John Bowes
Superintendent's Newsletter
November 12, 2021
Dear Manhattan Beach Unified School District Families and Staff,

I hope this letter finds you well. Today’s message focuses on first and second grade MakerSpace projects at Pacific Elementary School, COVID vaccination approval for students ages 5-11, Modified Quarantine and outdoor mask wearing, school volunteers, and United Against Hate Week.

Spotlight on First and Second Grade MakerSpace Projects at Pacific Elementary School (With thanks to 1st Grade Teacher Gelane Cameron, 2nd Grade Teacher Michelle Lautanen, the Pacific Elementary 1st and 2nd Grade Teams, and Principal Steinberg for this update)

MakerSpace is a hands-on, student-directed learning experience, where students see themselves as inventors, builders and creators. MakerSpace allows learning new skills through trial and error, experiencing failure of an initial idea, the exploration of possible alternatives and then problem solving to improve on the idea. MakerSpace is an accessible STEM touchpoint for younger students, which allows teachers to better integrate science, technology, and engineering, while fostering innovation and creative arts skills. Examples of how MakerSpace is included in the curriculum include two great Thanksgiving projects at Pacific Elementary: first grade’s Balloons Over Broadway project, and second grade’s seaworthy Mayflower ships.
Balloons photos
The first grade float designers and puppeteers took to the halls and participated in the very first Pacific “Balloon” parade inspired by the book Balloons Over Broadway. This is a true story about Tony Sarg, the original puppeteer for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. After reading this inspiring story, the first grade engineers made a detailed picture plan of their mini-float ideas. Then, these designs came to life as they constructed balloon floats using their imaginations, paper folding, and attachment techniques. Led by Mrs. King in a decorated golf cart and accompanied by marching band music, the first graders were able to show all their creativity and design ideas with this MakerSpace and language arts collaboration.
Boat project
This past week, the second graders at Pacific learned about the journey of the Mayflower. To bring this to life in MakerSpace, the students were challenged to create seaworthy ships out of a limited supply of resources to hold as many pennies as possible without sinking. Students learned about the concepts of design, volume, surface area and buoyancy in this engineering project.
COVID Vaccination

In the short span of time since October 26, the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Western States Scientific Safety Review Workgroup have all endorsed and provided Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) allowing the use of a lower dose of Pfizer-BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine with children ages 5-11. 

Beach Cities Health District (BCHD) has been preparing for this moment and began providing vaccine clinic sites in Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach on November 8. Here are three important resources:
 
  1. The full schedule, which includes nine total opportunities for Beach City families to get a first dose vaccine at a BCHD clinic, can be found here. 
  2. You can register for an appointment at https://myturn.ca.gov/clinic.html - appointments and walk-ins are available now. You may also be able to secure an appointment through your primary care physician, local drug stores, and other authorized providers.
  3. For direct links to the BCHD clinics with step-by-step instructions about how to register and additional FAQs, as well as maps, please go to www.bchd.org/schoolvaccines. 

Our schools’ health and safety efforts are focused on ensuring our ability to continue to support and provide daily in-person instruction for our students. This latest vaccine authorization can provide students ages 5-11 the same protection against COVID as older students and adults, and we continue to urge all eligible community members to get vaccinated. However, please know there is no locally-mandated COVID vaccine requirement for students, nor has this been a topic of discussion with our Board of Trustees.

We are working hard to take as many off ramps from all of our COVID-related restrictions as possible and to create as normal a school year as we can. One step we can all take to help provide another layer of protection against COVID for students and staff is our on-campus COVID testing program; you can find more information about this program here. Additionally, wearing masks indoors on all MBUSD school campuses and outdoors on our elementary and middle school campuses remains a requirement of our Modified Quarantine program as described below.

Modified Quarantine and Outdoor Mask Wearing

MBUSD began implementing the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health’s modified quarantine program on Monday, September 27. This program directly supports our goal of making sure as many students as possible are able participate in in-person instruction. Under the modified quarantine option, an unvaccinated student who is identified as being a close contact due to on-campus exposure to a confirmed COVID-19 case can continue in-person instruction at school if both the positive case and the close contact were masked during the entire period of potential exposure. The close contact must be tested periodically and must remain under quarantine at home outside of the regular school day.

In the last month, the Modified Quarantine program has allowed 134 students identified as close contacts to attend classes in person rather than quarantine at home for ten days - in aggregate providing 1,340 days of in-seat classroom instruction that would otherwise have been missed. The elementary and middle school masking requirement is a critical component of our Modified Quarantine program. If students were not masked while at recess, we would need to find a way to keep track of which students were in proximity to whom, for how long, and whether they were wearing masks - and those who were in contact without masks, as well as those who were in contact and whose mask wearing we could not verify, would need to quarantine at home rather than being allowed to continue to attend school.

Again, a required component of the Modified Quarantine is that the school must be able to state positively that both the infected child and the child identified as a close contact were correctly wearing masks the entire time of the close contact exposure.

We all look forward to a time when we do not have to be concerned about COVID in our community and schools and when COVID restrictions are in the rear-view mirror. We appreciate your assistance in getting to that point as quickly and safely as possible, and in maximizing students’ opportunities to be in person on our campuses in the meantime.

Please watch our next Board of Education meeting on November 17 and future editions of the Superintendent Newsletter for any announcements about changing COVID-related practices in MBUSD, including any changes to the outdoor masking requirement.
mom in class
School Volunteers

As part of our efforts to provide as normal a school year as possible, we are thrilled to be welcoming back parent volunteers to campuses, and many thanks to those of you assisting in our schools. Volunteers must be vaccinated, and school site masking rules apply. Beyond assisting in work rooms, volunteers are helping with outdoor projects, programs and activities, in school libraries (two at a time), and in classrooms (one at a time) at principal and teacher discretion. We will continue to monitor conditions and look forward to further expanding volunteer opportunities.
United Against Hate Week

The LA County Office of Education joins the LA County Commission on Human Relations, and the LA vs Hate program to launch United Against Hate Week November 14-20. In honor of this, non-profit South Bay Cares is organizing a sidewalk chalk campaign against ALL hate across the three beach cities of Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach and Redondo Beach. Each city will be hosting its own sidewalk chalk event featuring a design by a local artist where the community is invited to participate. Derek Billings, an MBMS Dad and local artist, has designed the art which will be featured. Manhattan Beach will be leading the charge with the event on Sunday, November 14 from 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. at Polliwog Park. The Manhattan Beach chalk design will be a message especially meaningful to middle schoolers, who are becoming more aware of their own identities, serving as a visual symbol of support if they are experiencing identity-based bullying. South Bay Cares invites all Manhattan Beach families and community members to join in coloring-in this sidewalk chalk design. Click here for the flyer. Remember, you can confidentially report any hate incidents online or call 211.

Thanks for reading and enjoy the beautiful weekend.
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John Bowes, Ed.D.
MBUSD Superintendent
Manhattan Beach Unified School District

325 S. Peck Avenue
Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
310.318.7345