Messages from the Superintendent
April 24, 2020
Dear RVSD Families,
We hope this email finds you and your families healthy. Below are a few important updates we wish to share with you today.
Weeks 7 and 8 Learning Packets for TK-5th Available on Monday April 27, 2020
For families of our RVSD TK-5th grade students who wish to have them, Learning Packets for weeks 7 and 8 will be available online or for hard copy pick-up on Monday, April 27th from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm. Week 7 begins on May 4th. Packets are also available to download and print from our Continuity of Learning website.
"Meal Boxes" Now Available to All Students (18 and Under) Who Have the Need
Our State’s COVID-19 shelter-in-place (SIP) order is impacting everyone in ways we could not have imagined or predicted. This unfortunately includes challenges for many families with regard to nutrition and the ability to consistently provide regular healthy meals for children. If your family is impacted in this way, we want to do everything we can to help.
Beginning next Monday (April 27, 2020) from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM, the Ross Valley School District will be providing at no cost, a multi-day “meal box” for each family member under the age of 18. Each meal box contains five (5) single lunch servings that are intended to last through the school week. Additional meal boxes for subsequent weeks can be picked-up at our District Offices each Monday. Please note these lunches are different than the shelf-stable lunches we’ve been providing up to this point. In particular, these lunches will need to be refrigerated at home as they contain more perishable foods.
Though access to these meals is confidential, names are not required and no questions will be asked, we do want to ensure a sufficient number of meal boxes are pre-ordered each week. We don't want to run out of lunches by ordering too few, or have food wasted by ordering too many So, please let your school Principal know if you wish to participate and he/she will let us know the number of meal boxes to pre-order. You may also contact us directly to let us know how many meal boxes we should pre-order for your children, by emailing Jennifer Wright at food@rossvalleyschools.org or by calling her at 415-451-4074. Either way, we only need the number of meal boxes to pre-order so we have the proper number of boxes on hand for Monday pick-up.
Meal boxes will be available for pick up starting this coming Monday (April 27th) between 11:00 AM and 1:00 PM at the RVSD District offices located at 110 Shaw Drive in San Anselmo (behind the Red Hill shopping center). This service will be available every Monday through June 8th. Please remember to help us by providing your school Principal, or us directly, with the number of meal boxes we should order for your family. If more families show-up than the numbers indicate and we are unable to provide meal boxes to everyone, we do still have shelf-stable lunches available and will pass them out as needed.
5th Grade Promotion and 8th Grade Graduation
These milestones are important to us all, but most especially to our students, you and your families. We currently have no new guidance from State or local officials regarding the possibility of moving forward with our customary promotion/graduation celebrations, so we are assuming these events will not be taking place as they have been in the past. Given this likely reality, we are discussing possible alternative options and will keep you posted as we have updates to share. While sheltering in place and social distancing, we all know our usual end-of-year celebrations cannot be replicated. Yet, we all want to acknowledge our students' transition to middle/high school and we will find a way to do just that. Stay tuned.
Returning Student Work and Other Items Left In Classrooms
On March 13th, the last day we were all together at our schools, we were told by local health officials that the shelter in place would last approximately two weeks. As a result,many students went home that day without taking all of their completed work, projects and other items they (and you) may want to have and keep. Over the coming weeks, we will do our best to retrieve all of these items and store them for a time (to be determined) when we can get them back to you. This may happen over the summer or perhaps even after school re-opens in the fall. We will let you know the details and logistics once we have them, but for now please know that we do plan to get these items back to you as soon as we can and of course, while adhering to all social distancing and other protocols.
Collecting Books, Chromebooks, etc.
In preparation for next school year, we will need to collect all of the classroom/school library books, chromebooks, chargers and any other non-consumable items we have checked-out to you and your student(s). This will be a big job, as all returned items will need to be properly cleaned, repaired (as needed) and returned to the schools and classrooms from which they were all borrowed. Any lost items will also need to be accounted for and replaced. We will let you know well in advance, the process and timeline for returning these items. Much will depend upon what we learn as shelter in place restrictions are (hopefully) loosened/lifted. For now, please continue to keep, use and care for these items.
2020-21 School Year
Perhaps the biggest question on all our minds right now, is what the 2020-21 school year will look like here in RVSD. We are paying very close attention to what our State and local officials are saying in regards to the plan for re-opening California and returning us to our RVSD schools, classrooms and offices. Will distance learning continue as we go back to school in August? Will we re-open our schools as normal? Will we be providing a hybrid of the two? Unfortunately, the short answer is that right now we just don't know. We educators tend to be somewhat compulsive about planning and in April/May of a typical year we'd be well on our way toward finalizing plans for the school year to come. But COVID-19 has changed everything and made it extremely difficult for us to realistically plan for all the possible scenarios that may (or may not) come. We feel like broken records in saying "we will keep you posted," but right now that is the best we can do given the uncertainties ahead. What we do know and can say with absolute certainty, is our ongoing commitment to teaching and learning for ALL of our RVSD students remains our highest priority. We miss everyone very much and no matter how 2020-21 looks when the time comes, together we will successfully navigate through any and all challenges.
Honoring Our Own
The "Golden Bell Awards Ceremony" is an annual celebratory event to honor exemplary public educators throughout Marin. Each spring, educators throughout the County come together to recognize certificated teachers, faculty and classified staff, as well as to present special "County-wide of the year" awards to one exemplary educator, classified employee, teacher, and School Board Trustee. A new category, "Transformational Leadership," is added this year. Due to COVID-19 and mandatory emergency school closures, the typical award ceremony will not take place and the "County-wide of the year" awards are going to be skipped altogether. However, we in RVSD are so very pleased and proud to announce our 2019-2020 School Year Golden Bell honorees and nominees: Please join us in congratulating them all!
· Site Certificated (Teacher) Honorees Site/Assignment
o Sara Shantz Hom: Brookside TK-2nd Grade SDC Teacher
o Joanie Sampson: Hidden Valley 2nd Grade Teacher
o Dewa Grant: Manor 2nd Grade Teacher
o Tracey Robinson: Wade Thomas K-5th Grades PE Teacher
o Lisa Skinner: White Hill 6th-8th Grades STEAM Teacher
· Classified Support Staff Honorees Site/Assignment
o Alex Madero: Brookside Building Manager
o Lael Stover: Hidden Valley Sp Ed Program Aide
o Marlana Kenilvort: Wade Thomas Administrative Assistant
o Rita Bairley: Wade Thomas Full-Inclusion Assistant
· Transformational Leadership Honoree
o District Leadership Instructional Team of Educators (D-Lite)
· Marin County Classified Employee of the Year Nominees
o Alex Madero: Brookside Building Manager
o Lael Stover: Hidden Valley Sp Ed Program Aide
· Marin County Educator of the Year Nominee
o Rick Bagley, Superintendent
· Marin County School Board Trustee of the Year Nominee
o Anne Capron
Thank you for reading through these updates. As always, stay safe, be well and let us know if you have any questions.
Best always,
Rick Bagley, Ed.D., Superintendent