Dear Petaluma Community,

Welcome back to the 2016-17 school year! I am very excited about all the outstanding people we have brought to PCS and would like to introduce you to a few new District Office Leadership Members:

• Christine Thomas - Chris is our new Chief Business Official and comes to us with years of experience in the role. A Petaluma native, she is committed to ensuring that we are providing outstanding service to our schools, teachers, parents, and students. I think you will find her to be someone who will be a valuable resource to our District.
• Cliff De Graw - Cliff is our new Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services. Cliff brings to us considerable leadership experience and is known for his excellent ability to build systems that thrive in the school setting. I have worked with Cliff in the past and can tell you he is a consensus builder and thoughtful decision-maker.
• Kim Harper - Kim is our new Director of Educational Services. A Petaluma resident, she brings a wealth of educational services experience, particularly at the elementary level. With Cliff’s secondary experience, Kim completes the educational services circle.
• David Fichera - David will be coordinating communications for PCS this year. Currently, he is working on a revamped communications platform in the District as well as ensuring we have ecommerce (on-line purchases) available for parents to use at the four comprehensive secondary schools. By October, we look forward to Petaluma City School stakeholders utilizing a dynamic communications platform that is both easy to use and information friendly.
• Mary Lim - Mary is our new Program Manager of Student Programs. As detailed in our Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP), we are striving as a District to move towards every student having the opportunity to participate in at least one extracurricular activity over the course of the school year. In addition, both students and parents can look forward to an expanded array of extracurricular opportunities available to all youth. In Petaluma City Schools, we believe that the connection between student engagement in extracurricular activities and student classroom performance is significant. Furthermore, we believe it is our responsibility to educate the whole child and it will be Mary’s role to not only support programs currently in place, but to build new opportunities that allow our students to develop as effective communicators and critical thinkers.
• Kami Kalay is our new Director of Budget and Accounting. Kami comes to us with previous budget and accounting experience as well as expertise in Charter Schools operations.

I would be remiss to not thank Jane Escobedo, Mila Kell, Rae Poole, Denise Calvert, John Speck, and Teri Ryland for their hard work and dedication to Petaluma City Schools. Many people were not aware that a number of positions remained open or were filled with temporary staff during the 2015-16 school year. Without question, it is exciting coming into a new school year with such an outstanding group of new District Office staff. Please join me in welcoming them and all new staff members to the PCS family!

Regards,

Gary Callahan

Superintendent, Petaluma City Schools

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