#KSD Ready & Resilient
Update from Kuna Superintendent Wendy Johnson
4.23.2021
- Supporting teaching and learning with our "stimulus" money
- When will the school mask requirement end?
ICYMI: Reed featured by KTVB!
Congratulations HOSA national qualifiers
In their first state competition, FCCLA students win spots in nationals, scholarships
COVID data dashboards
Supporting teaching & learning with "stimulus" money
Much like the millions of Americans who received federal stimulus checks this past year, schools are receiving one-time stimulus funds, too.
We are gathering input and will be creating a plan on how to use these funds to best meet the needs of students and teachers while also being good stewards of this one time money.
Some funds are and will continue to address unexpected costs caused by the pandemic: health aides, devices for every student, hand sanitizer, etc. Some funds helped us manage cuts to our state education funding.
On Tuesday, the school board will hold a special meeting to talk about how to use the rest of these one-time funds, which we can use over three years.
We have a clear picture of our needs thanks to our work on our strategic plan (you can still provide feedback using this link), our regular community needs assessments (you may remember participating last December), and frequent check ins with our school administrators and teacher leaders.
We're excited about the potential of these funds to help us as we serve your children. Tuesday's meeting will start at 6 p.m. and will be streamed if you would like to learn more.
When will the school mask requirement end?
It's hard to believe just a few months ago, we closed schools and sent entire grade levels of students home for days of remote learning due to quarantine requirements because of exposure to a COVID positive individual.
The second half of this school year was markedly different. We haven't had to implement entire school or grade level shifts to remote learning thanks to vaccines and masks. (You may recall from previous newsletters that when all individuals in a classroom are wearing masks in our classrooms, quarantines aren't required when someone in the group tests positive for COVID.)
We plan to finish these final 28 days with the mask requirement in place. Why?
- Our local health district still strongly recommends that schools continue to reinforce the importance of face coverings until more of our community's vulnerable population have access to the COVID-19 vaccine.
- We don't want our students to miss important end of the year traditions. If a student is exposed to someone who is positive and is not wearing a face covering, the student must quarantine. Students in quarantine cannot participate in those special year-end traditions -- prom, graduation, 8th grade getaway, field days, kindergarten graduation, and more. The pandemic eliminated those events last year. We don't want a student to have to miss out on one more tradition like they did last year.
I want to share with our families and community how proud I am of our students (and staff). As I visit classrooms, our students have done an amazing job this year adapting to this strategy to prevent the spread of the virus. We know we won't be requiring the use of face coverings forever and are working with health officials to identify when we can lift this requirement from our plan. In the meantime, I appreciate everyone keeping one another safe so we can continue to keep our students in school learning.
ICYMI: Reed featured by KTVB!
In their first state competition, FCCLA students win spots in nationals, scholarships
Our Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) students participated in their first state competition and two students Kenzie Koch and Sada Bachman qualified for national competition. Keegan Hymas won a $2,500 scholarship.
Superintendent Wendy Johnson
Email: ksdcommunications@kunaschools.org
Website: www.kunaschools.org
Location: 711 East Porter Street, Kuna, ID, USA
Phone: 208-922-1000
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Kuna-Jt-School-District-No-3
Twitter: @Supt_Wendy_J