We are quickly approaching the end of the school year, June 3, 2020. In spite of the challenges we all face with the current health crisis and the school closure order from the San Diego County Health and Human Services Department, all of our schools have worked tirelessly to plan culminating events for students and families. We have over 70 virtual activities planned across the district to recognize students including kindergarten, fifth, and eighth grade promotion videos, a host of awards ceremonies, celebration of learning videos, and graduation events for each of our high schools. Due to a slight relaxation of the county health order, our three comprehensive high schools will be hosting “drive-through” style graduation events on June 3rd to give seniors an opportunity to return to campus one final time. Each school has made special arrangements to adhere to the county health orders and are looking forward to celebrating the hard work each of our seniors has invested to receive their much deserved diploma. Each school will be reaching out to students and parents in the coming weeks to provide details about their specific year-end activities and celebrations.

We have also made arrangements for an in-person graduation event for all three comprehensive high schools in the event that the county health orders allow for large gatherings. Specifically, Mission Vista High School will hold their in-person graduation on July 29th while Vista High and Rancho Buena Vista High will hold their in-person graduation on July 30, 2020. Each high school will be sending out periodic notifications to seniors and families over the summer to provide updates on the status of the in-person graduations as county health order changes. Once again, congratulations to our seniors. We are very proud of each of you.

The Vista School Board of Trustees will be holding a special board meeting on May 21, 2020. There will be two agenda discussion/action items included. The first item will focus on the budget development process for the 2020-21 school year. The second item will focus on the Temporary Grading Board Policy No. 6301. The agenda for the special meeting will be posted early this week.

Governor Newsom released his May Revise proposal on Thursday, May 14th. This is an update to his January proposed budget. Now that the May Revise has been released, the next steps will involve negotiations between the Governor and the Legislature to develop a final budget. The Legislature is required to approve and send the final budget to the Governor by the June 15 statutory deadline. Lawmakers face penalties if they fail to pass the budget bill by June 15. The Governor then reviews and approves (or even vetoes certain components of) the budget. Once the Governor approves the State Budget, school districts have 45 days to resubmit their budgets. The proposed impact of Governor’s Newsom’s revised budget will be dramatic for public schools throughout California. With these new budget projections from the Governor, Vista Unified will begin the final budget development process on May 21, 2020. It is likely that the School Board will need to set additional special meetings in order to fully discuss the impacts of the proposed budget reductions from the state. Among other negative impacts, the Governor has proposed a 10% reduction to district revenues distributed through the Local Control Funding Formula. We will include periodic updates in the future to keep our community informed.

This week, Governor Newsom announced that California is entering Stage 2 of California’s Resilience Roadmap. As part of this stage, retail (curbside and delivery only), related logistics and manufacturing, office workplaces, limited personal services, outdoor museums, child care, and essential businesses can open with modifications. In addition to the guidance from the State of California, we are obligated to follow the more stringent regulations that have been ordered by Dr. Wilma Wooten, our local health officer. Those regulations can be found in the updated order from Dr. Wooten that was issued this past Sunday, May 10, 2020. We will be working with staff and our collective bargaining units in the coming weeks to discuss the changes in the health orders and the impacts on our school system. It is important to note that the recent health orders still prohibit “all public and private gatherings,” and they prohibit public and private schools from “holding classes or other activities on campus.”

Watching the incredible dedication of teachers and staff and the efforts our students are making to adapt to a new learning environment gives me great confidence that Vista Unified will not only get through this challenge together but emerge stronger and more prepared to continuously improve our collective efforts to support students and their learning. Please stay safe.

Sincerely,

Matt Doyle, Ed.D.

Superintendent of Schools