Parvin Ahmadi on Fostering CV Student Excellence

Parvin Ahmadi, CVUSD Superintendent

In the last seven years, Parvin Ahmadi has led Castro Valley schools into what might be considered a second Renaissance of education thanks to a combination of working with parents, teachers, staff, community members, and of course, the students.

“I’ve always believed in listening to students,” Castro Valley Unified School District (CVUSD) Superintendent Ahmadi told the Forum. “With each decision my team makes, we ask ourselves what the best thing is we can do for the kids, and we get them involved in the process.”

Her predecessor, Jim Negri stressed academic excellence while coping with financial challenges, making Castro Valley a highly sought-after district that helped the community grow even during the financial meltdown in 2008. Ahmadi and the various CVUSD Boards of Trustees have built on that success while weathering the subsequent housing downturn, massive social changes, and the COVID-19 pandemic. She has also overseen physical changes to the schools through grants and bond measures including Measure G (2016), which asked for $123 million for classroom and facilities upgrades.

“We are so proud of the work we’ve done to give students the tools they need to succeed,” she said. “Part of that is making sure our facilities are more state of the art. We’re very grateful to the community for stepping up with Measure G and supporting this upgrade process.”

These days, CVUSD ranks high based on survey data from the education ranking site Niche.com. Castro Valley is in the 82nd percentile of the Best School Districts in California. Castro Valley also scores extremely well (78th percentile) against other “Districts with the Best Teachers in California” and it scores extremely high (92 percentile) in the category of Most Diverse School District. Ahmadi says this is because she drives her faculty and staff to consistently focus on equity and commit to closing the opportunity gap and improving the educational outcomes for all students. 

“Our district promises, that all students receive equitable access to high-quality learning opportunities. Our other promise is that ‘All means all,’” she said.

Ahmadi has 23 years of education experience including five years as superintendent at Pleasanton Unified and four at Fremont Unified. She holds a bachelor's degree from San Jose State, a master's in Teaching from National Louis University in Chicago, and a master's in Educational Leadership from St. Mary's College of California.  

It was her own experience as an exchange student who did not speak English that she said helped her foster program changes to allow for alternative methods of learning.

“I got choked up at the high school graduation this past summer when I walked by our walls where students announced what they would do after leaving Castro Valley,” Ahmadi said adding that CVHS students collectively received $500,000 in scholarships this year. “These students give me such hope. I was so impressed when I realized the sheer number of different types of universities, colleges, trade schools, and other programs our students were embarking on. These are the students who endured through COVID, and they are all blazing their own path to success.”

Much of that success comes from relying on input from parents and students. Ahmadi hosts a District Student Leadership Alliance made up of about 20-23 students. For the last seven years, students have shared their successes and their challenges with the learning environment in Castro Valley Schools. The group works with Ahmadi and key District staff on suggestions for creating new policies. Among the suggestions were a full-time tutoring program named PAPER, changes to the grading policy during COVID, and adjustments to the school dress code to make it more equitable and inclusive.

Ahmadi says student feedback was also helpful in providing support services for the Wellness Center programs at the high school and middle schools. The district changed the process so students can access the Wellness Center without embarrassment or red tape.

The district is comprised of 9,277 students which is broken down into 4,150 distributed throughout the nine elementary schools, some 2,088 middle school students in attendance at one of the district's two middle schools, and 3,039 high school students at Castro Valley High School with a small subset of those students at Redwood High School. Ahmadi also oversees Alma Preschool, Roy Johnson Adult Transition program, Castro Valley Adult School, and Castro Valley Virtual Academy.

District demographics enrolled included nearly a third Asian (28.9%) with Hispanic or Latino being the second largest identified group (23.9%). White students make up just more than a fifth (21.4%) of the district population and there is a growing number of students who classify themselves as having two or more races (14.6%).

The student population is also peppered with those seeking specific help. Some 9.4% receive special education series, while 13% are English Language Learners. An additional 22% of the students in Castro Valley qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, a program that even continued during the COVID shutdown.

The lion’s share of Castro Valley's funding for the schools (97.5%) comes from the State of California ($126.5 million) with an additional $2.5 million coming from federal funding and $700 thousand coming from other local sources. The district spends 84% of its budget ($102.4 million) on its personnel with the rest $19.6 million allocated for '“other expenditures” such as books, programs, and other items.

Ahmadi was recently elected president of the Association of California School Administrators (ACSA) Superintendency Council.  She also is a member of the Castro Valley Rotary and Castro Valley Women's Club.