The Alameda Unified School District (AUSD) has a roundup of good news this week, including awards, high school plays and the start of the district’s enrollment season.
First up on the awards list is Bay Farm School, which has been designated a Blue Ribbon School. This prestigious award honors elementary, middle and high schools that make great strides in closing achievement and opportunity gaps as well as schools that are academically excellent. This year, just 31 schools in California received the award.
Until this summer, the U.S. Education Department organized the Blue Ribbon Schools program. In August, however, the federal government announced that it was ending the program. The California Education Department is now honoring the 2025 schools.
Bay Farm was recognized as an “Exemplary Achievement Gap Closing School” for its recent progress in narrowing achievement and opportunity gaps at the school.
Last month we also learned that three AUSD schools — ASTI, Alameda High and Love Elementary — have been included in the Educational Results Partnership’s 2025 Honor Roll.
Honor Roll schools are those in which all student populations perform highly on the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) English Language Arts and Math Assessments and are improving outcomes for historically underserved student populations.
2026-27 Enrollment: August 2026 may seem far away, but AUSD is already preparing for the 2026-27 school year’s enrollment.
Information nights for middle and high schools start this week. Transitional kindergarten (TK) and kindergarten information nights will be held Jan. 13 (TK for West End residents), Jan. 14 (for East End residents) and Jan. 15 (for kindergarten families). Online enrollment for all grades starts Jan. 26.
You can find information on 2026-27 enrollment timelines and processes at alamedaunified.org/departments/student-support-services/enrollment.
Fall plays: Fans of high school drama productions (and we’re big fans here at AUSD!) are in for a treat with two provocative plays this season. Alameda High’s production of “Ghostlight” premiered last weekend and was to be performed again this week at 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday.
The play focuses on an indifferent student who is sent to a prestigious private school. Once she arrives, she begins to investigate the source of some ghostly sounds in the school theater. The story behind the sounds is “surprising and surprisingly moving,” notes Playscripts.Tickets are available online at gofan.co/app/school/CA22847.
The Encinal Drama Department’s production of “Anon(ymous)” will be staged this week at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday and Nov. 20-22 next week in the cafeteria of Encinal Junior & Senior High School.
Written by Naomi Iizuka, “Anon(ymous)” is a powerful and thought-provoking play that explores identity, displacement and the search for belonging through a modern twist on Homer’s “Odyssey.” Tickets are available online at gofan.co/app/school/CA22911.
Reach Susan Davis, the Alameda Unified School District’s senior manager for community affairs, at 510-337-7175 or SDavis@alamedaunified.org.