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April 10, 2020
Special Edition: What Families Should Know During Physical Closures
As you are aware, SUSD schools and buildings are physically closed for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year. During this physical closure, the District will still provide meals, distance learning, and several services to students. The information in this newsletter is the latest information from the district. Because the situation is fluid. The latest updates from the district can be found on our website at www.stocktonusd.net .
General Questions?
Call 209-933-7070
Important Information
Telephone Town Hall Meetings
SUSD Superintendent John Deasy will be hosting several Telephone Town Hall Meetings to provide updates on the district's response to COVID-19 (coronavirus). The dates for these meetings in the month of April and early May include:
  • Monday, April 20 at 5:30PM
  • Monday, April 27th at 5:30PM
  • Monday, May 4th at 5:30PM

Register online: bit.ly/34nGu7l or call in to the meeting (when it's LIVE) at 888-410-3427.
Alternative Graduation and Promotion Ceremonies
SUSD is committed to celebrating the accomplishments our IB students, and 8th-graders and our graduating class of 2020! Your feedback is incredibly important to us. Please complete our Alternative Graduation/Promotion Survey and share with us how you would like celebrations to proceed.

Note: We will still celebrate our Kindergarten students transitioning to first grade. More information will be released at a later date.
Student Support Services Helpline
Stockton Unified is proud to offer a new Student Support Services Helpline for families and students during the COVID-19 school closure. The helpline will be available Monday through Friday from 8:00 AM to 3:30 PM. If you have a medical or psychiatric emergency, please call 9-1-1. Stakeholders who contact the helpline at 209-933-7111 will have access to speak directly to or leave a message for District Nurses, Elementary and High School Counselors, Mental Health Clinicians, and Child Welfare and Attendance staff. Any messages left will be returned as soon as possible.
Enrolling in SUSD: Only Online Enrollment Being Accepted at This Time
The online school registration links below are for grades TK-12 for the 2019-2020 school year, and Transitional Kindergarten and Kindergarten for 2020-2021 school year:


New registration for grades 1-12 for the 2020-2021 school year will begin on June 1, 2020. Only Transitional Kindergarten and Kindergarten registration will be accepted prior to June 1st. We are no longer accepting applications for any type of transfer for the 2019-2020 school year.

Open Enrollment for Intradistrict applications for the 2020-2021 school year is as follows:
  • Grades 9-12 ended on February 28, 2020
  • Grades K-8 opened on March 25 and ends on April 24, 2020

Notifications of application status will be sent out via mail after June 1, 2020

Interdistrict Transfers (IDA’s) application deadline has been extended until May 28, 2020


The notifications for the first round lottery results for the following Specialty Schools will be sent out via mail after April 6, 2020: Commodore Skills, Fremont, Hazelton, Hong Kingston, Taft, Kohl, Primary Years.

All other Specialty and/or Charter School notifications will be sent out by the individual school sites.

The second round Specialty application window opens on April 1 and closes on May 25, 2020. Please do not resubmit an application if you already submitted it in the first round. The second round lottery will be held on June 25 and notifications will be sent out via mail after July 13, 2020.
Meal Service
Stockton Unified School District has updated the locations and days for meal pickups for any child 18 and under while classes are canceled.

Dates of Service
  • Monday, April 13th: No meal pickups on this day – Student Non-Contact Day
  • On Tuesday, April 14th, the District will be changing to twice-per-week meal pickups on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM at the sites listed below.
  • On Tuesdays, children will receive meals for Tuesday and Wednesday
  • On Thursdays, children will receive meals for Thursday, Friday, and Monday 

Locations
  • August Elementary (2101 Sutro Ave.)
  • Chavez High School (2929 Windflower Ln.)
  • Commodore Stockton Skills (2725 Michigan Ave.)
  • Edison High School (100 W. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.)
  • El Dorado Elementary (1540 N. Lincoln St.)
  • Elmwood Elementary (840 S. Cardinal Ave.)
  • Franklin High School (4600 E. Fremont St.)
  • Fremont Elementary (2021 E. Flora St.)
  • Hong Kingston Elementary (6324 N. Alturas Ave.)
  • Kennedy Elementary (630 Ponce de Leon Ave.)
  • King Elementary (2640 E. Lafayette St.)
  • McKinley Elementary (30 W. Ninth St.)
  • Montezuma Elementary (2843 Farmington Rd.)
  • Pittman Elementary (701 E. Park St.)
  • San Joaquin Elementary (2020 S. Fresno Ave.)
  • Spanos Elementary (536 S. California St.)
  • Stagg High School (1621 Brookside Rd.)
  • Taft Elementary (419 Downing Ave.)
  • Van Buren Elementary (1628 E. Tenth St.)
  • Victory Elementary (1838 W. Rose St.

More information: www.stocktonusd.net/COVID-19
District-Issued Technology
April 10, 2020

Dear SUSD students and families,

This week, we checked out thousands of Chromebooks and Hotspots to students. Students and families who checked one out should review our Acceptable Use Policy and the Technology Agreement Notice they signed during checkout. Activity on Chromebooks is still being monitored by our Information Services Department to ensure proper usage. Families are encouraged to also monitor their child’s online activity. Below you will find information on how to get Internet access in your home if you were not issued a Hotspot at this time, as well as information regarding Technical Support for your district-issued Chromebook and Hotspot.

Internet Resources
If you don’t have an internet connection at home to participate in distance learning, please read over our Internet Resources document for options available to you. The District is working to acquire more Hotspots. Be sure to complete our Technology Access Survey at www.stockonusd.net/TechAccess or email pdcsupport@stocktonusd.org so that we can contact you should a Hotspot become available. Any student who cannot access the internet during this time should also contact their teachers via email or phone to let them know that they will not be able to access their course online.

