Joe Serna, Jr. and Isabel Hernandez-Serna Center at the Sacramento City Unified School District.

Sacramento City Unified School District is a school district in Sacramento, California. The district's main office is located at the Serna Center in Sacramento.^[1]

The district has been serving most of the city of Sacramento for over 150 years. Sacramento High School opened in 1856. It was the second oldest high school in the United States west of the Mississippi River until the school board voted to close the school in June 2003. The SCUSD is also home to Arthur A. Benjamin Health Professions High School, Luther Burbank High School, John F. Kennedy High School, C.K. McClatchy High School, West Campus High School, Hiram Johnson High School,and Rosemont High School.

As Sacramento grew, the district grew and now is among the 10 largest school districts in California serving about 48,000 K-12 students and 20,000 adult education students. Sacramento City is “unified” because kindergarten through 12th grade students are served. Along with neighborhood schools, there are specialized programs such as basic or fundamental, alternative schools, Waldorf methods, charter, JROTC, international study, criminal justice, and independent study.

The current superintendent of Sacramento City Unified School District is Mr. Jonathon P. Raymond who began on August 21, 2009. The previous interim superintendent was Mrs. Susan Miller who has returned to the position of Associate Superintendent, Education-Instructional Services.

The current Board of Education members are; Diana Rodriquez (President), Jeff Cuneo (First Vice President), Darrel Woo (Second Vice President), Gustavo Arroyo, Patrick Kennedy, Ellyne Bell, Donald Terry, and Isaac "Izzy" Gardon (Student Member).

Demographics[link]

This section requires expansion.

In 2002 about 3,900 students in the school district were Hmong. At the time, they were the lowest performing ethnic group in school. By 2002 the district introduced the Hmong Extended Summer School Program to establish ethnographic research projects to help ethnic Hmong students learn about the Hmong culture. The Hmong culture was originally not literate, so in 2002 few books existed that detailed Hmong history.^[2]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Sacramento City Unified School District

	California portal
	Schools portal

• Sacramento City Unified School District
• Interview with Superintendent Jonathan Raymond on PMAKid.com

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2011)

A unified school district or unit school district is a school district which includes both primary school (kindergarten through middle school or junior high) and high school (grades 9–12) under the same district control.

This distinction exists primarily in Illinois and the western U.S. states^{[citation needed]}, where elementary school districts and high school districts are, or were, usually separate. The Los Angeles Unified School District (sometimes called "LA Unified") is a major example of a California unified school district. In Illinois, Chicago Public Schools unified school districts are not to be confused with consolidated or union school districts, which are usually formed by the consolidation of multiple school districts of the same type.

Different uses of the term[link]

Some U.S. states use the term "unified school district" differently. For example:

• In Connecticut, a unified school district is a statewide school district serving students under the jurisdiction of a state department:
  • Unified School District #1 is under the Department of Correction.^[1]
  • Unified School District #2 is under the Department of Children and Families.^[2]
  • Unified School District #3 is under the Department of Developmental Services.^[3]
• In Vermont, a unified school district is a type of union school district in which "the town school districts (and school boards) are abolished and representatives from the former districts are elected to form one school board."^[4]
• In Wisconsin, a unified school district is one in which the school board has "the powers and duties of the school board and annual meeting in a common school district."^[5]

References[link]

1. ^ General Statutes of Connecticut § 18-99a
2. ^ General Statutes of Connecticut § 17a-37
3. ^ General Statutes of Connecticut § 17a-240
4. ^ LEAs: Types of Vermont Public School Districts
5. ^ Wisconsin Statutes § 120.44

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This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. It needs additional citations for verification. Tagged since March 2009. It may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Tagged since August 2010.

School districts are a form of special-purpose district which serves to operate local public primary and secondary schools.

