[1]During its final meeting of the 2024-2025 school year on Tuesday, June 24, the Alameda Unified School District (AUSD) Board of Education approved the naming of the Alameda High School scoreboard in honor of Richard Bullock, Sr.
Scoreboard naming
At its May 27 meeting [2], the Board heard a community proposal to name the scoreboard in Alameda High School’s New Gym after Richard Bullock, Sr., an Alameda native with a lifelong involvement in playing and coaching local sports. Following the 30-day public comment period, Senior Manager of Community Affairs Susan Davis returned to the Board to provide an update.
“All of them were very positive about the project,” said Davis, summarizing the 10 comments that were submitted by Alameda residents, past and present, who wrote fondly of Bullock’s contributions to the community.
“I saw over the years the positive influence that Richard Bullock had on youth sports in Alameda,” one comment stated. “He spent countless hours volunteering his time. I honestly believe that youth sports in Alameda would not be what it is today without the influence of Richard Bullock.”
[3]The design includes an ad panel that will be installed on the scoreboard with the words “Voice of the Hornets” and “In Memory of Richard Bullock, Sr.” The total cost of the project will be $2,750, which includes $1,500 for the ad panel—to be funded by donations to the Alameda High School Athletic Boosters [4] club—as well as expenses for installation hardware and staff time.
“He would be blown away by the honor,” Bullock’s wife Susan said during public comment. “He was amazed by the talent of super sport stars, but I think he really loved coaching the kids that might not have made the team, and were not the ones that you would always choose…building their confidence and telling stories about them.”
The Board voted unanimously to approve the naming of the scoreboard. (Trustee Meleah Hall was absent.)
Board Clerk Heather Little reflected emotionally on her one regret about the naming process for Bullock. “When you are facing a circumstance of mortality and you want to know how much a community loves you, it’s just sad for me that we didn’t get the opportunity to do that for him before he passed,” Little said. She expressed hope that future naming efforts to recognize esteemed community members, as with the dedication of AUSD’s preschool program [5] to Dr. Ardella Dailey, would occur while they are still with us.
Other notable items
Lindsey Jenkins-Stark, Senior Manager of Data, Assessment, and Research, presented data from the AUSD Family Engagement and Trust Survey and the California Healthy Kids Survey [6] that focus on the quality of relationships between families and school staff, and between students and school staff, respectively. Representing the largest shift in data, about 81% of students felt their cultural beliefs and practices were respected by school staff, compared to 72% last year. A significant majority of students (72% to 74%) also felt they have a caring adult at school, although this range varies more and trends lower for students who identify as Black/African American, multi-racial, and English Learning students.
[7]The Board closed out the meeting with several procedural items, including:
- Approval of the 2025-26 Local Control and Accountability Plan and adoption of the 2025-26 Budget, which were extensively discussed at the June 10 meeting [8].
- Public hearings for previously approved schematic designs for the Wood Middle School [9] and Otis Elementary School [10] construction projects. The hearing were held to meet eligibility requirements for potential state funding from the state bond measure established by Proposition 2 [11], passed in November 2024.
- Approval of 2025-26 contracts for Alameda Family Services [12], which contracts with AUSD to provide student support programs.
Ken Der is a contributing writer for the Alameda Post [13]. Contact him via [email protected] [14]. His writing is collected at AlamedaPost.com/Ken-Der [15].