Community Update
June 1, 2020
Congratulations and Thank You
On behalf of the Vista Unified School District and the School Board of Trustees, I would like to congratulate the graduating class of 2020. To your years of hard work, collaboration, and recently, courage and perseverance in the face of the most challenging national crisis in a century, I say Bravo! Please know that we care deeply about each graduating senior and wish them success in the next chapter of their lives.
I would also like to convey, on behalf of the Vista Unified School District and the School Board of Trustees, our most sincere appreciation to every parent, family member, and community member who has stuck by us during these trying times. I have stated on numerous occasions that our district and community is strong. Your strength, patience, and grace during these past few months have really made a difference for teachers, nutrition staff, nurses, counselors, family liaisons, and all of the other staff as they worked tirelessly to protect and support students and families. Thank you for believing in our school district and for adding to our collective strength as a community of learners and a community of friends.
We are approaching our final three days of the school year. This week will be filled with examples of our vision to be The Model of Excellence and Innovation. Our school leaders and parent leaders have planned some amazing celebrations of learning, both virtual and in-person drive-through parades. Our board members and I look forward to seeing you during these events as we collectively celebrate our students and their great accomplishments as learners. We will also be collecting the computer devices from all students so that we may get them cleaned and prepared for a great start of the new year in August. We thank you in advance for your assistance returning the computer devices. You will be receiving guidance from your school on the date and time of the computer device return events.
During the summer months, our fantastic Wave Crest Cafe will continue to provide meals for students at various locations in the district two times a week. Please visit their website for specific details - https://wavecrestcafe.com.
Superintendent's Council for Innovative Learning Update
We have had fantastic participation in the Superintendent’s Council for Innovative Learning and for the sprint teams. When I say fantastic, I mean literally thousands (7,777 so far) of parents, students, and staff members joining in on the community forums, submitting surveys, and participating in the initial sprint team design sessions. Your ideas and recommendations will play a key role in the design of our plan for school in the fall. Specifically, we will be using your feedback to build the daily and weekly learning calendars, plan grade level expectations, address health and safety protocols, implement student progress monitoring and grading, design guidelines for sports and extracurricular activities, enhance our technology infrastructure, continue to expand services for social/emotional supports, strengthen our support for students with special needs and English learners, and, most importantly, create a menu of choices for our students and families as we prepare for a successful return to school in-person or through the Vista Virtual School platform. Our community engagement and outreach, however, is not complete yet. Please visit our Fall Design webpage to join the final community forums (@ 5:00 p.m.) scheduled for June 1st for parents of elementary school students and June 17th for parents and students in middle and high school. Your ideas and feedback are greatly appreciated and valued. We will be posting a summary of the main themes and ideas we gathered from all of the community input in the coming weeks.
Measure LL Facility Bond Update
As you prepare for the summer break, I wanted to reassure you that even during this national health crisis, our team has continued to make excellent progress on the Measure LL Facility Bond projects. Your tax dollars are hard at work improving our school facilities. We have many projects completed and a set of new projects just getting started. Check out the latest version of our Vista Works for You series to get a quick update on our bond improvements.
California State Budget Update
Not too many months ago, we worked as a community to successfully close a budget deficit so that our financial future was on solid ground. Indeed, the San Diego County Office of Education recently acknowledged our success with budget solutions and approved our proposed budget for the next three years (called a multi-year projection). Sadly, Governor Newsom recently proposed a dramatic revision to the state budget that would have catastrophic impacts on every school district in the state. Superintendents, board members, parents, and teachers are rallying together to send a message to Sacramento that funding education must be a priority now and in the future in order for our children to get back to school and our local, regional, and national economy to restart and build back up. Similar to my colleagues in neighboring school districts, I am asking you to support our collective efforts to send a message to our political representatives in state and federal positions to focus on the following recommendations:
Reject the Governor’s proposal to reduce state funding to the Local Control Funding Formula, which will dramatically impact our ability to maintain the great programs in Vista Unified.
Ensure the proposed $4.4 billion CARES Act funding will directly benefit all students in California and allow the funding to be used flexibly for current programs and operations, rather than new State mandates and requirements.
Reject the Governor’s proposal to cut career-technical education (CTE) and early education funding. We have award winning programs in CTE and early childhood education that serve as a bridge to success for thousands of students every year.
Support the Governor's proposal regarding STRS/PERS relief.
Please join us in reaching out to your representatives, and share our recommendations.
State Representatives:
Sen. Brian Jones
California Senate
4088 State Capitol
Sacramento, CA 95814-4900
Phone: (916) 651-4038
Sen. Pat Bates
California Senate
3048 State Capitol
Sacramento, CA 95814-4900
Phone: (916) 651-4036
Asm. Marie Waldron
California Assembly
3104 State Capitol
Sacramento, CA 94249-0075
Phone: (916) 319-2075
Asm. Tasha Boerner Horvath
California Assembly
4130 State Capitol
Sacramento, CA 94249-0076
Phone: (916) 319-2076
Thank you for your support of the Vista Unified School District and all school districts in California.
Sincerely,
Matt Doyle, Ed.D.
Superintendent of Schools
Vista Unified School District
Email: webmaster@vistausd.org
Website: vistausd.org
Location: 1234 Arcadia Avenue, Vista, CA, USA
Phone: (760) 726-2170
Twitter: @VistaBlueprint