United States[link]

In the United States, public schools are run by school districts, which are independent special-purpose governments, or dependent school systems, which are under the control of state and local government. A school district is a legally separate body corporate and politic. School districts are local governments with powers similar to that of a town or a county including taxation and eminent domain, except in Virginia, whose school divisions have no taxing authority and must depend on another local government (county, city, or town) for funding. Its governing body, which is typically elected by direct popular vote but may be appointed by other governmental officials, is called a school board, board of trustees, board of education, school committee, or the like. This body appoints a superintendent, usually an experienced public school administrator, to function as the district's chief executive for carrying out day-to-day decisions and policy implementations. The school board may also exercise a quasi-judicial function in serious employee or student discipline matters.

Not all school systems constitute school districts as distinct bodies corporate. A few states have no school systems independent of county or municipal governments. One prominent example is Maryland, where all school systems are run at the county or, in the case of Baltimore City, the county-equivalent level. Other states, such as New York, have both independent school districts and school systems that are subordinate to cities. The Hawaii State Department of Education functions as a single state-wide school district. This is unique among the states, but the Puerto Rico Department of Education operates all schools in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, thus also functioning as a single school district.

In the 2002 Census of Governments, the United States Census Bureau enumerated the following numbers of school systems in the United States:

• 13,506 school district governments
• 178 state-dependent school systems
• 1,330 local-dependent school systems
• 1,196 education service agencies (agencies providing support services to public school systems)

School districts in the US have reduced the number of their employees by 3.3%, or 270 thousand between 2008 and 2012 .^[1]

Terminology[link]

This article may not provide balanced geographical coverage on school districts in states across the U.S. Please improve this article or discuss the issue on the talk page.

Although these terms can vary slightly between various states and regions, these are typical definitions for school district constitution:

Schools[link]

• An elementary school usually includes kindergarten and grades one through five (sometimes six). In some school districts these grades are divided into two schools.
• A middle school usually includes grades six or seven through eight (in some places, the alternative terms junior high school or intermediate school are still used). Junior high school often referred to schools that covered grades seven through nine. Intermediate school is often used for schools that cover grades 3-5 or so when they are separated from elementary schools.
• A high school usually includes grades nine through twelve and may include grades seven and above. There are many high schools that cover only grades ten to twelve, which are sometimes referred to as a senior high school.

Districts[link]

These terms may not appear in a district's name, even though the condition may apply.

• A unified school district includes elementary and secondary (middle school and high school) educational levels.
• The word central in a district's name indicates that there is one central administration that oversees the entire district.
• The word free in a district's name indicates that no tuition is charged to attend district schools. In New York, it is used in conjunction with union to indicate a district composed of multiple, formerly independent common school districts now free of restrictions placed on New York State's common school districts.
• The word union or consolidated in a district's name indicates that it was formed from two or more districts.
• The word joint in a district's name indicates that it includes territory from more than one county.
• The word independent can have different meanings, depending on the state.
  • Kentucky — Here, "Independent" districts are separate from county districts, the standard form of school district in the state. If a county has no independent district, its school district boundaries coincide exactly with its borders. As of 2007, the state has 54 independent districts scattered throughout the state, with major concentrations in Northern Kentucky and the Eastern Coal Fields region. These districts are generally associated with a city, or sometimes with a cluster of adjoining cities. Unlike county districts, independent districts can cross county lines, as in the Caverna Independent Schools centered on Cave City and Horse Cave and the Corbin Independent Schools. Note that some districts in the state are independent despite not having "Independent" in their official name, as in the Owensboro Public Schools and Paducah Public Schools.
  • Minnesota — Per Minnesota Statue 120A.05, "Independent" denotes any school district validly created and existing as an independent, consolidated, joint independent, county or a ten or more township district as of July 1, 1957, or pursuant to the Education Code.^[2]
  • Texas — Here, "Independent" denotes that the district is separate from any county- or municipal-level entity. All of the state's school districts, with only one exception (Stafford Municipal School District), are independent of any municipal or county control. Moreover, school district boundaries rarely coincide with municipal limits or county lines. Most districts use the term "Independent School District" in their name; in the few cases where the term "Common School District" is used the district is still an independent governmental entity.

