Piedmont Adult School held a celebration on Thursday for its 50th anniversary, with school district leadership, instructors, and students gathering at 801 Magnolia to mark the milestone.
The school was established in 1975, emphasizing fee-based enrichment classes to serve the interests of adults from Piedmont and its surrounding communities. Today the Adult School offers more than 70 different community classes, in addition to its free, state-funded programs in High School Diploma, English as a Second Language and Career Technical Education. Classes are held on the Piedmont High School/Millennium High School campus.
Mingling before the program starts 
Superintendent Dr. Jennifer Hawn talks with Piedmont Adult School instructor Victoria Manley
Early on, according to a history of the school outlined in a Western Association of Schools and Colleges report in 2022, the school expanded its offerings to include progressive English as a Second Language (ESL) classes, citizenship classes, General Education Diploma (GED) test preparation, California Department of Motor Vehicles-approved traffic school classes, and a High School Diploma Program (HSDP) for adults and concurrently-enrolled high school students (primarily from Oakland Unified School District.) But budget cuts forced a change in course offerings starting in 2009:
In 2009, the California State Legislature enacted dramatic reductions in funding for public education. PAS cancelled all ESL and Career Technical Education (CTE) classes, and released all of its hourly HSDP teachers. The District did retain its HSDP, but “swept” 50% of its categorical program funds from Adult Education (AE) in support of the District’s General Fund.
PAS was not alone in facing dramatic cuts. AE programs statewide were decimated, with over one-third of all such programs folding. However, Piedmont’s Board of Education chose to maintain its HSDP in hopes that State funding for adult learners might one day return.
In 2013-2014, the Adult Education Block Grant (AEBG) was passed under Assembly Bill 86 (AB 86). This partially restored funding to the District for AE. Under AB 86 and associated legislative actions, the PAS HSDP and a small but thriving Short-Term CTE program are finding new life as PAS is an active member of the Northern Alameda County Adult Education Consortium (NACAE)
You can check out the school’s current offerings HERE
Jacqui Birdsong-James recounts a story from the classroom 
Longtime instructor and administrator Ron Mockel 
Cooking instructor Chat Mingkwan 
Alan and Elena Kong take a photo with their aerobics instructor, Alycia Lai-Clemes (center) 
Instructor Helen Nishikai 
Instructors with 25+ years of teaching service were awarded gold apples and certificates