Superintendent's Newsletter
October 15, 2021
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Dear Manhattan Beach Unified School District Families,
I hope this letter finds you well. Today’s message focuses on grade level programs at Robinson Elementary, a call to sign up any student in your family for our COVID testing program, a reminder about cold and flu season, and our October 20 Board of Education Workshop on Equity, Diversity, Social Justice and Inclusion.
Spotlight on Robinson Elementary (With thanks to Principal O’Sullivan for this update)
Robinson students and teachers have been so appreciative and happy to be back at school this year! What a busy, fun and learning-filled time our Riptides have been having — our Kinders made fun “Pete the Cat” hats while reading books from Eric Litwin’s fantastic series, our first graders feted their own writing in their “Author’s Celebration,” our second graders performed vignettes from Arnold Lobel’s “Frog and Toad” stories, our third graders are engaging with standards related to speaking and listening by becoming excellent speech writers and presenters through our Scholars Speak program, our fourth graders are making cool 3-D maps of California’s terrain in line with their studies of our state’s geography, and our fifth graders are exhibiting tremendous innovation and ingenuity with their Maker Space projects, in line with fifth grade science standards related to engineering and design, including an expectation that students can “define a simple design problem reflecting a need or a want that includes specified criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, or cost.” Go Riptides!
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COVID Testing
MBUSD has launched an important, free, voluntary school-based COVID testing program for our students to help provide safe and healthy classrooms and campuses.
Regular voluntary COVID testing is an important part of our effort to mitigate the spread of the virus, as it helps us to identify cases proactively and early and allows us to prevent further infection by isolating people with positive diagnoses and alerting close contacts to possible exposure.
If your student is not already enrolled in our free weekly on-campus COVID testing program, we encourage you to provide your consent for them to participate by completing the registration form here - you only need to fill it out once.
Our testing program takes place on campus and is supervised by nurses. Participants can self-swab if they wish, or, if they need assistance, the nurses can administer the nasal swab. Nasal swabs are taken from the area just below the bridge of the nose, and, while participants’ eyes may water a bit, they typically experience no pain and very little discomfort. Upon request, participants can provide a saliva sample rather than a nasal sample.
There are many additional important steps we can take to mitigate the spread of COVID in our schools and community, such as wearing a mask, getting vaccinated when eligible, completing your student’s daily RUVNA screener, staying home when ill, and washing hands regularly, but we believe that regular testing is also a very important tool in this process, and we hope that your student will participate.
Participating students will automatically be scheduled to be tested every week on an ongoing basis, and all individual results will be emailed directly to the parent email address submitted during the registration process in addition to being shared with the school district.
Once enrolled, if you have questions or need assistance you can ask your site administrator, or you can send an email to mbusd@malibumedicalgroup.com.
Again, whether your student is vaccinated or not, we urge you to enroll your student in the MBUSD COVID testing program.
Cold and Flu Season
With the onset of cold and flu season, it is important to remember that anyone who has symptoms should not come to school. COVID, cold, and flu symptoms overlap, and while in the past we may have sent symptomatic students to school because “it’s only a little cold” or “there’s a test scheduled for today that they can’t miss” or “they can power through,” this is no longer the case. If your student is symptomatic, please keep them home until they are well, and please consider seeking a COVID test to rule out the possibility of a COVID-19 infection.
In addition, as a reminder, please consider getting a flu shot to help protect your family and our community from widespread flu outbreaks.
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Board of Education Workshop - Equity, Diversity, Social Justice, and Inclusion
Advancing equity, social justice, diversity, and inclusion (EDSJI) efforts is an important part of our work in MBUSD to personalize learning, maximize student success and create a climate of care. Please join us as we continue that conversation at the Board of Education virtual workshop on October 20, 2021 at 5:00 p.m.
The workshop will follow a format similar to that of the September 2020 EDSJI Board Workshop and will include a presentation from EDSJI Committee members. There will be a public comment period consistent with our Board Bylaws as well as the opportunity to submit written questions during the meeting. In advance of that, you can submit questions/input here and learn more about equity, diversity, social justice and inclusion in MBUSD here.
During the workshop, we will discuss the recommendations of the equity audit report the District commissioned. You can find the full report here. This report was compiled by CLEAR, an independent organization hired solely to research and develop the report; now that this task is complete, the District’s contractual relationship with CLEAR has come to an end.
Please tune in to the MBUSD Board of Education Workshop on Wednesday, October 20 at 5:00 p.m. to learn more about the report’s findings and recommendations, to provide your input, and learn more about next steps for implementation on this important effort. The link to attend the Workshop will be posted here by noon Wednesday.
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My wife and I look forward to attending Mira Costa Drama/Tech's Alice in Wonderland this evening in the Mustang Mall. Whether your weekend plans include attending sporting events, going to the beach, or just spending time together, I hope your weekend is a safe and relaxing one.
Sincerely,
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John Bowes, Ed.D.
MBUSD Superintendent
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Manhattan Beach Unified School District
325 S. Peck Avenue
Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
310.318.7345
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