Superintendent's Newsletter
April 17, 2020
Message from Superintendent Dr. John Baker:
Dear RCSD community,
I hope that you and your child(ren) were able to put school work aside this spring break and had some time to rest considering our current global situation.
As we’ve learned, we will not be returning to our school sites for the remainder of this school year, which means that At-Home Learning will continue. That said, our instructional coaches developed this week a document that we call A Parent’s Guide to At-Home Learning in RCSD, which we hope will be helpful to you.
I know that we have shared a wealth of information with you during the last several weeks and that the amount of details coming your way can be overwhelming. While our action plan can be found on our COVID-19 Information Hub on our website, this document is very specific to the numerous teaching and learning resources and tools that your child(ren) uses and needs for school success.
As you review the document, you will see several sections including:
The ongoing services that are and will continue to be in place;
For your convenience, we’ve also listed your contacts depending on your child’s needs. Please note that RCSD employees are not required to respond after hours or during weekends. While office hours can now be a bit blurry because we find ourselves working at home and we lose track of time, it is important that all RCSD employees take time for themselves and their families after work just as we all want our students to put school work away and make time for play. We hope that the list of contacts, depending on the situation, will be helpful with your questions;
You will also see general guidelines on the academic schedule depending on the grade level. Please remember that these are general and not necessarily representative of the on-site teaching and learning. Please note that teachers will not be available next week on specific days;
RCSD’s platforms and tools are also listed here including Google Meet for video conferencing. I specifically highlight Google Meet because the district has received numerous requests from both teachers and parents to add Zoom as part of our tool kit. Please note that the district will continue to move forward with Google Meet as its only and official video conferencing tool due to safety concerns with Zoom. As educators, we care about the safety of our students both on campus and online and at this time, Zoom does not meet our requirements. It is important to understand that the district’s official tool is Google Meet; and
We wrap up the document with some general tips. I know that this situation is not easy for any of us and we hope that these tips are helpful to you as you balance work, family, and school at home.
As a district, we continue to monitor any new information and guidance from both the State and the County. We are meeting daily at the district level with Cabinet members and your school principals and we will continue to update you as we make new decisions or new information becomes available.
John Baker
Superintendent
District Staff to Close Work Spaces for School Year
Next week, Monday, April 20 to Friday, April 24, RCSD teachers and staff will be on site closing their work spaces. This is a process that typically takes place in mid June after the end of the school year when students have been dismissed. The district is moving forward with this process now to accommodate social distancing for custodians as they will start a rigorous deep cleaning schedule after teachers and staff close their work spaces.
Families need to be aware of next week’s plan as different teachers and staff members have been assigned to specific days next week, which means their teacher may not be available for at-home learning. All school sites will communicate directly with families and teachers about the specific days teachers will be absent from at-home learning due to the need to close up their work space.
As a safety precaution to practice social distancing, only the specific teachers and staff assigned to the specific days will be allowed on campus.
Student Tool Adds New Parent Communication Features
The school district’s student portal, Clever, has created several communication tools to support parents who are at home helping their child(ren) with At-Home Learning.
Clever is the school district’s single sign-on, which RCSD students use to access several tools for school work. Links to the step-by-step instructions can be found below.
Community Invited to Provide Input on School Attendance Boundary Change
Redwood City School District (RCSD) seeks the input of its community as the school district studies its attendance zone to shift the current attendance boundary areas of its seven neighborhood schools. The district’s school boundary change study comes after the moves and mergers of programs and consolidation of schools after the Planning for Our Future process of 2018.
Four attendance areas within the district -- the former Fair Oaks Neighborhood, the former John Gill Neighborhood, the former Hawes Neighborhood, and the former Selby Lane Neighborhood -- will now need to be absorbed by the current seven attendance areas of Clifford, Roy Cloud, Henry Ford, Garfield, Hoover, Roosevelt, and Taft neighborhood schools. Following Board Policy 5116, the Board of Trustees policy on school attendance boundaries, the school district’s demographer will study current and projected enrollment, facility capacity, new development, and other data and trends to guide the school district with creating new attendance areas for each neighborhood school.
The RCSD Board of Trustees will hear a formal presentation from the demographer at an upcoming Board meeting. A timeline for community input will also be provided.
RCSD COVID-19 Information Hub
Website: https://www.rcsdk8.net/Page/9720
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RedwoodCitySchoolDistrict
Twitter: @RWCSchools