Old Adobe Educator Weekly Round-Up
Monday 4/5/21 - Friday 4/9/21
MESSAGE FROM SUPERINTENDENT LOWERY
Welcoming the 2021 Spring Learning Experience
Dear Educators,
For more than a year, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has transformed our daily experiences - how we live, work, play and learn is so different from what we once knew. Our circumstances, however, are improving and moving in the right direction in OAUSD with a high percentage of our students returning to on-campus hybrid learning beginning on April 12.
Our families have verified their choice for on-campus hybrid or distance learning and prior to spring break, were notified with learning group assignments. We expressed the need to maintain as much consistency as possible for students and asked families to embrace these next two months of school as a new spring learning experience, full of excitement and healthy challenges. Some students' transition will be different as they will receive a new teacher and new classmates. Please help to fill them up with encouragement because perseverance is what we have all lived and learned through the Pandemic experience.
I want to thank all educators, students and families for the remarkable way you have taken on the challenges during this year.
Let’s all continue to support one another and move forward together.
#OldAdobeStrong
CHILD DEVELOPMENT
Child Development
***We are hiring! Please let the ECE folks in your extended networks know that Kids Care is currently seeking to hire two Site Managers as well as an Instructional Assistant. In Bright Futures Preschool we are seeking an Associate Preschool Teacher to join our team!
Apply at Edjoin***
The Bright Futures Preschool and Kids Care teams are hard at work preparing for the pivot to hybrid in-person learning. If you know a student and family who would benefit from enrolling in Kids Care during the portion of the day that they are not in in-person learning then please reach out to Director Rebecca Hachmyer at rhachmyer@oldadobe.org and the Site Leader at your site!
COVID-19 NEWS
COVID-19 Asymptomatic Staff Testing
Prior to school opening, all OAUSD employees will have an opportunity to take a COVID test and will be encouraged to test routinely over the last several weeks of school. Increasing testing gives us a truer picture of community spread.
Testing is easier and more comfortable than in the fall. We have also began surveillance testing with staff utilizing the test kits provided by our partner, Curative. The test is a self-administered, (with instruction) oral swab that only takes a few minutes. The results are available in 24 to 48 hours.
Vaccinations
Nearly all 17,000+ school staff in Sonoma County have been offered the opportunity to receive or schedule their first vaccine. We believe any school employee who wishes to have the vaccine should be fully vaccinated by mid to late April at the latest.
As a consequence, the SCOE vaccination clinic will close permanently on March 25 after giving more than 9,000 vaccines. Everyone who received a first dose of the vaccine at the SCOE clinic and still needs a second dose will be contacted by a representative from the county to make an appointment for a second dose.
We are in the Orange
Sonoma County has entered the orange tier!!
Travel Advisory
The CA Department of Public Health lifts the 120 mile travel advisory. The State is issuing the following recommendations:
- All travelers arriving in or returning to California from other states or countries should follow CDC travel guidance.
- All travelers who test positive or develop symptoms of COVID-19 should isolate and follow public health recommendations.
- Fully vaccinated travelers:
- are less likely to get and spread COVID-19, and can travel safely within the United States and California
- should follow CDC travel guidance, and are not required to test or quarantine before or after travel unless they have symptoms concerning for COVID-19 disease.
Visit the current CDPH Travel Advisory for more information.
CURRICULUM AND PROFESSIONAL LEARNING DEPARTMENT
Equity Leadership Professional Development:
Classified Staff:
3rd Session - April 6 @ 1:00PM - 3:00PM
If you were unable to attend the March 17 opportunity, you can access the recording HERE. The passcode is qTCb*7ax.
Certificated Staff:
4th Session - April 21 @ 2:00PM - 3:30PM (in lieu of staff meeting)
EQUITY CORNER
Equity Coalition Update
Our next meeting will be Wednesday, April 14th at 3PM.
Hope you can join!
