Since early June, our community has engaged in a healthy and robust conversation about the best way to offer school this year. The Board met almost weekly throughout the summer with hundreds of parents, teachers, and community members weighing in regularly with their opinions and suggestions. San Mateo County provided a Pandemic Recovery Framework which guided the Reopening Plan that MPCSD developed. MPCSD is proud to be the first public district in San Mateo County approved for a waiver and ready to return students in a modified model. The support of our community makes this possible.

Thanks to constructive collaboration between MPCSD's two bargaining units, MPEA and CSEA, the School Board, and the COVID-19 Response Team, we had a plan ready to go once the county allowed us to bring students back to campus. On September 19, under a state-approved waiver, we returned our kindergarteners and first graders. Now that San Mateo County's data has improved to put us in the red tier of the California Blueprint for a Safer Economy, schools no longer need waivers to reopen as long as they can follow the county's Four Pillars of safety. We are set to bring grades 2-6 back in an alternating week model starting October 19, and grades 7 and 8 back in an alternating week model starting November 2.

As a reminder, our District Office remains open Monday-Friday from 8:00 a.m.- 4:00 p.m. to serve the public. If you plan to visit the office, remember that it is required to wear a face covering while on any MPCSD campus. 

In June the MPCSD School Board adopted a resolution committing to create an "environment in which the children in our district may grow up to be adults who are anti-racist, because a just and democratic society depends on it." 

In January, we will host a three part Mini-Series "Race, Prejudice & Policy: A Three Part Conversation on Segregation and its Legacy on Education Around Menlo Park." Beginning with a dive into the redlining policies that shaped housing development and demographics, moving into an equity walk through our district from the lens of students of color, and concluding with a discussion among the superintendents of Ravenswood and MPCSD, the principal of Menlo-Atherton High School, Menlo Park's and East Palo Alto's mayors, and other local leaders, this series will illuminate many of the historical influences that continue to impact our local school districts and how might our community organize to address the challenges and opportunities of our future. Find more details and registration for these free webinars at our Speaker Series website.

Many community members have wondered how much our parents support their schools financially. The answer is very much! While MPCSD receives about 62% of its revenue from property taxes and another 16% from parcel taxes, it is district parents and other supporters of our annual fundraising campaign who contribute an additional 7% of our budget with their giving. District parents pay property taxes, parcel taxes and make generous donations to our schools through the One Community Campaign.

The One Community Campaign is the combined fundraising efforts of our schools' PTOs and the Menlo Park-Atherton Education Foundation. Two years ago these organizations joined efforts to make supporting our schools cohesive and easy and the results have been amazing. Our parent community comes together to donate to ensure that MPCSD hires and supports excellent teachers, maintains small class sizes, has mental health support at every school, and offers a rich and broad curriculum including World Language STEM, art, music, library and a full complement of electives at the middle school.

We are happy to report that even this year amidst the pandemic and uncertainty about how much in-person time their children would spend in school, the MPCSD parent community raised over $3 million for our schools, with over 65% or families participating. Thank you, community. To make a donation as a community member, please click here.

You can also support the Menlo Park-Atherton Education Foundation by patronizing local restaurants Amici's, Left Bank, and Koma Sushi all month long as part of October Feast. These restaurants are generously giving back to the MPAEF when you order from them, to support excellent local education. Local businesses + local schools = great community for everyone!

Yoga mats, hay bails, and outside reading groups are just some of the creative ways our teachers are teaching while following the health and safety protocols in our Reopening Plan. With small cohorts of 10-16 students we are focusing on relationships, restoring community, and the core academic goals for each grade level. The joy our students express at being back in person and having time to socialize with their peers makes the extra safety precautions worthwhile.

We have taken staff and student safety very seriously, providing PPE, extra cleaning, and COVID-specific air ventilation protocols, among other measures. Starting with our summer school and our preschool, the Early Learning Center, who returned in person in July, we learned that students of all ages are perfectly capable of wearing masks and learning how to learn, play, and socialize six feet apart.

MPCSD is profoundly fortunate to employ some of the best educators in the business. Teaching under these pandemic circumstances is not easy. It takes extra time, effort, and focus to reinforce the health and safety pillars. Teachers are rightly concerned with their own safety as they return, balancing their own emotions with the hectic duties of designing a whole new way of teaching. Yet to a person, our staff has been supportive and flexible in meeting their students' needs despite the increased burden of doing so. We are so proud to serve with the professional teachers and staff that make up MPCSD.

As soon as the pandemic began and schools closed, our community reached out with compassion to support those most vulnerable families among us. MPCSD quickly partnered with MPAEF to create an initiative to accept donations for food support. We are amazed and grateful that the community has donated over $100,000 since March and that has all gone directly to giving grocery gift cards to our neediest families.

Additionally, we have accepted donations of food, clothing, household goods, baby items and more. Our staff continues to make weekly deliveries of food and grocery gift cards, regularly supporting over 60 families. Your generosity allows us to care for our families' most urgent needs. To find out more or donate, please see our MPCSD Helps page. All donations are tax deductible through the MPAEF and can be matched by your employer. Thank you for caring!

Pictured above, Sacred Heart student Maddie Levey helped collect over $3,000 and helped district parents Kelly Morehead and Lil Perazich with their ongoing community grocery collection and donations. Serra students Spencer and Rhys Morehead regularly help procure and deliver the groceries to our Encinal pantry. In times like this, it is uplifting to see community come together.

With the holidays just around the corner, we know it will be tempting to want to practice all our usual traditions, travel, and gatherings. However, with COVID still very much with us, it is important for all of us to do our part to continue following health guidelines and limiting our exposure so we can maintain the downward trajectory of our county's data. As I say to the school community, being in person at school is a gathering and it's the most important one for our children. To keep our schools open, we ask the whole community to be mindful of safe practices when it comes time to celebrate. This tip sheet about Halloween is courtesy of Napa County.

The CDC has lots of useful ideas and information at their site. Please consider celebrating just with your household, or if you do get together with others, please do it safely outside and with masks. Please avoid travel if possible. There are many fun options to enjoy this year, and let's all hope for a joyous return to "normal" celebrating by next fall!

Have more questions about MPCSD and its financial stewardship? Check out our Media Literacy & FAQ or use the Interactive Financial Portal OpenGov. Get the real facts about the district's finances.

We invite you to connect with MPCSD in person by attending School Board meetings, our Speaker Series, Farmers Market, student art show at the Menlo Park Burgess Library, and via our Facebook and Twitter pages: @goMPCSD.

Erik Burmeister, Superintendent

Jammie Behrendt, Assistant Superintendent

Stacey Jones, President

Sherwin Chen, Vice President