Hello everyone,
It’s a big day today in MBUSD! Every TK-12 student who chose in-person school was on our campus today. Our campuses and classrooms are much more full and feel like school is fully in session. Here are some highlights from the day:
- I think the biggest change was on the Mira Costa campus, where classrooms ranged from 50% full to almost 100% full. After 12 months, all of our in-person students had the opportunity to mingle (with distance and masks) with so many of their peers on campus. I saw our band students actually playing music in Waller Stadium. All of our teachers are providing instruction to both in-person and online students simultaneously. While many are doing a phenomenal job already, others are leaning into overcoming a few challenges and learning how to master this new approach to instruction.
- MBMS went swimmingly as well. We think we need to add one more entrance for our students to make the ingress into MBMS more smooth and less delayed. These are the types of challenges we will be working out. Like all of our schools, the organization was outstanding, and teachers were ready to teach all students in their classrooms.
- I could not be at the entrance to all five of our elementary schools, but I hear that also went well. I enjoyed visiting classrooms at one of our elementary schools. Students were excited to be in class and very happy to see all of their classmates in the same room. Teachers were very positive about the day, and quickly got back to doing what they are so good at. I’ve said this with almost every first day of school (I know it’s not the first day, but it felt like it!), and I’m always amazed at how students and teachers just get down to the business of teaching and learning.
We will be adjusting all week as we learn what is working and what we could be doing better. But I’ll say this - it worked pretty darn well today. My guess is that we will have a lot of people who will be tired tonight. Teaching can be exhausting, especially in the first few weeks of school. You are always on, and even though we are ending school earlier than normal for most of our students, our teachers are full-on in this schedule (click here for more on the number of instructional minutes in this schedule compared to our pre-COVID schedule), teaching, collaborating, and providing support, extension, and intervention through the entire day, with very little prep or down time. And being back in school so long will be tiring for our students as well. I hope there are many early bedtimes and a lot of sound sleeping tonight.
And on the vaccination front, we continue to be grateful for our partnership with Beach Cities Health District. Since last Thursday (the day residents age 16+ became eligible to be vaccinated), we have been able to schedule 1st dose appointments for all students whose parents told us they want their students to receive one. We’re at 390 and counting, and as soon as we know that everyone’s signed up who wants to be, BCHD will open up their clinic to all eligible members of our families. That’s great news for all of us!
Here are some pictures from around the district today:
