8/2/2020
Dear Tierra Linda Families:
The 2020-21 school year is starting soon. Below is information based on what we know at this time. We will be starting the year with distance learning due to San Mateo County being on the monitor list and most likely have an 8:30 a.m. start to the day. I would like to introduce our Assistant Principal, Meagan Vizier, [email protected] who we will share with CMS. She has been an educator in SCSD and served as AP at CMS last year.
Many parents, students, and teachers shared the successes and challenges presented to families in the spring when we moved to distance learning. I know how difficult this has been on families and for our kids in particular. It is extremely important for middle school age kids to be with their peers both for learning and for socialization in order to build relationships and stay engaged. While there are many issues that we cannot solve, we have tried to address as many of the difficulties and constraints as possible in building our new schedule.
School Administrators have been hard at work behind the scenes working on every contingency we can think of for the 20/21 school year. This will be the Year of Covid. Our goal is to provide the best educational experience possible for our students. This includes finding ways to build relationships with teachers and school staff at the beginning of the school year and if at all possible, begin to safely bring students and teachers back to campus in small groups.
Our focus this year will be on academic classes (English, math, science and social studies) and essential elective/content, (Band, Orchestra, Spanish, Art and PE). We continue to value our elective classes and Physical Education. We will be scheduling these differently and more information will come in a survey this week. We understand that there will be some regression in learning. Some students will require more time and support in academic areas. Additionally, students will need social/emotional support for managing stress and trauma.
Some of the things we are working on at the moment:
- Reconfiguring our bell schedule to provide students with structure and routine
- Include live interaction with teachers, synchronous and asynchronous instruction, small group support, peer editing and collaboration, feedback and assessment.
- Transitioning students back to school in a different format with orientations (in-person or virtually) and time to pick up materials and supplies
- Provide opportunities for students to have regular check-ins with teachers and create a manageable workload, balance and organization structure for students
- Create outdoor learning spaces
- Daily attendance and weekly Engagement Records
Given the fact that so much has changed, we are asking families to complete a new elective offering form this week. This will be emailed to students as well. We want to make sure parents and guardians have the opportunity to discuss this as family. This will allow you to opt-in or opt-out of elective classes and enrichment.
Sincerely,
Kristen Ugrin
Principal