As School Year Ends, Planning and Preparation Continue

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Hello, Long Beach Unified Community.

It’s been a few weeks since my last community message. Since that time, all schools have welcomed more and more students back to campus, while also continuing distance learning. Sports teams have held their condensed seasons, and student performances have commenced. And as this community message reaches you, we will have already celebrated the graduation of our seniors from Sato and CAMS high schools. As community health has rapidly improved in the local community, I have experienced firsthand the joy of seeing students in our schools, on playing fields and participating in many school events. The year will culminate with promotion ceremonies, graduation ceremonies and many of the end-of-year activities that our students hold near and dear to their school experience.

The pandemic year has taken a toll on so many people in our community, including our hard working staff. As we prepare to officially close this school year, I hope that you will join me in expressing your appreciation to the more than 10,000 employees who serve the 菠菜网lol正规平台 community. The business of education is “people work.” It takes everyone working together to ensure that every one of our students gets what they need to be successful, and even some of the least visible actions taken by staff can make a great difference in the lives of our students. 

During the school closures, we strove to maintain our focus on our strategic goals and our hard-fought progress. We sustained relatively high levels of student attendance. Learning continued. Yet the pandemic also magnified societal inequities, disproportionately affecting already disadvantaged populations, including people of color.

Our communities and our school system also were impacted by our nation’s reckoning with long-simmering, incendiary issues of racism and social justice. Amid the contagion and the strife, we pressed forward with renewed resolve to engage our diverse communities in necessary conversations about equity and systemic racism, laying the groundwork for a number of equity and excellence initiatives – including hiring efforts – that will continue in the months and years ahead. The pandemic and our societal reckoning created a crucible that helped us to forge more meaningful and authentic relationships with many of our stakeholders. In service to the needs of our students, all of our certificated staff (approximately 3800 employees including teachers, administrators, counselors, support staff) will participate in a Summer Equity Institute. Staff will have an opportunity to learn new tools for engaging students in social-emotional learning, develop an awareness about culturally relevant instruction, and explore ways to strengthen the heart of the classroom experience, which is so closely tied to the relationships that are forged between teachers and students. We are excited to kick-off the 2021-22 school year with this incredible learning opportunity. 

In addition to professional development, the district Equity Leadership Team, consisting of students and other constituents, including parents, employees and community partners, has convened multiple times and will make recommendations for policy, practices, funding and future initiatives. The equity policy that is being developed will stand as a formal, codified commitment to excellence and equity across 菠菜网lol正规平台. 

We all know that we have some catching up to do when the next school year starts. Our Learning Acceleration and Support Plan is being finalized and will be publicly available in August. We began this planning based upon our students’ needs, blending together various resources – including significant and newly available pandemic recovery funding from the state and federal governments – to provide the best possible learning opportunities and related support. If you are interested in learning more about the plan, please refer to the videos available on our YouTube channel, with presentations made at the board meetings held on May 17, May 26 and June 2. 

We believe that in-person instruction and the opportunity to provide wrap-around services to families can be best accomplished with students in our schools. It is for this reason that we will be pushing to have all students return to in-person instruction for full day, full program experiences. The onramp to returning to school will be different for families. Some will use the summer learning experience to help students transition back to in-person learning. Others will wait until schools reopen in August to make that transition. While we prepare for the full reopening in August, staff will work throughout the summer to connect with families who may need additional support in “getting back to school” and to ensure that we have done everything possible to locate and care for every student in our community. 

Our school district is now well positioned to begin a new era of progress for every student in our care. To everyone who has supported our schools during this immensely challenging time, I extend my deepest gratitude, and I invite you to continue on our collective journey with great hope for our students.

Sincerely,

Jill A. Baker, Ed. D.
Superintendent of Schools