This month students across the Alameda Unified School District are engaged in multiple efforts to help the members of our community, including food drives, warm coat drives, toy collections, gift card donations and community efforts to support specific families who may struggling. We at the AUSD are grateful for and impressed by these efforts every year but especially so this year given how many people are struggling.

At its Nov. 18 Board of Education meeting, the AUSD welcomed Carrie Hahnel as its new board member. The board chose Ms. Hahnel — an expert in education policy, finance and data — to fill the seat left vacant when Meleah Hall resigned in late September.

Hahnel works as a senior associate partner at national nonprofit group Bellwether Education Partners. Before working at Bellwether, she held leadership roles at the Opportunity Institute, Education Trust-West and the KIPP Foundation. She has previously served on the AUSD’s parcel tax oversight committees (including as chair) and on the Maya Lin School Site Council. Six people applied for the vacant seat, and the board after a ranking process chose two to interview before making their decision.

In other news, Ruby Bridges Elementary School students were surprised earlier this month by a visit from Ruby Bridges herself. Ms. Bridges dropped in on Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day, which celebrates her historic walk into the all-White William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans, which effectively desegrated the school 65 years ago.

This year, more than 900,000 students celebrated young Ruby’s courage and resilience in Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day celebrations across the country, including students at our elementary schools.

At Ruby Bridges Elementary School — the first in the country to be named after this civil rights hero, by the way — students and staff celebrated the day with remarks from the school’s student council, special purple flags, homemade signs and a march into the school cheered on by loving families and staff. When Ms. Bridges arrived during an assembly about walking and biking safety, many students shouted with excitement and rushed forward to greet and hug her.

“When I went to school in first grade, I had to go alone because of how I look,” she told the students once they had sat down again.  “I did it because we wanted to change the law. When I look at all of you and see all of your faces, I know that what I did back in the ’60s is why this school is like it is today. You represent everything I worked for.”

We are grateful to Ms. Bridges for her in-person visit and to all of the community members and partners who help us support our students, staff and families throughout the year.

Reach Susan Davis, the Alameda Unified School District’s senior manager for community affairs, at 510-337-7175 or SDavis@alamedaunified.org.