Check out this Reading: Avoiding Racial Equity Detours (shared by Nicole Anderson at our district equity training)
Additionally, Case Studies on Diversity and Social Justice Education (Second Edition), co-authored by Paul Gorski and Seema Pothini, features a variety of nuanced examples of inequity and injustice in schools presented as narrative case studies. Gorski and Pothini are advocates of the “case method,” which entails groups discussing and analyzing hypothetical scenarios, usually based on actual real-life events, in ways that allow them to apply theoretical ideas, such as equity or justice, to everyday problems and situations they are likely to encounter in their professional practice. The book also recommends a seven-step process that educators and others can use in dialogues and activities focused on racism, classicism, sexism, heterosexism, and other forms of bias, prejudice, and discrimination.
If you need to reach the Equity Coalition to share resources, express concerns or ask questions, you can now email the group at equitycoalition@oldadobe.org.
FACILITIES
Our solar panels did their job successfully again this past year. We have solar panels at all our schools except Sonoma Mountain. The grassy field there is owned by the City of Petaluma so we could not install them at that school.
As you can see by the chart pictured, how much of a savings the solar panels are for our district. The beauty of these solar panels is that it is free energy and a cost savings for our district.
This coming week Dominic will be checking the barn owl boxes at Old Adobe & Sonoma Mountain to see if any mother barn owl chose to raise their family there this year. The results will be in next week's Round-up :-)
FOOD PANTRY VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
Sign Up Today:-)
We need more volunteers to ensure that we can continue this service and provide this much needed resource.
Please sign up by clicking the button below.
REGISTRATION AND ENROLLMENT
Registration 2021-2022
All of our schools are hosting Virtual School Tours.
Here are the individual school videos.
REOPENING SCHOOL 2.0/HYBRID MODEL
You have probably heard by now that the Center for Disease Control (CDC) has recommended reducing the required social distancing requirement between students in elementary schools from 6ft to 3ft to enable schools eventually to reopen more fully. At the beginning of this week, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) concurred with this recommendation. However, with Sonoma County just emerging from the purple tier, last Friday we were told to expect the 6’ distancing requirement to remain in place for Sonoma County (thereby requiring the hybrid) through the end of this school year. Although we were not expecting the Sonoma County Public Health Department to adjust its guidance so soon, late Tuesday, districts were informed that Sonoma County Public Health also decided to revise their recommended social distancing guidance between students from 6’ to 3’ in elementary schools.
The new guidance only changed the social distancing requirement for students. Student chairs can now be 3ft apart rather than 6ft which allows us to put more students and desks in each classroom. The distance between the teachers to students is still 6ft. All people on campus will still be required to wear masks and observe all of the other safety protocols per our Covid Safety Plan. We will need to change only the aspects of the safety plan that address the social distancing of students in the classroom. All other components of the plan will remain intact.
Each week we are sharing an update on our progress on the Return to On-Campus Hybrid Learning. Here is the March 26th update. You can find the updates on front page of our website under Headlines.
STUDENT SERVICES
Hello Students!
We welcomed some identified students back in small cohorts at Miwok on March 22nd!!
TRANSPORATION
As of March 22, we have been running one SPED route transporting 3 students to Miwok Valley. On Monday the 29th we started transporting 1 student to Sierra School in Sebastopol, Starting on April 12 there will be 6 SPED routes transporting students to and from school. We are currently working on creating a shuttle route for students to go from school to Boys and Girls Club and Kids Care. We building options to be able to provide additional home to school transportation.
OAUSD EVENTS SCHEDULED THIS WEEK
April 5, 2021 - April 9, 2021
TUESDAY, 4/6
Classified Equity Leadership Training - Session #3 - 1:00 - 3:00PM
Weekly Video(s)
County of Sonoma Community Update
Old Adobe Union School District
Website: https://www.oldadobe.org/
Location: 845 Crinella Dr, Petaluma, CA 94954, USA
Phone: 707-765-4321
Twitter: @OAUSD_Super