Update From Scotts Valley Superintendent - April 1st

Press release from the Scotts Valley Unified School District:

April 1, 2020

Hello Scotts Valley Community,

Well, this message certainly comes far sooner than we had anticipated and no, it is not an April Fool’s joke. I am not quite certain of the reasoning for the timing of this decision; however, school districts throughout the State of California are announcing that they will not resume in classroom instruction for the remainder of the school year based on the statement made by the state Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tony Thurmond. Please read the attached letter that the Superintendents drafted in the last 12 hours.

As I have mentioned before, upon the return from spring break we will be making necessary adjustments to how we complete the last few months of the school year via online learning. Additionally, we will need to continue to adhere to these social distancing regulations put into place. If those change prior to the beginning of June, we will review our parameters.
I acknowledge that this generates many questions. I too have many questions and we are working on obtaining answers to the best of our ability. We too are experiencing the majority of our district employees working under the shelter in place order, which slows down some of our operational abilities. Please know we are working very hard to do our best – this is a very new and unique situation not only to public education, but worldwide.
Frankly, I am so saddened by this on so many levels. I am especially sad for our students, who are missing their friends and their social activities. While I understand taking an abundance of caution, the impacts are multi-faceted, and we are working hard to address those that are in our control. I want you to know we acknowledge this is a challenge for families, and we will do our best to adjust and support accordingly.

For those that have requested activities for students during spring break, please refer to the SVUSD websites and also explore the resources that Santa Cruz County Office of Education has compiled: dlearning.santacruzcoe.org
We will figure this out, we will respond to the best of our ability, and we will return after a much-needed spring break, on April 13th. You will hear from us soon.

Please take good care and adhere to the updated restrictions recently set forth for Shelter in Place.

Kind Regards,

Tanya Krause, Superintendent

Scotts Valley Unified School District

This press release was produced by the Scotts Valley Unified School District. The views expressed here are the author’s own.