UC Berkeley: Graduation, Parent Survey, Zoom, Planning

Press release from Berkeley Public Schools:

April 29, 2020

Dear Berkeley Community,

In this mid-week letter to the BUSD community, I offer a number of important updates.

Reminder of Town Hall This Evening

This evening, April 29th, I hope that you will join me and other members of the BUSD School Board and staff for our second virtual Town Hall about the COVID-19 School Facilities Closures and our ongoing efforts to convert the district to online learning support. This process has been very difficult, and we’ll offer updates and respond to questions from the meeting’s participants. We will also offer some estimates of the impact of a potential recession on our district’s budget for 2020-2021 and collect feedback about the Fall of 2020.

Here is the link to join the Town Hall.

We plan to hold a third Virtual Town Hall on Wednesday, May 13.

Parent/Guardian Survey

I hope that you will take a few minutes to respond to this survey of all BUSD parents and guardians about the first three week of distance learning. At theis end of this week, we will begin to analyze responses from over 2600 students in Grades 6-12, and parents’ responses will provide important additional information about the district’s efforts so far.

The link to the Family Survey in English is here.

The link to the Family Survey in Spanish is here.

High School Graduation Ceremony

As most people expected, we have decided that our traditional high school graduation cannot take place this year, and the ceremony at Haas Pavilion has been formally cancelled.

In place of this beloved event, we have now decided to work with a video production company, Herff Jones, to create a livecast graduation event that students and their families can view from their homes. The livecast event will be somewhat like an awards show, with speakers, performances, and short videos of our graduates as they “cross the stage” into the next phase of their lives. We all acknowledge that this is only a facsimile of a traditional graduation event, but we hope that this event will provide some sense of completion and satisfaction to our seniors. The BHS and BTA/BIS teams will share more about the details of this graduation video in the coming week.

We also plan to hold similar online commencement events for students who are in fifth and eighth grade.

Zoom To Be Restored in BUSD on May 4

After several weeks of direct work with Zoom, and some criticism of Google Meet, the use of Zoom will be permitted beginning on Monday, May 4. Teachers may select from Zoom or Google Meet for online interaction with students, and will take care to follow BUSD’s updated security protocols for Zoom. Instructions for staff and students will be posted at this link: http://www.berkeleyschools.net/zoom-instructions/

Planning For 2020-2021

Though the state has not yet notified school districts that there will be budget reductions next year, state budget officials and policy researches are widely commenting on the likelihood of a deep recession and severe state budget reductions stemming from COVID-19. To prepare for this, I plan to assemble a number of work groups to make contingency plans for additional reductions to our budget as well as review possible responses to the Governor’s “Roadmap to Re-Opening.” The Superintendent’s Budget Advisory Committee will be re-convened in May and June to prepare contingency plans for an additional $2 million in reductions. The District workgroups will include consultation with advisory committees:

• A committee composed of representatives from the Parent Advisory Committee (PAC), District English Language Advisory Committee (DELAC), BSEP and BERRA Planning and Oversight Committee (P&O), and the PTA Council, plus staff and community volunteers
• A joint committee composed of representatives from our labor partners, including teachers, administrators, and classified employees

Members of the community who are interested in contributing to the work of the planning groups may write to me directly at superintendent@berkeley.net.

As we go through this sixth week of Shelter-in-Place orders, I continue to wish all of you well. I look forward to our ongoing engagement as we confront these many challenges together. We’ll continue to hold the best interests of our children at the center of our decisions.

Best –

Brent Stephens
Superintendent

This press release was produced by Berkeley Public Schools. The views expressed here are the author’s own.