• In Ohio, school districts are classified as either city school districts, exempted village school districts, or local school districts. City and exempted village school districts are exempted from county boards of education, while local school districts remain under county school board supervision. School districts may combine resources to form a fourth type of school district, the joint vocational school district, which focuses on a technical skills–based curriculum.^[3]

• In Michigan there are Intermediate School Districts (ISD), Regional Education Service Districts (RESD), or Regional Education Service Agencies (RESA) largely at the county level. The local schools districts run the schools and most programs, but often bi-lingual aides, programs for the deaf and blind, special education for the severely impaired, and career and technical education programs are run by the Intermediate School District or equivalent.

Europe[link]

Outside the United States, other jurisdictions often will have autonomous districts (or equivalent) authorities to represent various groups seeking autonomy, such as linguistic groups, or religious groups. The U.S. school districts, which tend to be based largely on geographical divisions, generally avoid these issues, as English is such a dominant language, and religion is largely excluded from public education by the legal doctrine of the separation of church and state and the widespread existence of private schools run by religious organizations. In much of the world, religious (confessional), linguistic, and other divisions, are a significant factor in organizing school districts or equivalent authorities.

In England and Wales, school boards were established in 1870, and abolished in 1902, with county council and county borough councils becoming the Local Education Authorities.^[4]

In France, the system of the carte scolaire was dismantled by the beginning of the 2007 school year. More school choice has been given to French students, however, priority is given to those that meet the following criteria:

• students with disabilities
• students on scholarships or special academic merit
• students who meet "social cohesion" criteria (essentially to diversify the school population)
• students who require specialized medical attention from a hospital
• students who want to study a course offered only by the school
• students who have siblings that attend the school
• students who live close proximity to the school

In Italy, school districts were established in 1974 "Provvedimenti Delegati sulla scuola" ("Assigned Laws [to the Government] about the school").^[5] Each district must contain a minimum of 10,000 inhabitants. The federal government attempted to link the local schools with local society and culture and local governments. The school districts were dissolved in 2003 by the "legge finanziaria" (law about the government budget) in an attempt to trim the national budget.^[6]

Examples[link]

• London School Board
• Education areas in New South Wales, Australia
• School districts in Canada
• Education districts in Queensland, Australia

See also[link]

Schools portal

• Lists of school districts in the United States
• List of the largest school districts in the United States by enrollment
• State education agency
• School division (Virginia)
• Unified school district
• School district drug policies
• School Improvement Grant

References[link]

External links[link]

• 2002 Census of Governments
• U.S. School Districts Online

Jonathan Raymond is an American writer living in Portland, Oregon.

Biography[link]

He published his first novel, The Half-Life in May of 2004. He has also worked as a screenwriter and wrote the short story inspired by the photography of Justine Kurland on which the film Old Joy is based.^[1] Old Joy^[2] was shown at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and the 2006 Rotterdam International Film Festival and stars musician Will Oldham. Raymond also co-wrote the 2008 film Wendy and Lucy starring Michelle Williams. Both Old Joy and Wendy and Lucy are based on short stories published in Raymond's 2008 collection, Livability, which won the Oregon Book Award's Ken Kesey Award for Fiction in 2009.^[3]

Raymond's professional duties include co-editing Tin House, editing Plazm, art criticism for Artforum and Modern Painters, and teaching through The New School.^{[citation needed]}

Books[link]

• The Half-Life: A Novel (2004), ISBN 978-1-58234-578-9 (2005 paperback)
• Old Joy (2004), with Justine Kurland, ISBN 978-1-891273-05-6
• Livability: Stories (2008), ISBN 978-1-59691-655-5

References[link]

External links[link]

• Baker, Jeff. "Writer Jon Raymond sees his work realized in Oregon films". The Oregonian. http://www.oregonlive.com/movies/index.ssf/2009/01/writer_jon_raymond_sees_his_wo.html. 
• Pollock, Zoë. "Art Beat: 'Wendy and Lucy' Explores Landscape of Loss". PBS. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/art/blog/2009/02/wendy-and-lucy-explores-landscape-of-loss.html. 
• "Jon Raymond interviewed by Identity Theory". http://www.identitytheory.com/interviews/jon_raymond.php. 

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