Greetings to all,
First of all, a belated Happy Mothers’ Day to all of the moms who receive this message. Thank you all for your love, dedication to your children, and for how you support them in our schools. I hope you all had a special day yesterday!
Building on a message I sent last month, we are still planning on beginning the 2021-22 school year with the typical full day schedules we had in place back on March 13, 2020. At our next Board meeting, our Trustees will be passing a resolution affirming their intent to make sure we are fully open and back to normal when the 2021-22 school year begins on August 25, 2021.
At last week’s board meeting, our board passed a Resolution denouncing all manifestations of hate, xenophobia, prejudice, and bigotry, while affirming MBUSD’s commitment to the safety and well-being of our community. This is yet another example of our Board’s commitment to its goal of Equity, Diversity, Social Justice, and Inclusion (EDSJI). To see the full resolution, and for more information about this effort, you can go to our new EDSJI webpage.
Teacher/Staff Appreciation Week in MBUSD was celebrated throughout last week. To all of our classroom teachers, instructional assistants, counselors, psychologists, preschool teachers, related service providers in special education, and everyone whose main role is working directly with students, I say, “THANK YOU.”
I started teaching in 1984. I was only a full time teacher for five years, though I did always teach one high school history class during my eleven-year run as a high school principal. It wasn’t until I left full time teaching that I gained a true appreciation for what it means to be an outstanding teacher. I have been fortunate to get to be in hundreds of classrooms and to see nearly a thousand different teachers in my leadership roles in three different districts. I have such a high level of respect for the work that goes into all of the teaching jobs in public education.
And this year, our teachers deserve more appreciation than ever. Beginning March 16, 2020, our teachers learned to meet the needs of students without seeing them in their classrooms. The way they enhanced their distance learning effectiveness from March 16 through the fall of 2020 was nothing short of remarkable. And when we made our way back into the classroom, every teacher I have talked with, while perhaps having some initial trepidation due to safety concerns, has loved being back with their students in person. I hope that the technology skills we all learned during the pandemic will give us learning options for the future, but the main point here is, our teachers were incredible. They are able to accomplish remarkable things with their students no matter what the educational setting.
And, in 2021, we are not just asking teachers to switch from in-person to distance learning and back again, but we are asking them to do that while teaching at a deeper and more nuanced level than ever before. William Yeats wrote, “Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire.” Memorization of some basic material has its place, but teaching today is much more about finding what lights the fire in each student. It’s about finding ways to personalize learning and maximize learning opportunities. It’s about supporting students in difficult times. And it’s about always being in pursuit of how to do a better job tomorrow than today.
So thank you to all of you who have made teaching your passion, your career, and an integral part of your everyday life. Thanks for your efforts throughout these last 15 months, and for all you are doing today, tomorrow, and after that to help each of your students succeed. Enjoy May 12, California Day of the Teacher, but know you have my unending appreciation and gratitude every day.
Next week is California Classified School Employee Week, and I look forward to recognizing our classified employees in that newsletter!
Have a nice evening,
