At its meeting on Tuesday, January 28, the Alameda Unified School District (AUSD) Board of Education discussed transportation impacts stemming from the Central Avenue Safety Project and received an update on student assessment.
Central Avenue Project Phasing
Paden Elementary School and Encinal Jr. & Sr. High School are both located along Central Avenue, and with construction of the Central Avenue Safety Project in full swing, City of Alameda Supervising Engineer Brendin Christolear joined the meeting to discuss construction phasing, detours, and potential traffic impacts.
The project will construct roundabouts at the Pacific Avenue, Third Street, and Fourth Street intersections, along with a two-way separated bikeway from Pacific Avenue to Webster Street and traditional bike lanes from Webster Street to Sherman Street.
Construction will occur in three phases through spring 2026 and will require directional roadway closures and detours. Phase 1, which is scheduled through June 2025, will close the north side of Central Avenue. Westbound traffic on Central will need to detour north along Fifth Street, then west along Marshall Way and Pacific Avenue.
Phase 2, which is scheduled for June 2025 to January 2026, will close the south side of Central Avenue and require the reverse detour route. In April 2026, Phase 3 will close the entire intersection of Central Avenue/Main Street/Pacific Avenue.
During discussion, Trustee Jennifer Williams inquired whether project construction could commence after the school day has started in order to avoid major impacts to safety and morning drop-off. In response, Christolear explained that, while feasible, constructing the project around school hours could potentially extend the project timeline by months.
“It’s one of those balancing acts of making sure people are inconvenienced as little as they can be but also without dragging the project out too terribly long,” said Christolear.
Christolear also detailed the many other in-progress or completed transportation projects in Alameda that have made or are expected to make traveling to school safer.
Student assessment and report cards
Later in the meeting, several District staff updated the Board on current report card practices for grading and assessing students.
Erin Ashwerth, Elementary Teacher on Special Assessment, described key objectives in developing new report cards for Transitional Kindergarten (TK) to third grade students, with a focus on adding social-emotional domains and asset-based language—such as using the phrase “Approaching Standard” instead of “Below Standard.”
As for middle and high school students, Vernon Walton, Director of Secondary Education, described the three different gradebook templates that teachers currently use. They include the 70-100% Pass/Fail template as well as the 50-100% A-F grading scale—a more equitable template that stops grades from sliding below 50%.
A cohort of 13 new or progressive teachers in Alameda is also piloting use of rubric gradebooks beginning in fall 2024. This template, which may be better suited for project-based courses, evaluates students on a 0-to-5 grading scale, depending on whether they meet certain standards.
“There are so many things that you talked about that are cutting edge, and a lot of it having to do with actually understanding what goes on in the classroom, and where the challenges may be,” said Trustee Meleah Hall, as she applauded staff’s focus on more equitable grading. “I think that’s really going to reduce a lot of the anxiety and the extra workload that often happens.”
District staff expect to explore late work and academic integrity policies later in the school year.
Other notable items:
- Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services Kirsten Zazo presented Goal 3 of the Local Control and Accountability Plan, which outlines strategies for student support and intervention.
- As part of ongoing budgeting conversations, Shariq Khan, Assistant Superintendent of Business Services, discussed Governor Gavin Newsom’s budget proposal for 2025-2026 and its implications for AUSD’s budgeting process.
Ken Der is a contributing writer for the Alameda Post. Contact him via [email protected]. His writing is collected at AlamedaPost.com/Ken-Der.
