AUSD Board Reflects on Mass Shooting

Board also reviews unfunded positions

During its first meeting of the 2024-25 school year, the Alameda Unified School District ( AUSD ) Board of Education expressed excitement at the dawn of a new school year, but took time to reflect on the tragic July 2024 mass shooting that left five family members dead.

On July 10, a father shot and killed his two sons, his wife, and her parents. Six-year-old William Killian would have been a rising first grade student at Love Elementary School this year. His mother, Brenda Natali Morales, had been a student at Alameda Adult School. The deaths have had a devastating effect across the AUSD and Alameda community.

In response to the incident, Board President Jennifer Williams introduced a resolution to provide a letter in support of Senate Bill 899 (SB 899) , authored by State Senator Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), which aims to bolster California’s “Red Flag” law and enhance gun violence prevention efforts.

“As a parent and elected official in this community, I felt hopeless in the weeks following this unexplainable act, and I’m still struggling with what we can do to mitigate these harms to our families and to our children,” Williams said.

Since the tragedy, AUSD has worked with Alameda Family Services to offer a workshop that provided staff and families ways to talk about the incident and the issues of gun violence and gun safety.

Williams called on fellow Board Members to go beyond simply supporting the resolution.

“This is just a small step in what I want all of you, my colleagues on this board, to join me in addressing over the course of this year, to see if there are things we can do, to walk in the right direction for our staff, and for our families, and for the kids that we serve, around this epidemic of violence that is here in Alameda, too, that we need to address.”

Board Members set a hopeful tone for the school year in spite of the tragedy and celebrated students and families coming together. The resolution passed unanimously.

Review of positions with undetermined funding sources

Earlier in the meeting, Superintendent Pasquale Scuderi presented to the Board a list of specific positions with undetermined funding sources beyond June 2025.

Unfunded positions beyond June 2025 are currently supported by one-time dollars, typically through limited grant funding or COVID-19 relief funds, and do not have an identified revenue stream that can extend them beyond the end of this school year. These positions, which currently cost $850,000 annually, include support staff for new teachers and special education (SPED), liaisons for minority or at-risk students, and mental health counselors. Unfunded positions beyond June 2026 and June 2027 were also identified.

Scuderi described the District’s efforts in budgeting based on key priorities, which include balancing salary increases, continuing current unfunded positions, adding new programs, and allocating for future emergencies. The key takeaway, however, is that the “needs and wants often exceed the state and federal revenue we receive and even the generous contributions we receive from Alameda taxpayers,” Scuderi explained.

This comes as part of an effort to make budgeting and financial discussions a year-round affair to heighten the transparency of often difficult decisions. Scuderi emphasized that the presentation was not meant to present a “doom-and-gloom” situation, but rather a first step toward engaging with the community and establishing budget priorities for which to apply or reallocate limited resources.

Scuderi pledged that District staff will continue refining the list while searching for alternative or new revenue streams and will return with an update in November.

Other notable items

• The Board voted unanimously to grant the City of Alameda a perpetual easement and right of way behind several classroom buildings at Encinal High School for access to repair and maintain an underground storm drain that currently runs from Central Avenue to San Francisco Bay.
• Alameda Education Association (AEA) President Martha Zenk announced the passing of Audrey Hyman, who taught for over 14 years at Edison Elementary School and previously served as AEA President.

Ken Der is a contributing writer for the Alameda Post . Contact him via ken@alamedapost.com . His writing is collected at AlamedaPost.com/Ken-Der .

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