Hello BRSSD Families,
Starting tomorrow, Monday, March 16, our schools will be shifting to At-Home Learning. As mentioned previously, this is our effort to continue teaching, learning, and educational services during our two-week closure to students from March 16 to March 27. During this period, our campuses, including play areas, are closed to students during school hours (8am to 3:30pm). Remember, March 30 to April 3 is our Spring Break, and we will not be providing an educational program for that week.
This shift to At-Home Learning is a significant one for our staff. We are allowing all instructional staff up to two days to develop and begin sending home classroom-specific activities and lessons though we will provide general activities for Monday and Tuesday. During this time, we will do our best to (1) continue standards-based lessons and activities so that students keep up with their grade-level curriculum and (2) provide a diversity of activities so that your student can be occupied during normal school hours.
We recognize that At-Home Learning is an even bigger shift for our students and families. We will provide technology support to students and families that need it. Moreover, we will offer remote special education support to the extent possible. Don’t hesitate to let us know if you believe there is something significant that we have overlooked.
Educational Services
Teachers will collaborate on Monday and Tuesday to create At-Home Learning Plans to share with students or families (depending on grade level). You can expect to receive classroom specific directions from your teacher by 9am, Wednesday, 3/18. Once you receive those plans from your teacher, please have your student follow them. Until then, your student may follow this
Temporary At-Home Learning Plan
.
Elementary Parent-Teacher conferences may continue, but we now require that they be held remotely via telephone call or Google Hangout.
This is a new learning environment for all of us, and there will be mistakes! Thank you for your patience as we work through any issues that arise. We will keep you posted on how best to support your child through at-home learning. Please click
here
for some tips to help create routine and consistency at home. A comprehensive Parent’s Guide to At-Home Learning (including instructions for accessing online tools) will be available by Wednesday, 3/18.
Special Programs
Special education staff will provide at-home learning resources for the students they support. They will use Monday and Tuesday to plan. Education specialists and related service providers will collaborate with general education teachers to ensure that appropriate supports are in place to enable your child to continue their academic learning at home. In addition, special educators, including occupational therapists, speech and language specialists and others, will prepare remote service opportunities, to the extent that this is possible, so students can continue to work on their IEP goals.
Sandpiper and Ralston 8th/9th grade transition meetings scheduled for the week of March 16 have been canceled by the high school districts. Those meetings will be rescheduled for April or May. Other IEP meetings will continue as planned unless your child’s principal or case manager has contacted you to reschedule. These meetings will take place remotely. Your child’s case manager will contact you next week to arrange for your participation and that of the other IEP team members. We recognize that not all families have access to Google Hangouts, so conference calls will also be an option.
Regarding the provision of a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE), we are awaiting guidance from the California Department of Education (CDE) which is expected on March 17. We will keep families and staff updated as the guidance from the CDE and the United States Department of Education evolves.
Technology
We will be assisting teachers on Monday and Tuesday with the support they need to get your student started with At-Home Learning. You can expect to receive information from your teacher by Wednesday 3/18 on the specific technology resources your child will be using. Below you will find information about the District’s standard set of digital tools and resources.
The District uses Clever for single sign-on to provide easy access to most of the digital curriculum and support tools your child uses within their classroom. If you are already familiar with logging your child in at home, you can head to
clever.brssd.org
and get started. If you have not previously used Clever, please check out our “
How to Access At-Home Learning Tools from Home
” guide. This guide will walk you through getting started with access to the Clever portal on your Computer, Chromebook, or iPad.
The District also extensively uses Google’s GSuite for Education platform as a technology resource. GSuite for Education provides access to collaborative productivity tools like
Drive
,
Docs
,
Sheets
, and
Slides
. Your teacher may also plan on using the
Google Classroom
learning platform to share information and work with you and your child. They may also use Google Hangouts Meet to Livestream classroom lessons, here are instructions on
how to join a Hangouts Meeting
and a
cheat sheet on Hangouts Meet
. All of these resources can be accessed using your child’s BRSSD Google account.
If you do not already have access to your child’s Google account information, please wait to hear from your teacher by Wednesday, 3/18 in regards to specific information about your child’s classroom. If, after Wednesday, you are still unable to access your child’s account information please contact
athometechnical@brssd.org
for assistance.
Accessing from a Windows or Apple Computer?
Does your child not have access to a device at home?
If your child does not have access to a device to use at home we may be able to help.
Please complete this short survey
and we will contact you as soon as possible to see how we can assist. We have a limited amount of available devices so we ask that you only complete this form if you are in need of one.
Need internet access?
Xfinity/Comcast is opening up its Xfinity WiFi Hotspots free to all,
more information can be found here
. If you need access to a hotspot simply go to
https://wifi.xfinity.com/
and find the most convenient location. Once at a hotspot, consumers should select the “xfinitywifi” network name in the list of available hotspots and then launch a browser.
Need additional help?
If you are having difficulty navigating any of these tools or have other questions please contact us at
athometechnical@brssd.org
and we will work to assist you. We ask that you please wait to hear from your teacher on Wednesday, 3/18 with classroom specific information prior to contacting us about login specific information.
Facilities and Nutrition
Custodians will be working to clean, disinfect, and sanitize classrooms and other school facilities. In light of this work and the likelihood that teachers may be on site during normal school hours, we request that students and families refrain from using playground facilities or otherwise come onto school grounds until after 3:30pm on Monday through Friday. Also, please note that the District will not be cleaning or sanitizing lunch tables, play structures, railings, and other high-touch surfaces during the school closure, so children and adults should use appropriate precautions both before and after coming in contact with these surfaces.
According to the
March 13 order
of the San Mateo County Health Officer, parents and legal guardians are ordered to take reasonable measures to ensure that students who are not in school are following guidelines for preventing the transmission of the virus, including social distancing. Students of all ages should be prevented from congregating and engaging in group activities to assist efforts to prevent virus transmission.
We have been notified that some individuals have posted on social media that the District is providing lunches to any BRSSD student. While an email was sent to select families, this information was not intended for wide distribution. If you did not receive an email from the District with respect to lunch, please do not have your students come to school to obtain one. Doing so would increase the risk of transmission of COVID-19 and would deplete the limited supply of lunches we have available for those who have been directly notified.
We will continue to communicate with you. You are welcome to reply with questions, though I do ask that you double check the resources we’ve shared before sending in a technical question. Thank you for your patience as we work to develop a remote at-home learning program for your student.
Sincerely,
Michael Milliken
Superintendent
Suvarna Bhopale | Amy Koo | Samuel Leinbach | Jim Howard | Rahila Passi
Board of Trustees
