SVUSD Corona Communications
March 27, 2020
Where We Are, Where We Are Headed, What to Expect
We are so thankful to be part of an organization that is so dedicated to the students of the Valley. Like you, we are learning more each day and adapting and responding to the rapidly changing conditions. Please be on the lookout for detailed communications from your home school that outline the highlights below.
Week 1: Where we are:
- Staff reported back to work after Spring Break on Monday and excelled at remote radical collaboration! Thank you.
- Reminder, schools are closed until May 1, per the SCOE and Public Health recommendation.
- Because of the hard work of a few dedicated staff, we had remote learning options made available Day 1 with packets, distribution sites, and a fantastic website created in days.
- Food served to nearly 700 students per day. Each student was able to get lunch and breakfast.
- Over 2,200 learning packets distributed across the district at the three sites: Altimira, Adele, and Sassarini.
- Staff at those sites greeted families with hope, cheer, and smiles, even in the rain.
Week 2: Where we are headed:
- High School Student Technology access will be established first (early next week finalized).
- Middle School Student Technology will be established next (end of week)
- We need to order and catalog elementary student technology (Gr 2-5) for distribution in week 3
- Pilot mobile food and packet distribution - more details to come
- Pilot remote mental health support lines- see information in newsletter below
Ongoing: What to expect:
- More online learning with modifications for students who need them. Teachers are excited to create authentic learning spaces, discovering and exploring how to do that.
- Weekly school communication in ways we have in the past. Principals are relying on the ways they have communicated with you in the past.
- Daily suggested schedules for learning at home. Know these are flexible. Everyone's home situation is different, and that is expected.
SVUSD encourages students to use caution when performing any activity. !t is expected the student, parent or guardian, communicate directly with the teacher if there is a concern regarding the appropriateness or safety of any activity assigned during distance learning.
SVUSD Cares /SVUSD Healthy
Sonoma Valley Unified School District has established email and phone helplines for students and families during the COVID-19 class cancellation. Families can use the helplines to leave messages for elementary and secondary counselors, mental health providers, and district nurses. Messages will receive a response as soon as possible, ideally by the next weekday.
As a reminder, anyone with a medical or psychiatric emergency should call 911 immediately.
- For non-emergency emotional and mental health support: School counselors, school psychologists, and district social workers are available to answer questions and connect families to mental health and family support resources in the community:
- Families can email svusdcares@sonomaschools.org.
- For non-emergency medical questions and health support: SVUSD district nurses and health staff are available to answer questions and connect families to medical resources in the community:
- Families can email svusdhealthy@sonomaschools.org.
For questions or concerns about these services, please contact Charles Wilson, Director of Educational Services, at cwilson@sonomaschools.org or (707) 935-4224.
Thanks to our staff who make this possible..
Special thank you to our dedicated and committed staff. Amazing things are happening that might not be visible, and we'd like to share the great work of this organization, with a couple of highlights:
- Foodservice has prepared over 5,000 meals and provided them to over 2,500 students in one week.
- Dedicated staff safely distributed over 2,250 packets of educational materials to parents.
- Over 100 new WiFi hot spots have been donated by Sonoma Valley Education Fund to help ensure every student has WiFi access for online remote learning options with more to come.
- Staff returning to classrooms for animals, critical materials, or other needs have the space cleaned before and after by a dedicated custodial staff.
- Staff meetings at every site to connect, calibrate and collaborate
- Grade and subject level packets will be available next week with schedules to help families and students adjust to the new learning environment.
- Radical collaboration across the district staff is happening every moment of every day to make sure student needs are covered.
- Community-wide, Sonoma Valley comes together! Please, if you are interested in volunteering, go to www.sonomavalleyvolunteers.com to be connected with opportunities.
- A virtual/remote mental health team plan for SVUSD family support was created in the course of several days.