Chromebook Technical Support
A copy of the Chromebook Troubleshooting guide is available on our website at www.stocktonusd.net/TechAccess. To report broken Chromebooks please call our Helpline at 209-933-7111, and select Option 7. Broken is defined as keyboard not working, screen not displaying properly, battery not holding a charge, power cord is defective, or Chromebook does not turn on.

If students experience any issues with their Google account, using the Chromebook (not a hardware issue), or accessing WiFi, please email the concern or issue to pdcsupport@stocktonusd.org. (If you are experiencing issues with connecting your Chromebook to the internet, please reboot your computer at least 2-3 times before reaching out to support.)

Hotspot Technical Support
If you are experiencing connectivity issues with your Hotspot, you can call the Sprint Helpline. You may be asked to provide information on the original hotspot box label like PIN code and the answer to the password. Sprint’s team is available every day, from 5 AM to 8 PM at 844-309-1680.
Parent Resources for Distance Learning
Accessing Free E-Books and Audiobooks from Home
District Librarian Mary Ann Pafford created a homemade video for families, students and teachers teaching them how to access e-books and audiobooks through SORA from home.

The SORA collection is an extension of our physical libraries, only it’s online with 24/7 access to ebooks and audiobooks. It’s convenient for students to check out titles at home with no worry about misplacing a book or running up late fees – these digital titles automatically return at the end of the lending period!

Digital books are compatible with smartphones, tablets, eReaders, and computers. All you need to get started is an internet connection and your SUSD Google account. Access SORA in your browser by visiting  soraapp.com/library/stocktonca or download the Sora app and use the setup code  stocktonca. Note: Students must be logged into their District Google account to access SORA.

We encourage all students to visit our digital library to become familiar with how it works and browse our current catalog. Please contact Mary Ann Pafford, District Librarian at  mpafford@stocktonusd.net with questions.
Virtual Tours for Students
Have you ever wanted to visit Africa, Mars or Europe? Well, here’s your chance without leaving the comfort of your own home.

Let's take a trip to outer space:



 
  Everyone grab your imaginations and head to the family room we’re going to the zoo:



 
Virtual tours of other world-famous museums:

Using Card and Board-Games to Encourage Accidental Learning
Written by: Charles Watkins, Parent Liaison
Stockton Unified School District is committed to providing our families with continued educational support outside of the classroom through unique and engaging ways. This article will open the conversation with parents surrounding games (card/board) and their role in education that can be used at home with the family. Introducing new concepts, lessons, and ideas through fun and inventive ways has always played an important role in education even from the early years of a student’s educational career. Using the alphabet as a great example, students are taught their ABCs using music and rhythm helping them retain the information that is being taught. If we use this strategy in a broader way to also incorporate games, students can gain an understanding of basic skills and thinking strategies.

  • Playing games increases mental stimulation. Some of these include: critical-thinking, problem solving, reasoning, statistics, pattern-detection, etc. By exposing students to these concepts in an engaging way they are more likely to retain these skills and come back to play (practice and reinforce).
  • Giving students the opportunity to play these games and practice these skills can be a powerful educational tool. For example, a student may really enjoy playing Settlers of Catan where the object of the game is to collect points by building cities and completing challenges which works their critical-thinking skills and problem-solving abilities to overcome their opponent’s strategy and winning the game. Gwen Dewar (a published researcher in Parenting Science) explains that “… board games [can be] a more powerful learning tool if we teach kids that problem-solving ability is like a muscle: It can be strengthened with practice and learning.”
  • Games can also improve more than just problem-solving. Battleship is a game where the objective is to sink all of your opponent’s ships before they sink yours. Battleship challenges its participants to “flex” their deductive reasoning skills which is a skill that is carried over year-after-year in all subjects a student will come across in school. By attempting to sink your opponent’s ships the student will have to plan out and use their own strategy to locate and sink the hidden ships on the map.
  • The range of subjects, topics, and concepts a student can come across and practice are nearly limitless when it comes to games. For students who would like a fun and engaging way to practice their math, finance, and strategy skills, Monopoly would be an excellent example of a game encompassing all of these. The objective in monopoly is to obtain as much capital (money, properties, etc.) as possible while bankrupting your opponents. Students will be required to roll dice and count the pips that are rolled to move that many spaces. They will also have to think strategically to overcome their opponents while also keeping track of how much money they have and their opponents have. Counting, adding, strategy, and banking are all concepts and lessons the students will be “flexing” through-out the game.

This article only touches on the surface of what games offer for students and their families. By giving the student tools at home to supplement their education in an engaging way, we can bridge the learning that’s going on between the classroom and the home. Below you will find links to articles and websites that go into more detail.

Sites/Sources:
Parent Tips
Family life makes a great bedtime story
Telling bedtime stories is a great way to connect with your child and promote responsible, caring behavior. For an endless source of new story ideas, try making the characters' names rhyme with family members' names. Then you can tell stories from your lives that teach the lessons you want. A character could realize the effect her behavior has on others, or model sharing without fighting, for example. - Parent Institute


Take a creative approach to problem-solving
Children learn creativity by watching others. And when kids learn that there are often many ways to solve a problem, they learn to think creatively and become better problem solvers. So let your child see you tackle problems in different ways. Regularly create new solutions for old problems. He or she will learn that fresh thinking can turn up new (and maybe better) approaches. - Parent Institute


Try three ways to help your child relax
If your child is under stress, help her manage it positively. Humor is a great way to help her forget her frustration. Together, try singing a few silly songs. You might also leave a funny cartoon at her place at the breakfast table. Exercise is another effective stress-reliever. And helping others can also make your child feel better by giving her perspective on her problems. Together, brainstorm ways she can lend a helping hand. - Parent Institute
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701 N. Madison Street
Stockton, CA 95202
(209) 933-7025