our District already face.

Amid huge cuts in the funding our district would have otherwise received, and with ever increasing costs of many services provided by our district, we are looking for ways of doing the same, and in some cases doing even more, with less financial resources than we enjoyed in the past.  We are spending less money on building maintenance, supplies, and, most notably, salaries as we have reduced staff again this year.  We have no choice but to increase class sizes, and to look at further cuts in programs such as we did in home-to-school transportation last year.

Nevertheless, we must and we will remain focused on our mission to educate each child to his or her fullest potential.  Our partnerships with parents, guardians and our community are needed now more than ever.

While we work to meet our financial challenges, we are doing so with the re-opening of the Diamond View Campus.  Thank you to our community for its support in our efforts to secure funding to renovate Diamond View School.  The community showed overwhelming support for the passage of a school bond in November 2008 and we now have a beautifully restored Diamond View School open and fully functional for the 2010-2011 school year. All work on the Diamond View School project was funded by the proceeds of the sale of school bonds and did not affect the operation of any other school programs in the district.  The next phase of modernization will begin as soon as modernization monies are released by the state; additional work will be done on certain parts of the Diamond View Campus and major renovations will be made two the McKinley and Meadow View Campuses. 

As a long-time resident of the Susanville community, I am proud to serve as superintendent and I appreciate all of the support and involvement of the families of our students and the support of our community.  With such strong commitment from so many, the students of the Susanville School District are well-equipped to succeed in the coming years. 

It is my privilege to serve the Susanville School District and our community.  I look forward to seeing growth in all our students' achievement as we all begin this new school year.

Sincerely,

Jason Waddell

Superintendent

Susanville School District