Dear MBUSD Families,
It is an honor and a privilege to have been selected by the Board of Education to serve as the Superintendent of the Manhattan Beach Unified School District. I am excited to join MBUSD - a great school district with a talented and caring staff, a supportive community and fantastic students. Likewise, I am excited to return to the South Bay and Southern California after serving five years as Superintendent of the Davis Joint Unified School District. Previous to that, I served as an Assistant Superintendent in the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District and as a teacher, coordinator, assistant principal, principal, and director, and in different human resources roles in the Los Angeles Unified School District over 26 years.
I want to thank former Superintendent Mike Matthews for his eleven years of steadfast leadership and for navigating one of the most challenging times our community and nation has ever faced. I also want to thank each of you for everything you have done, and continue to do, during this time in support of our students, staff and schools. The coronavirus is still with us, and the Delta variant is creating tremendous challenges for communities across the state and nation, including our own.
There is much work underway across MBUSD to prepare our classrooms and campuses for the 2021-22 school year. Governor Newsom made an important announcement last week about a new health order requiring all employees to be vaccinated or participate in weekly COVID testing. This and Los Angeles County’s indoor masking requirements for all staff and students are important components of our safe return to campus. We strongly encourage all parents and students to receive a vaccination when eligible and we ask that all students, regardless of vaccination status, seek screening testing between now and the start of school so that we can establish baseline data to ensure that we do not bring active cases of COVID-19 into our classrooms. Please watch for more detailed information on these and related health and safety matters that will be shared with you soon.
Three important themes for the 2021-22 school year include:
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Excellence in Education - Manhattan Beach Unified has a well-deserved reputation for providing excellence in education for our students, before and during the pandemic, and as we return to full instruction, we will build upon our strengths by working to assess our student learners to determine where they are academically and to meet their needs appropriately.
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Equity, Diversity, Social Justice, and Inclusion - We will continue to advance our work to ensure all students, staff, and families are a part of our community. As you know, we conducted an equity audit and look forward to reviewing and sharing that report with our entire community soon.
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Social Emotional Learning (SEL) – We will support students and staff by continuing to develop a culture of care through effective policies and practices, implementation of the SEL Instructional Framework, utilizing positive behavioral interventions and supports and through meaningful community partnerships.
There are many great opportunities and challenges ahead of us in the coming months and years, and we will navigate them together as a community. Our District leadership team, teachers, and support staff are excited to welcome our students back to school on August 25. I am looking forward to getting to know this great community and each of you!
Sincerely,
