Superintendent's Newsletter
January 28, 2022
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Dear MBUSD Parents and Community,
I hope this letter finds you well. Today’s message focuses on the MBEF Annual Appeal Campaign, Pacific Elementary School’s kindergarten program, Kindergarten Information Day, the Peck Avenue road closure, a series of important COVID-19 updates from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (LACDPH), upcoming vaccination clinics, and student highlights.
Spotlight on Pacific Elementary School (with thanks to Principal Rhonda Steinberg and Pacific Kindergarten teachers Katie Wallace, Lanissa Patterson, and Sonya Abrams.)
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In Miss Wallace's class students were working on Writing Workshop, using graphic organizers to plan and write with a beginning, middle, and end. Students used three post-its to plan out their writing and then put those details into their writing.
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In collaboration with the Occupational Therapy team, Mrs. Patterson reviewed the weekly mentor sentence from the text Sneezy the Snowman with her class. Students then highlighted and practiced adding punctuation marks to the end of sentences to help practice their grammar skills.
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The students in Mrs. Abrams' class were using their "Super Powers" on Tuesday in Reading Workshop. Students were practicing their "Sight Word Power," "Reread Power" and "Pointer Power"
to help strengthen reading skills.
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Kindergarten Information Day is Tomorrow!
We invite families of all rising kindergarteners to attend! We plan to post a recording of Kindergarten Information Day on our YouTube page and on social media next week!
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All children who will be five years old as of September 1, 2022, are eligible to enroll in Kindergarten, and all children who will be five years old as of February 2, 2023, are eligible to enroll in Transitional Kindergarten
In addition to learning about Kindergarten, you can also learn about Transitional Kindergarten (TK) during Kinder Information Day! TK is the first year of a two-year Kindergarten program that uses a modified Kindergarten curriculum that is age and developmentally appropriate.
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MBEF Annual Appeal Campaign Ends in 7 days!
I am proud to have served as the Superintendent for this amazing District for more than five months now and feel lucky to work with talented, passionate educators, support staff, community members, and strong partners who work to keep MBUSD moving forward. The Manhattan Beach Education Foundation (MBEF) has been a vital long-term partner to MBUSD and integral to keeping our one-of-a-kind programs going strong.
MBEF has funded and supported our schools for the past 40 years. This would not have been possible without your support. MBEF contributions, funded by parent and community donations, have greatly enriched the educational experience for our amazing students and have provided funding to sustain current programs and educators. Now, more than ever, I hope you can continue to support MBEF by donating to its Annual Appeal campaign before it comes to an end this month. The programs MBEF funds offer hands-on experiences starting at TK and continuing through high school - including amazing STEAM programs, comprehensive music instruction, and staff to support our students’ emotional well-being, to name a few.
We appreciate all that our community has done to support MBEF and our schools. If you have not donated yet, please give what you can to help our students and teachers excel! We appreciate the support of our families and community partners.
Thank you to everyone who has donated, and I ask that you please donate today by visiting here!
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Congratulations to Mira Costa Senior, Dalia Frias, who has been named the 2021-22 Gatorade California Girls Cross Country Player of the Year!
We are so proud of you! The award recognizes outstanding excellence in athletes who have high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the field. This past season Dalia won the Division 2 individual state championship with an impressive time of 16:52, leading the Mustangs to the state title as a team.
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Dalia has also won the Woodbridge Classic, the Mt. SAC Invitational, and the Southern Section Championships among many other accolades. You can read more about this honor here.
Dalia has maintained a 4.09 GPA in the classroom and has signed a National Letter of Intent to run on scholarship at Duke University this fall!
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Thank you to the Los Angeles County Office of Education for visiting our elementary schools and featuring our robust testing opportunities on campus for our students and staff.
Check out the video below and hear from our students on their testing experience!
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Robinson Elementary Students Spread Kindness Across the City
200 students took on the national “Great Kindness Challenge” and hung colorful paper kindness chains on the trees at Metlox in Downtown Manhattan Beach. Each burst of color had a special written message from the students. Robinson PTSA Co-President Yea-Lan Chiang leads this project every year.
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Upcoming Road Closure on Peck Avenue - February 1-3
We have exciting news! Modular classroom buildings will be delivered to Pennekamp Elementary next week. You may see pieces of the building moving through the City as they are transported along Manhattan Beach Boulevard, Sepulveda, Artesia, and Peck Avenue.
Due to the large trucks moving building modules to the Pennekamp school site, as well as a large crane that will place the building modules onto the building’s foundation, access to Peck Avenue between 2nd Street and Gates Avenue will be closed to ALL public access from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, February 1 through Thursday, February 3. Equipment will remain in place throughout the week, so parking and pedestrian walkways will be impacted.
We apologize for any inconvenience, and we hope you will be able to plan your commute to Pennekamp and Mira Costa High School in advance! Please review the map below to see if you will be affected and for more information.
SCAN QR CODE TO REGISTER FOR UPDATES
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Street Closure (8:30 am - 4:30 pm, February 1-3, 2022) : |
After Hours (February 1-3, 2022): |
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As COVID-19 health and safety updates are constantly changing, we want to make sure you have the latest information in a timely manner on multiple platforms! We have updated our COVID-19 page, which will now be the main hub for essential updates, quick links to important resources, COVID-19 policies, and much more! |
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Starting next week, the COVID-19 updates you usually find in this newsletter will be posted to our new webpage instead. We will make sure to have a link in our newsletter directing everyone to that page so that you can see any new information.
