Our Values

Every Student Thrives...

With Holistic Support...

College and Career Ready

All students will feel support, joy, and hope at school, driven by a sense of purpose that holds college and career readiness as centrally important.

Successful in School and Life

All students will be engaged in developing the tools they need to be fully-informed critical thinkers socially, emotionally, and intellectually, both in school and the rest of their lives.

Part of a Thriving, Healthy, Safe Community

All students will be caring, competent members of the community who are healthy and safe, physically, socially, and emotionally.

Civically Engaged

All students will be proud leaders who advocate for their own social, emotional, intellectual, and physical well-being, as well as the well-being of their peers.

Academics

Our mission is to make student learning engaging and meaningful.

School Culture & Climate

Our mission is to build a positive, structured, and inclusive school culture that is a healthy environment for all. We provide services for students and families that address barriers to student achievement.

Expanded Learning

We offer students and families learning opportunities after school and during summer. Our students have additional opportunities to practice the skills they are learning in the classroom and to cultivate the study habits and mindset needed to succeed in school, and our partners collaborate with teachers to align program activities with school curriculum.

Family Engagement

We support families in becoming authentic co-owners of our schools. Our goal is to create school communities where all stakeholders share in the decision-making and responsibility for all students. We value the experiences of all families, their self-determination, and we work to bridge OUSD staff with the communities they serve, engaging in a healthy struggle for positive change.

Health & Wellness

Our schools develop the social, emotional, and physical health of all students. We work to ensure that schools are healthy environments for all, including OUSD families and staff. Our aim is for all students to be in school and ready to learn, and for the entire community to be engaged in improving individual and community health.

School Readiness & Transitions

We provide students additional support during uncertain periods in their lives. We provide support for foster youth, refugee & asylee students, unaccompanied minors, students with unstable housing, and students transitioning from one program to another. This support includes enrollment assistance, school supplies and transportation assistance, workshops, counseling, referrals to community partners, and more.

Social & Emotional Learning

Our schools emphasize developing fundamental skills for life effectiveness. All members of the OUSD community strive to bolster academic learning with SEL skills and competencies: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making. Through these skills, we ensure all students are able to connect ethically and effectively.

Youth Leadership

We provide youth opportunities to be decision-makers and drivers of change. We aim to cultivate civically engaged communities in which students have the power to inform, influence, and shape policy that reflects their perspective. Our schools ensure students have leadership roles and opportunities to partner with adults to create a safe, healthy, supportive school culture.

 

And Equitable, District-Wide Implementation.

Equity and Diversity

Our mission is to build a Full-Service Community District focused on high academic achievement, while serving the whole child, eliminating inequity, and providing each child with excellent teachers, every day. In doing so, we remain mindful of the diverse experiences of all students and families, and actively work to create quality Community Schools where all students graduate college, career, and community ready.

Partnerships and Coordination

The Community Schools & Student Services Department acts as a bridge between central office and school communities, building communication, coordination, assessment, and development capacity for community-based organizations, district-based programs, school staff and students & families; the entire school community comes together to support one another around the school and beyond.

Leadership and Evaluation & Learning

All school communities maintain strong leadership at their school sites, implementing their own vision of a full-service community school according to their assets and needs; the entire school community holds itself accountable for continuous improvement of student achievement through evaluation and learning.

Collaboration and Relationships

All of OUSD champions school sites’ full-service community school implementation; central office and school sites form mutually beneficial relationships and collaborate to hold each other accountable for student learning. All OUSD staff work together in creating a united culture: acting with integrity, fighting for equity, and putting students first.