STOCKTON, Calif. — More than 38,000 students in Stockton went back to class Thursday as the city's largest school district, Stockton Unified, began its fall semester.
Among the crowds of students, teachers and parents taking in the excitement of the first day was district superintendent Dr. Michelle Rodriguez, who visited multiple campuses.
"It's the reason why we do the work," said Rodriguez of seeing smiling students. "Every day I try to be in the schools because that's our 'why.' That's why we put in the long hours, it makes it all worth it."
Rodriguez says long hours are put in even when students aren't in the classroom. Over the summer, district workers made improvements across all 54 schools, which were ready to be shown off when the first bells rang Thursday morning.
"We spent $22 million on furniture for our students. For some, it had been over 20 years since they had had new furniture," said Rodriguez. "We're putting in about 1,000 brand new cameras in 15 schools, all that's going to be connected with the Department of Public Safety. We're now going to be able to dictate who comes in and out and be able to speak and see them before we even allow them in."
Despite the progress and improvements on campuses, there are still some distractions outside of the classroom. Officials confirmed to ABC10 Wednesday the San Joaquin County District Attorney and FBI's investigation into wrongdoings within the district is still open.
"We're going to put all the negativity aside and move on," said Rodriguez. "Up until June 30, we were working on our budget making sure that we were prepared for next year. Everything's looking great. We have our audits going through and everything is looking really clean."
Rodriguez says it’s not just the budget that’s looking better, but also student performance.
"We have the best graduation rate in the history of Stockton Unified. We have decreased chronic absenteeism, decreased suspensions and most importantly probably, higher literacy rates," said Rodriguez. "We had 4,300 staff members on Monday that proved that we are enthusiastic, ready to really fulfill our theme for this year which is, 'SUSD Onward: Imagine the possibilities.'"
Watch more from ABC10: Students at Stockton Unified School District start new school year