Esteemed Parents and Staff,

We are quickly approaching the launch of the school year on September 8, 2020. We look forward to re-engaging all students with high-quality learning. Our teachers and staff will be attending a week-long series of professional development, collaboration, and planning to get ready for a powerful start to the school year. We have a sprint team of family liaisons, teachers, and administrators developing a support system for parents called the Vista Institute for Parents, or VIP, to assist them in playing a key role in our school year launch in a virtual environment. This update will focus on our VIP system.

The vision of the Vista Institute for Parents is to create a system of support to engage and empower families as partners in education by:

• Facilitating access to academic supports

• Prioritizing care and connection

• Building technology literacy

• Helping families effectively navigate the education system

VIP Website: www.vistausd.org/parents/VIP

We have created a VIP webpage to provide brief how-to videos, quick reference documents, tools, and supports so that we may realize this vision. We have also created a “Contact Us” link so that you may connect with a community liaison to ask questions and get individual support. We will be continuously adding to this website as the school year progresses in response to feedback from parents. We believe that parents are the most influential teacher in the education of all students. We are committed to expanding our partnership with you to amplify and elevate the academic and social/emotional achievement for all students. I would like to end this update highlighting a few of the many educational videos we have created for parents on the VIP website.

The first video focuses on “Creating a Learning Environment at Home” for your student(s) during this virtual portion of the school year. Jennifer Rivera is a teacher in Vista Unified and a mother of two students in our district. Jennifer does a fantastic job walking you through how to get your student settled and ready to learn.

The second video focuses on an introduction to the new learning management system called Canvas. The Canvas system will enable our district to provide a much higher quality, engaging, and collaborative learning experience for students and parents. Jackson Perez is also a teacher in our district and a parent of two students, as well. Jackson brings you through a quick overview of getting connected to Canvas.

The third video focuses on how to view student work on the Canvas platform. Lisa Harrison, a middle school teacher, provides a two-minute demonstration of how to get quick access to follow the work your student is completing.

The fourth video focuses on how students can submit work to their teachers using the Canvas platform. Tom Berger, a high school teacher, guides students through a process to upload assignments using easy to understand screenshots in the Canvas platform. This video will be key to student success this semester.

Thank you again for your continued patience and understanding as we work diligently to respond to the needs of our community while maintaining safety and security.

Sincerely,

Matt Doyle, Ed.D.

Superintendent of Schools