Academics Division Update
Week of May 18, 2020
A message from the Chief Academic Officer, Dr. Elizabeth Blanco
Dear Principals and Staff,
Please join me in honoring our classified employees this week and thanking them for their special gifts and their dedication to our students, teachers, parents and community. Classified employees are often the unsung heroes, the first ones to greet our students in the morning and last ones to say goodbye at the end of the day. Many of the duties our classified employees perform are the pillars that support the operations in our educational system. They are the leaders that support our offices, protect students, provide healthy safe environments, nutrition and instruction for students and instill trust with our community members. Thank you for your service this week and every week. Happy Classified Employees Week!
The Executive Leadership Team and several work groups are continuing to focus on the Opening of School for the 20-21 school year. We are imagining the possibilities and learning from others around the world. Please see the report from Learning Policy Institute “Reopening Schools in the Context of Covid-19: Health and Safety Guidelines from Other Countries”.
Student and Staff safety are at the forefront of our decision making. This school year is coming to an end and unfortunately we have not been able to engage in the end of the year festivities as we had planned. It is important that we adhere to the safer at home orders. Below is the message that will be sent to all families regarding end-of the-year celebrations.
Dear PUSD Families, Staff, and Community,
The school year ends on May 28, and our schools are working on ways to celebrate our students while keeping the health and safety of our students, staff, and families as our top priority.
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health Officer’s Safer at Home Order prohibits all public and private gatherings. To limit the spread of COVID-19, the Order does not allow any exemptions for promotion and/or graduation gatherings of any type in order to limit the spread of COVID-19. This means all in-person promotion/graduation ceremonies, including the use of cars for drive-through parades, promotions/graduations, or celebrations (even if one student at a time) are considered public gatherings and are therefore prohibited.
Virtual ceremonies and celebrations are permitted and encouraged as a means of commemorating the end-of-the-year events for students and their families.
PUSD’s high school virtual graduation ceremonies will be broadcast on June 24-26, 2020. We are fully committed to celebrating our seniors with this online ceremony and will plan an in-person event when the Governor and public health authorities determine it is safe to do so.
We know how disappointing it is for all our students to miss the normal end-of-year celebrations during this pandemic.
Please continue to recognize our students for their accomplishments in safe ways.
Have a restful, relaxing Holiday!
LADD Office
Hanover Research has provided this article on "Strategies for maintaining student engagement during remote learning," which highlights the "Learner Engagement Standards," which is just one of the eight National Standards for Quality Online Teaching. There are also many resources, webinars, and articles available through LACOE and the CDE in supporting English Learners during our distance learning. This article provides insight and ideas in supporting our ELs entitled, "Teaching English Language Learners Remotely."
Arts & Enrichment
GATE: Looking to get recertified or begin the certification process?
- Check out these amazing low cost summer institutes from USC and the California Association for the Gifted
- CAG is also providing webinars, that are now available on their youtube channel. Subscribe, watch, and learn!
- The National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) is offering a webinar on June 3, and their past webinars are available on their youtube channel.
- If you attend a webinar or PD, please fill out this form to receive credit towards your certification hours. An additional hour will be given for reflection with the form.
- PUSD specific PD will be offered in the summer asynchronously via Canvas
- Check out this new amazing resource for current events, actv-news.com. It includes lessons and options for independent study.
ARTS:
- Please visit our virtual No Boundaries 15 exhibit.
- K-5 Teachers and Principals: please remind parents and students of the amazing options for learning on our Visual and Performing Arts PSL page. It will be active until June 30, and then will be transitioned to Canvas. New content has been added this week! My Masterpieces virtual tours are also live! gopusd.com/remote
Instructional Services
We are working with sites to have PUSD students safely return PUSD Property for the close of the 2019-20 School year. Each site is working on developing a schedule for the return of textbooks and devices. A communication will be shared with the PUSD community and site community levels this week.
College and Career
Although the Governor's budget indicates 50% cuts for College and Career funding through CTEIG and K12 Strong workforce, these cuts will not to be applied to our 2020-21 budgets. For the upcoming school year our grants remain the same, and programs will not be affected. We are hoping these cuts will change and we will not have to shift programs in the future.
CIPD
iReady will be available for student use until July 12, 2020. On July 13, 2020, it will become unavailable as the platform will be prepared to roll over to the 2020 - 2021 Aeries rosters.
Special Projects, State & Federal Programs
Federal Time Monitoring and Accounting is still in progress. Federally Multi-Funded individuals should coordinate document submission with their site supervisors to ensure all documents are submitted on time.
Do not hesitate to contact David Rennie if you need assistance or have questions.
Special Education Department
Our Special Education Department would like to express its gratitude to all Classified Personnel working in our department. Their efforts and commitment to our students are truly remarkable and are a source of inspiration to all of us. Thank you for everything you do!