Welcome Back, EUSD Families!
August 14, 2020
Dear Encinitas Union School District Families,
Welcome back for what will certainly be our most unique year together yet. First, let me share how appreciative I am for your patience, understanding, and willingness to pivot with us during these most challenging of circumstances. Second, I want to thank those who have offered feedback and input during the recent weeks and months. With collaboration and open communication, your ideas and insights have been helpful as we continue to move forward in our planning.
We recognize the challenges that all families face as we begin this year via distance learning and also know this model allows for the safest possible start for students and staff. Together, we are reimagining learning in this format and are committed to providing all students an engaging and rigorous year. To that end we have added additional intervention opportunities, provided professional development to all teachers and we are running a lower class size average than typical.
You will notice the year is beginning with many opportunities for students, teachers and families to connect virtually. We hear and understand the emotional struggles many of our students have felt being isolated from others and away from school. Building positive relationships from the onset will be important as students begin the year from home. Teachers will be sending video messages and will be making personal home/school connections within the first two weeks. They want to hear from you in order to get to know your child to personalize instruction for their unique needs.
As we strive to further develop an educational system that is connected to the individual needs and passions of our students and staff, we will rely on the groundwork of social and emotional learning we began together in 2019-20. Additionally, our Social and Emotional Learning Committee has created a comprehensive plan for multiple layers of emotional support for students, families and staff. From direct instruction Live Zoom lessons with our T.R.A.C (Teambuilding, Regulation, Acceptance, Community) teachers to open office hours for drop in support and scheduled individual sessions with our psychologists, we have prioritized the need to address mental health during this pandemic.
This year we will be working to better address equity as we recognize the need to learn and do more for our students. Over the summer, our Equity teams met multiple times to learn and engage with one another around the topics of equity and racism. We know education must be at the forefront of reducing hate by addressing the topics of inclusiveness, equality and fairness. Our Committees are working to create an action plan of steps to be taken this year to shift our system to benefit all students.
Lastly, please know the health and safety of students and staff will continue to be at the center of decision making for when and how we return to campus. We are truly encouraged by the current County statistics showing the decrease in the number of cases in our region. Under the current guidance, districts would be permitted to allow in-person instruction for all students K-12 once the county is off the monitoring list for 14 days. Although we know daily rates can fluctuate, we are hopeful this criteria will be met in the coming weeks. We have created and implemented our re-opening plans for our adults on campus and when in-person instruction is deemed safe, we will be ready to support students in a transition back to campus.
Thank you for your tremendous support of our students, staff, and district community.
Warmly,
Andrée Grey, Ed.D.
Superintendent
Encinitas Union School District
Website: www.eusd.net
Location: 101 South Rancho Santa Fe Road, Encinitas, CA, USA