In our letter home last week we indicated that we are coordinating planning for the 2020-2021 school year with the Archdiocese of San Francisco, the local school district and the San Mateo County Health Office.
Pam Lyons, superintendent of schools for the Archdiocese of San Francisco, has asked that we send all families
a letter that affirms that the archdiocese is planning to open school in August. The letter also affirms the following:
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The school opening plans will address various scenarios that we may face -- from distance learning to models which require fewer students in a class at any one time.
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We will coordinate with local school and public health officers to ensure that health and safety guidelines are followed.
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She has set up a task force comprising representatives of the Archdiocesan schools for school opening that will develop these guidelines. (Serra leadership is on this planning task force. We meet weekly to coordinate planning efforts for the fall.)
We will be attending a planning session next week with school representatives of the San Mateo County schools and the San Mateo County Health Office to discuss a draft framework for opening for the 2020-2021 school year. We anticipate that this framework will provide guidelines for reopening that we can use for site specific planning at Serra.
Planning for teaching and learning:
We have identified a team of teachers, administrators and consultants to evaluate our technology platforms and make recommendations for changes to be ready for the start of school. We want to ensure the faculty is equipped, trained and supported with the most relevant technology to ensure highly effective teaching and seamless integration with all potential schedule scenarios.
In one example of a change, all teachers will move to Google classroom as our learning management system in the fall. This system will integrate the communication of assignments and the calendar for all classes. Teacher, parent and student input from our recent surveys indicated the strong benefit to this common platform for clarity in communication, with obvious benefits in a distance learning environment.
We thank you for your patience as we navigate the path to reopen this fall. We are working with numerous agencies to ensure that our plans follow all health and safety guidelines for the benefit of our Serra community. Please do not hesitate to contact us with questions or comments.
