Novato Unified School District Superintendent's Weekly Update - January 29, 2021

Novato CA

30 January, 2021

11:10 AM

Description

Press release from the Novato Unified School District: January 29, 2021 Dear NUSD Family, Happy Friday everyone. I am happy to share what I believe is good news this week. While Covid has changed the school year, we continue to move forward. Topics included in today's update are: Anti-racist education resolution passed by the Board on January 26 What will 2021-22 look like? High School Athletics Update Protocol for sharing a positive case with the school community January 17, 2021 vaccination clinic Virtual Learning Academy newsletters Anti-racist education resolution passed by the Board on January 26 For the past several months two different groups within NUSD have been on parallel tracks that led our Board of Education to the approval of an Anti-Racist Education Resolution on Tuesday night. On one track was a group of courageous high school students, working with Restorative Justice Specialist, Phoebe Smith, on the steps they believed NUSD should take to eliminate racism and racist behaviors and actions from our school system. These efforts resulted in the first draft of what would become the approved anti-racist education resolution. On the other track, our Educators of Color Task Force was working with Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources, Jonathan Ferrer, on a similar task. In partnership with our Education Services team, Jonathan coordinated the efforts of these two groups and gained the necessary commitments from our departments to the Anti-Racist Education Resolution. NUSD believes that our commitment to this important cause will push us one step closer to achieving our mission to Engage, inspire and empower all students, in a rapidly changing world, to realize their life goals. What will 2021-22 look like? As we continue work towards getting all of our students back on campus this year, we are actively looking forward to the 2021-22 school year. I want to take a minute to share my best predictions on what 2021-22 will look like. In speaking with Marin County Public Health, they anticipate that, while still present, Covid will not impact our schools in the same significant way it has this year. Vaccinations, testing, and the precautions we have taken all make it possible for the 2021-22 school to look far more like the typical school year than we have experienced since March 2020. This is our goal. We are actively working on plans to have all of our students on campus from the beginning of the school year. I also anticipate that we will continue to have significant precautions in place to ensure that we are keeping our students, staff, and community safe. We will be prepared for this and commit to it with everything we have. We will continue to follow all public health guidance as we move forward. High School Athletics Update The time has arrived when we are anticipating specific information from CIF, North Coast Section and Marin County Athletics League about our ability to start some sports seasons in the very near future. This information is being crafted as I write this message. I am very excited about the potential of getting our athletes safely returning to competition. Here is some very limited and preliminary information on 2020-2021 athletics. Please expect more specific information from either NUSD or your high school as soon as we can get it to you accurately! Protocol for sharing a positive case with the school community Marin County Public Health has provided protocols of communications for various scenarios from a close contact to a positive case. They can be viewed here. We heard from our community about wanting to be informed when a positive case is reported at their school. We understand the need for this transparency and have added this to our own communication protocols. When we receive a report of a positive case that has potentially exposed anyone on our campus, the principal will send out a notification to their school community. January 17, 2021 vaccination clinic On January 17, Marin County's Vaccine Clinic delivered nearly 1,500 doses to Priority I local educators. (I outlined the priorities in my January 22 communication.) While it is a step in the right direction, we have a significant number of our staff that remain on hold who are on the Priority II, III, and IV lists. In the afternoon of the Clinic, an extra 200 doses were prepared for distribution without Priority I employees to receive them. In an effort to ensure that not a single dose was wasted at the January 17 Vaccine Clinic, a message was sent to all staff in the late afternoon inviting them to come down to receive the leftover vaccines on a first come, first served basis. I was able to receive one of those extra doses. Regrettably, my taking one of these extra doses has caused some discontent in the community. I can appreciate that and, in hindsight, I would pass on the vaccine if given the opportunity today. It is my hope that our next delivery of vaccines will be prompt and the scarcity of resources we are all experiencing comes to an end soon. My goal is to only shine light on NUSD and my decision that day did not. Unfortunately, I cannot go back in time, so I will move forward in service of all of our students and our community. I will continue to advocate for vaccination prioritization for our educators and I will continue to lead us through this terrible pandemic. Virtual Learning Academy Newsletters Here are links to the Virtual Learning Academy newsletters: Elementary – January 28, 2021 Middle School – January 28, 2021 Marin County's Covid data continues to trend in the right direction. We are currently in the red or orange tiers in many categories and are moving towards red in the two remaining categories. I look forward to the day when we exit the purple tier. You can view Marin County's data here. Sincerely, Kris Cosca www.nusd.org/COVID This press release was produced by the Novato Unified School District. The views expressed here are the author's own.