Hello Mira Vista Community,
We are into the second half of summer and I know many have questions about how school will look in the Fall. Governor Newsom has made clear that we will be opening with Distance Learning. Safety is our first priority at all times, but we are sad not to be able to open up the school together in the same place. We do not know how everything will look August 17, but we are working hard to turn the guidance from the Governor's office and district into concrete supports and schedules. COVID-19 saw us shut down quickly and have to pivot to distance learning from a Friday to a Monday. The Mira Vista community did a great job, but we were definitely learning as we went. We are going to take the things that worked well in the Spring and add new learnings to support all of our students even better.
Although this is an incredibly challenging and unprecedented time, I am grateful to be navigating Distance Learning at Mira Vista. We have an amazing community of teachers, staff, and families who make this place, whether it be physical or virtual, the place to BEE! We are cognizant of the anxiety of trying to work while also guiding your children's work from home. We will support pods by sharing the class lists the first week of August. We want to make sure everyone has time to try to find other families to share the burden if needed. We will also be working as a staff to create more coherence between classes to allow students from different classes to effectively pod. What we cannot do is switch teachers/classes. This is an issue of equity. Teachers take a number of factors into account when making the class lists and we are going to honor that work by holding to the class lists as made. That being said, we are making flexibility and grace two overarching themes to how we are approaching the Fall. Please let us know your needs and how we can improve our supports.
What we know:
-The school year will begin August 17 with Distance Learning
- School will begin at 9 am every day
- There will be a live teacher interaction built in every day
- Instruction will be a mix of synchronous (live/at the same time) and asynchronous (self paced timing) instruction
- The teachers will give you an explicit and defined schedule before school begins
What we are asking:
- Routine is a huge priority. Please help your student understand that they need to be ready, dressed, fed, and online every school day by 9am.
- Please set up a designated space for each school age child, if possible. They will be coming to school digitally, and need a clean, well organized area for their school work
- Please check all needed equipment. Test tablets, chargers, wifi, headphones, etc and contact the WCCUSD Helpdesk (email at parent@wccusd.net or (510) 243-3901) if you need help. If you do not have wifi, please call the school at (510) 231-1416 and let us know. Tablets are provided for every student, but we only reach out to find hotspots if we know a family has the need.
Thank you for your support and know that we are using all the state guidance to plan our opening. We will communicate as we get closer to our opening how things are going to look. This is a difficult time for us all; together we will make sure all of our students are achieving and we have the best possible plans. We appreciate your flexibility and look forward to both our Distance Learning and when we can finally be back together safely.
Thank you,
Gabriel Chilcott