Oceanside Parent Network’s own Molly Dimon makes the news!
Molly spoke at our gathering yesterday, doing a great job of describing the challenges that she – and other parents of special needs kids – have in this.
We understand that the Governor has closed our schools, but we also understand that is temporary. At least we hope it is.
Why is there no presentation on the agenda for Tuesday’s Board meeting laying out plans for a return to school once that happens?
Especially after 53% of parents voted for that in the survey, over 600 parents signed a petition for them to do that, a Board member requested it (at least for elementary school), and several districts around us have plans?
This article says, “But those officials say students and staff shouldn’t come back to school until it is safe to do so” and WE AGREE.
NO one wants to do this in a way that is unsafe – to either our kids or our teachers and staff.
No one.
The way to do that is to be prepared. Take advantage of the work that has been done by other districts and build from that.
We see in this article that Cajon Valley, Poway Unified (and, missing from the article, Carlsbad) have put together a plan they feel could put our kids back in school – in a way safe for students and staff.
We saw what happened when the district was forced to close this spring. Despite great efforts by our wonderful teachers, most parents would call what happened less than ideal.
We know schools will open sometime, we hope more sooner than later. Do we want the plans to get slapped together then? How safe could that be?
Join us at the next OUSD Board Meeting:
Tuesday, 7/18/20 at 6pm
Or join by phone:
Dial +1 669 900 9128
Webinar ID: 961 9920 1380#
Spanish Translation Call-in-line: 434-886-0086 PIN: 833 526 210#
The Spanish Translation Call-in line is for listening to the translation only. It is not a public comment line. For public comment information, please see below.
Public Comment Information:
Public comment form: bit.ly/ousd-07-21
Opportunity to give public comment and to submit this form for public comment will close 15 minutes prior to the start of the public meeting (6:00 pm).
And if you – like Molly – have a story you’d like the Board to hear on this, sign up for public comment. The agenda-item comment – item 6A – may be “full” now, at least if the Board limits the time available to 20 minutes as they’ve been doing – but you may be able to get in on item 13, “non agenda” comment.
Parents – make your voices heard!
And, if you are of the opinion that it would be possible to open schools safely, with the right plan in place to ensure safety of both kids and staff, you can join that group by emailing openoceansideschools2020@yahoo.com
And, of course, you can continue to follow this issue on our Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/groups/ousdparents