Update From Scotts Valley Unified School District Superintendent - May 8th

Press release from the Scotts Valley Unified School District:

May 8, 2020

Greetings Scotts Family Community,

We are almost there - at home parents, one month remaining of this interesting school year, you can do this!

Congratulations, it’s National Week of the Teacher - some serious appreciation and understanding of what it takes to be a teacher for sure! As the students are learning how to engage across technical platforms, the teachers continue to learn and grow themselves. They are using new technologies that they will be able to put into practice even when we return to in-person classrooms. They are finding clever ways to stay connected and appreciate all the kind words and acknowledgment they have received during teacher appreciation week. We want to recognize you, also, as you are providing teaching and learning for your children!

Many families and teachers are asking what next year will look like. As you know, it is challenging to plan for even a few weeks in the future at this time. However, we are working with county and district leaders to begin creating different potential plans and structures for schools that need to align with the direction we will get from County Public Health. Please know we are doing everything we can to consider the countless details we need to take into account as we plan for the unknown, and we will communicate with you as soon as we have solid information. At this point, we plan to hold to our current agreed-upon school calendar with school starting August 24th. We believe school instruction will look different in the fall and we are doing our best to plan without clear parameters, or budget, or health clearance guidelines. We are all hearing about the fiscal impact this pandemic has created. We are being told to prepare for one of the most dramatic budget cuts that public education has ever seen. Grim news indeed. Please read the weekly letter by Santa Cruz County Superintendents this week.

We continue our planning for the options we currently have for our senior graduation, and senior parents will be hearing today from Principal Hanson on our initial plans and potential options that we have at this time. Similarly, for 8th and 5th-grade promotion celebrations, you will be hearing soon from site principals. We are doing our very best to adhere to the social distancing limitations and trying to find creative ways to celebrate our students! We are sensitive to the intermittent changes of social distancing directive, so we are waiting to see if those change as the date gets closer.

Even during these trying times, students are excelling in so many different ways. One example includes elementary students receiving Merit Award honors for participating in the California Invention Convention, as well as a number of our 3rd, 4th, and 5th-grade elementary students in our district moving on to the National Invention Convention - Congratulations!

We have learned how to live and work differently in the past few months, which has also helped us realize so many things that we appreciate that we may have taken for granted. Simple things. We will come back from this - eventually. Meanwhile, we will figure out what we need to do to get it done to the best of our ability with the resources we have available.

Again, a big shout out to recognizing Teacher Appreciation Week and all of the hard work our teachers are doing! Also a big thank you to our parent organizations for supporting teachers this week, and to all of you supporting the teaching at home, kudos to you!

Cheers to another week of online learning!

Hang in there and stay healthy,

Tanya Krause

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