On March 24, 2022, a committee from VUSD strongly supported renaming the current Community Day School (CDS) after retired VUSD Associate Superintendent Shereene Wilkerson. Mrs. Wilkerson received a unanimous vote to rename the current CDS to Shereene Wilkerson Academy of Excellence (SWAE).
Before becoming an educator, Mrs. Wilkerson was a Vacaville Police Officer for six years and the first School Resource Officer in Vacaville. She established the Youth Services Section (YSS) that still serves VUSD students. During her six-year career at VVPD, she worked
to reduce the number of Vacaville youth referred to juvenile probation and to establish a criminal justice class at Vacaville High School.
Mrs. Wilkerson served a 39-year career in education; 33 of those years were in VUSD. In 1980, she left VVPD to become a teacher at Vacaville High School, where she taught Spanish and social studies. She was the Teacher of the Year in her first year at Vacaville High School. In 1983, she became the Assistant Dean. After earning a Master's Degree in 1984
she became the Assistant Principal at Willis Jepson Middle School and later became the Principal. In 1998, she was promoted to the District office, where she served until her retirement as an Administrator, Assistant Superintendent, and Associate Superintendent.
One of her District positions involved the implementation of strategic planning. Mrs. Wilkerson believed that "all students can learn – not all in the same way, but should have the same opportunity to have the same education," regardless of personal and physical barriers to learning. She strived for access to standards-based curriculum for all students. Ms. Wilkerson initially implemented strategic planning around specific school data in VUSD and trained other districts throughout the United States. Ms. Wilkerson has a "Presence," as many people have described. "When she walks on a campus, things change."
In addition to the accomplishments listed above, she is a 1972 graduate of Syracuse University, where she was a cheerleader and studied Spanish and education, the 1992 recipient of the Milken Family Foundation National Educator Award, the 2007 Soroptimist Woman of the Year, the 2010 Association of California School Administrators (ACSA) Administrator of the Year and is currently an ACSA Coach/Mentor.