The following COVID-19 health and safety updates are in place for now but may be revised again by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health at any time. As we continue to prioritize in-person learning and maintaining a healthy and safe teaching and learning environment, we will continue to focus on mask wearing, encouraging vaccination, and testing.
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Quarantine and Close Contacts
LACDPH has updated its guidance related to potentially exposed individuals. While this has created more categories of individuals, it will also allow more individuals to stay in school. Through the current guidelines, we are now able to implement a “modified” quarantine for staff. In addition, current guidelines provide a “group tracing” model for students, where anyone who shared the same indoor airspace at school with an infected person for 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period is considered to be potentially exposed, and all of the students in that group can continue to be at school (see chart below).
The charts below contain important clarifications from LACDPH as of today. Please refer to these charts for the latest guidance.
Quarantine is defined as staying at home after a person has been exposed to a contagious disease, to see if they become sick and to prevent potential spread. These people may have been exposed to a disease and not know it, or they may have the disease but not show symptoms.
Modified Quarantine (MQ) means your child can keep going to school and school-based activities in person, but can’t participate in activities outside of school. School-based activities include any activities run by MBUSD (including school clubs, athletics, and EDP); non-school activities include activities run by outside organizations (including AYSO, scouts, MBX classes, etc.). They must stay symptom-free, continue to mask and get tested twice: right after learning of exposure and again three days later. Modified quarantine testing is required between day 3 and day 5 (recommended on day 0 or 1 and day 5 if possible).
Asymptomatic Students*
Must wear an upgraded mask** and monitor for symptoms for 10 days
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*LACDPH applies this guidance to TK-12th grade students only; preschool students must follow a different protocol
**Per LACDPH guidelines, if a student cannot wear an upgraded mask, they must quarantine at home unless exempt.
Asymptomatic Staff Potentially Exposed in Any Setting
Must wear an upgraded mask and monitor for symptoms for 10 days
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Testing Requirements for Positive Cases and Close Contacts
In order to be able to continue to attend or return after day 5:
- Some close contacts or positive cases must provide evidence of a test taken on day 5 (others must test between days 3 and 5; see table above). Results must be submitted as soon as they are received. Individuals who do not comply with this will need to stay home from school until the full 10 day quarantine or isolation period has ended.
- We recommend that individuals submit lab-verified or supervised test results to ensure greater accuracy and reliability when submitting evidence that they do not have COVID-19. FDA authorized at-home tests are also recognized as valid.
Importantly, we recommend PCR testing for initial diagnosis (surveillance and close contact testing) and antigen testing for individuals who have previously tested positive and are testing in order to return on Day 5. Antigen tests are a better indicator that the infectious period has passed than the more sensitive PCR tests that can detect non-contagious levels of the virus long after the individual has recovered.
While we always recommend lab-verified or supervised test, if an individual must submit an at-home over-the-counter test, it needs to be an FDA-authorized test, and the individual must provide:
- A photograph of the negative test with the individual’s name and test date.
- A signed school-specific attestation form confirming the test was administered properly and shows results for the individual submitting it (please contact your school for a link to the form).
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Sign-up for Free Antigen Tests from the Federal Government!
The federal government is providing each household with up to four free antigen tests sent directly to individuals’ homes. If you have not already done so, you can register to receive these tests at https://special.usps.com/testkits.
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Upcoming COVID-19 Testing Clinic TOMORROW!
We are pleased to announce another free Saturday test clinic tomorrow, Saturday, January 29 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The clinic is open to the community and will be a drive-thru opportunity at the Mira Costa High School student parking lot, located at Peck and Artesia.
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Upcoming COVID-19 Vaccination Clinics on January 29 & February 19
You can register now, and the clinic will also be accepting walk-ins! All brands of vaccines will be available. Participants in any eligible age group can receive first, second, or booster doses through these clinics. This means receiving the full course of the initial vaccination series and receiving a booster dose as soon as you are eligible.
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Masking
The State of California and LACDPH's requirement to wear masks at all times indoors for school districts, campuses, classrooms, and offices remains in effect.
As a reminder, guidelines include:
- A requirement to wear masks outdoors. LACDPH guidance states that “universal masking with some appropriate type of face covering is still currently required for both indoor and outdoor settings on the school campus.” This guidance means that everyone will wear masks during recess, nutrition, lunch, passing periods, and other campus activities, except when eating and drinking, unless the activity is closely supervised and a 6’ distance between participants can be ensured.
- A requirement for staff to wear upgraded masks and a recommendation for students to wear upgraded masks. Per new LACDPH guidelines, all District employees have access to upgraded masks, which are currently available for staff at our schools and offices.
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An upgraded mask is defined as a well-fitting, non-cloth mask with multiple layers of
non-woven material with a nose-wire. While cloth masks are permissible for students, medical/surgical, N-95, KN-95, and KF-94 masks provide good single mask protection
(please be sure to consider whether N-95, KN-95, and KF-94 masks are the right size for younger students).
Additionally, LACDPH states that, for those wearing surgical masks, double masking, with a cloth face covering worn over the surgical mask, is recommended for enhanced protection.
See the most recent LACDPH mask guidance for students here and staff here.
COVID-19 Testing
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Follow our accounts to receive the latest MBUSD information, updates, news, and events!
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The next Superintendent Newsletter will be published on Friday, February 4.
Thank you for helping us keep our community healthy and safe! I am proud of the steps we’ve taken to provide our students the in-person, safe and healthy, and high-quality educational experience they deserve.
Sincerely,
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John Bowes, Ed.D.
MBUSD Superintendent
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Manhattan Beach Unified School District
325 S. Peck Avenue
Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
310.318.7345
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