Skip to main content
Search

About Ketti Davis

 
Superintendent Ketti Davis

This 2024-25 school year has hit the midyear mark! What a year we have had so far. I am so incredibly proud of the work of our students, our teachers, our support staff and our leaders. It takes the entire team to Make it Count! 


Did you know that so far this year:

  • US News and World Report recognized Liddell Elementary, River Bluff Elementary and Rio Vista Middle School as top schools in California - we agree!
  • El Capitan Middle School has recently been named a Promising Practices - Model PLC School by the Evidence of Effectiveness, All Things PLC (Solution Tree)
  • CHS student Logan Wood won National Winner of the Ag Mechanics Repair and Maintenance Proficiency - what an incredible Ag program we have!
  • Pershing Continuation High School Academic Decathlon team took 1st Place for their division along with many individual awards earned by decathletes from CEHS and CHS.
  • CEHS Grizzlies Football won CIF Northern Division Championship
  • Xavier Worthy, Central Alumni, inspired students throughout our district as wide receiver for the Kansas City Chiefs in this year’s Super Bowl. 
  • JGHS Cheer secured a State Championship right after securing a CIF Valley Championship - hard working student athletes!
  • Choir Director Evelyn Shu and her JGHS Choir are one of 10 choirs in the state invited to perform at the CMEA State Music Festival in March
  • Association of California School Administrators (ACSA) Region 9 has selected Wendy Slack as Elementary Principal of the Year, Erica Segovia as Secondary Co-Administrator of the Year, and Patricia McCurley as Middle School Principal of the Year. 
  • Our Foundation for Central Schools celebrated its 20th anniversary this year and continues to add more scholarship opportunities for students and employees.
 

As we head into the warmer weather of spring semester, I am certain that more accomplishments will be achieved by our students and the staff that show up every day to make it count!


I thank all of our community for helping us to get our students to school. Our attendance is up about 1% and chronic absenteeism is down more than 5%. We are nearing our goal of 20% reclassification of English Learners which will allow even more students to earn the State Seal of Biliteracy this spring. New this year, students are able to earn the State Seal of Civic Engagement and in June, we will celebrate our first cohort of students who will earn their AA from Fresno City College at the same time as earning their high school diploma. 


I look forward to the improvements to come from the early math and literacy work that is taking place in our elementary schools. Specific math professional development and our involvement with Cal Ed Partners is bringing about accelerated improvement in mathematics. We recognize the importance of strong foundational skills and have reformed our early literacy instruction with new supplemental materials being tested around the district and more than 175 primary teachers engaging in intensive literacy professional development. This will pay off in future state testing and help us increase our annual gains we are currently experiencing. While we are proud of improvements each year in ELA and Mathematics, we know our students can do more and take our jobs seriously in what we can do to make it happen. 


As I wrap up my mid year update, I want to spotlight the work of our On Track team of middle and high school teachers who are involved in a statewide improvement network with Cal Ed Partners. Through their testing and trials we have implemented new grading policies and are seeing improvement in the growth mindset of students in the critical transitional period between middle and high school. It is our commitment for students to know we hold high expectations and will provide multiple opportunities to learn the standards of their courses through intervention and the ability to retake assessments. 


Here are a few links that showcase this work:


 

Keep up the great work Central Unified. Let’s finish this year strong.