Time Sensitive- Save VUSD Classic School-Dec. 15th Board Meeting
Good evening VUSD Community Members,
If you have a child or know a child in VUSD that needs to have in-person learning to be successful, please take a moment to do one or more of the following (listed below) by Dec. 15th. Decisions for Classic school for Spring will be discussed and decided upon at this meeting. The board may discuss modifying the current quarantine model to a more common-sense model being used by the medical field, military, and schools in other counties and states. However, there are many in charge that would like to revert to simply virtual-only for Spring.
It is also important to consider there are no plans for mandated vaccines and the virus will be here in the Fall. There have been no answers given to questions asking at what point schools will go back to normal....even when asked if it is Fall, 2021. What we do in the Spring could very well play into the Fall in terms of school planning. Your voice is critical.
It appears we may have a divided board in terms of keeping Classic open and a new trustee, Julie Kelly, will be sworn in Dec. 15th. Her vote could be the deciding vote that determines your child's access to in-person learning. Please include her in your emails.
There are 10,000 Classic students and parents and students must communicate their needs with the board and our new trustee. There is a rumor that some members of the Vista Teacher's Union are planning to protest again at the December 15th school board meeting to keep schools closed and they will probably call the media in again. Please know there are many VUSD teachers that support both Virtual and Classic school. Please use your voice in one or more ways listed below.
1. Share this flyer on Social Media (We can only post one flyer at a time-only one update every 24 hours-A Spanish Version will go out tomorrow), Print out the flyer and share in our community (many parents have no idea the seriousness of decisions being made on Dec. 15th). You can also email: vistastudentsfirst@gmail.com if you need a Spanish version of the flyer today or if you need a PDF version of either to print out.
2. Write ALL the following board members, trustee elect, and VUSD Superintendant and express why in-person learning is critical for your child or a child in our community. The board is the final decision maker for our district.
superintendentsoffice@vistausd.org
rosesmithfield@gmail.com
Rosemarysmithfield@vistausd.org
cvargas.trustee@gmail.com
debbiemorton4students@gmail.com
marthaalvarado@vistausd.org
juliekelly.vusdtrustee@gmail.com
3. Have your child write directly to Dr. Doyle (for privacy purposes)superintendentsoffice@vistausd.org or to hearmevusd@gmail.com (letters will be sent anonymously as a batch to the board on the day of the meeting-have students simply leave their grade level instead of their name). Student voices are the most important in all of this.
4. Attend the board meeting virtually or in-person- See -https://go.boarddocs.com/ca/vusd/Board.nsf/Public for meeting information. The time and links are not posted yet but are usually posted 3-4 days before the meeting.
5. Request a "hold-card" to speak or have your letter read aloud at the meeting. https://go.boarddocs.com/ca/vusd/Board.nsf/Public (once meeting information is posted) and follow the very specific directions. There is usually a small window on the day of the meeting where you can email your letter to be read aloud by you or Christine Lupola (There is usually a specific time frame that day) to christinalupola@vistausd.org. If you are planning on attending in person, there will be a very limited amount of hold cards and it's first come first serve.
6. Email VUSDstudentsfirst@gmail.com if you would like to help in other ways to keep Classic open. Help is definitely needed.
There are students that need to be in virtual and there are students that need in-person learning. We must do everything we can to meet all of our students' needs. Thank you for taking the time to read through this and for supporting VUSD students.