Principal's Message
Dear Cougar Families,
Welcome to the 2023 – 2024 school year! As the new academic year begins, I am delighted to extend a warm and enthusiastic welcome back to each and every one of you. I trust you had a restful and rejuvenating break, and now we are all geared up to embark on a fresh journey together.
Our time away from campus has provided an opportunity for reflection, growth, and planning for the year ahead. I am thrilled to say that we have an exciting lineup of events, projects, and initiatives planned for this year.
I am honored to be the principal of Cottonwood School. Because of the quality of our staff, scholars, and families, this is a fantastic place to work! I can’t wait to see the heights our scholars and staff achieve this year.
This is the beginning of my 29th year in the field of public education and my sixth year with the HUSD. I began my love of education in the Marine Corps Reserves when I was given a required opportunity to teach maps and orienteering to members of my platoon. It was a scary thing for me to do at the time, but ended up being one of the most rewarding. This was my introduction to teaching and inspired me to go back to school for my credential. I earned my Bachelor's Degree from UC Santa Cruz (Go Banana Slugs), my credential from Bethune College, and my Master’s Degree in School Administration from CSU San Bernardino.
Over the past 28 years, I have served education in a variety of roles and responsibilities. I taught in Kindergarten through 8th Grade Language Arts. My first 7 years were spent teaching in Spanish and English at a Bilingual School in Watsonville, CA. On a personal note, I am a proud husband and father to six amazing children and three adorable dogs.
Relationships are very important to me and critical to our success as educators. I am dedicated to build relationships with all of you, as well as our scholars, and community members. I know that the education of our scholars can only be done well with the support of our parents and community.
Cottonwood exemplifies our District's Vision of Embrace, Educate, and Empower. I am excited to continue to work alongside the staff, students, and families to continue the great work going on here with a focus on literacy and attendance. Our goal is to have our scholars here each day, on time, and ready to learn so we can accelerate the learning of our scholars.
Please know that I truly have an open-door policy. If you have any questions or concerns moving forward, I welcome the opportunity to meet with you and offer my support - do not hesitate to reach out. I can’t wait to see all of our exceptional scholars on August 11th, 2023 at 3 pm for our Back to School Event and on the first day of school August 14th. Here’s to another successful school year!
Sincerely,
Albert Trudel
P.S. Please familiarize yourself with our website, the parent center website, our afterschool program website, and our district website.
You will find our bell schedule, school calendar, and our parent/student handbook.
