Message from Our Superintendent
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Greetings DUSD Families, Staff and Community,
I miss you all, and I have been reflecting on how much I miss our daily school routines. In their absence, I appreciate them now more than ever.
Early morning greetings in the staff lounge, conversing with parents, the regular ringing of bells, and mostly the sounds of our students' voices whether in the hallways during passing periods or at play during recess and lunchtimes. I miss the hustle and bustle, the high-fives, and the classroom visits to see our learning community in action.
As we enter week five of remote learning, I am even more impressed with our district's ability to continually innovate ways for our students, families, and staff to stay virtually connected. The way our community is working together to stay strong and support one another is being noticed beyond our district. In fact, it was nice to be recognized this week by the
California Department of Education (CDE) for seeing what we are accomplishing together.
If you are on Twitter, please help us to retweet their post here.
The contributions of our DUSD family are also helping those across our region. Hopefully, you saw that Mr. Ellison and his Beardslee Academy students are designing and producing life-saving face-shields that are being put to use right now by healthcare workers on the front lines in local hospitals. Read more about this incredible project below.
While we continue to do our best now to adapt our school routines and adhere to the Governor's "Stay-at-Home" order, we also need to keep our sites set on the future. When Governor Newsom shared the
six critical indicators
that he will consider before any modifications to lifting this order will be made, he also advised us to anticipate even if our schools reopen this Fall, it will not be with the same daily routines we had prior to COVID-19.
While we do not know what this new reality will look like yet, it is important for educational leaders to begin preparing for all possibilities now. My colleagues and I are following closely the work being done by our counterparts across the globe and specifically in Europe and Asia where they are lifting some of their physical distancing measures to reopen their schools.
If interested, find an article about this here.
We will continue to research and monitor their progress, but there are still many more questions than answers. As always, I will keep our community apprised of any new developments.
I can provide an answer, though, regarding how grades will be assigned to students for the remainder of this school year.
Based on the guidance provided by CDE, our district leadership team has formulated a process for Grades TK-12. The specifics of this plan will be communicated in detail to all of our students and parents this week by our Educational Services Department, School Administrators, and School Counselors. I am very proud that our team took the time and collaborated with our instructional leaders to create a forward-thinking plan that not only “holds all students harmless,” but also provides choice for our high school students through the creation of a hybrid system that allows students either the default of credit/no-credit or the option to receive letter-grades to be calculated for a GPA.
We recognize that learning will be different for each student, depending on circumstances that are outside of their control right now. Therefore, our grading policy is intended to hold students accountable for participation in the learning activities assigned by their teachers with empathy and understanding during this unprecedented time. This aligns well with our higher education partners also announcing more flexible admissions criteria.
More information about this can be found here.
I encourage all of our students to please stay engaged during distance learning, your teachers are monitoring your efforts, and we want you to continue to finish this year strong. I also want to acknowledge and congratulate our seniors on their college acceptances. The Class of 2020 has demonstrated excellence and we are very proud of you!
We do not know what the future has in store for our return to school next year. Still, we will continue to move forward, and it will take flexibility, innovation, and embracing another new and different way to how we operate. I have no doubt we are up to the challenge because of what we have accomplished together so far.
Please continue to regularly check the district website
duarteusd.org
and social media sites
@duarteusd
on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for updates. Thank you, have a good week, and be well everyone!
Best,
Gordon
Superintendent of Schools
Duarte Unified School District
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District Events Taking Place This Week
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Distance Learning Phase 2
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DUSD will provide distance learning for all students during the closure of our schools through May 28, 2020. Packet pick-up will be held on Monday, April 20, for students only if needed. Please follow all physical distancing directives that now include face coverings. Questions, please view our
Distance Learning Plan webpage
.
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During school closure, DUSD will provide free Grab-n-Go Meals for children 18 and under from 9:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. daily Monday through Friday at Andres Duarte Arts Academy, Maxwell Academy, and Royal Oaks STEAM Academy.
For more information, click here.
If you have questions, call (626) 599-5022.
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District and School Offices Closed
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Beardslee Face-Shields Protect Healthcare Warriors
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DUSD students at Beardslee Academy in Mr. Ellison's class have responded to the call for help from our medical community by designing and creating face-shields for healthcare workers on the front lines with their classroom 3-D printer!
TinkerCad, the software the classes have been using to create files for 3D printing, put out a call to all users to participate in manufacturing face shields for medical workers in our area. FlashForge, the manufacturer of the 3D printer also put out the same call.
Mr. Ellison was connected with Dr. Kim who works for a large health agency. She said she needed 40 face shields as soon as we could get them to her. Each shield is a two-hour print, so every hour Mr. Ellison was awake the printer was working.
The students were asked to make the designs and submit prototypes to personalize them. Some of their modifications are shown below. In the interest of getting the first-round of masks printed as quickly as possible, 40 of the basic face-shield were printed, assembled, and delivered to Dr. Kim on Monday, April 13, just one week after the notice they were needed was received. The students' designs are in the works now for the next batch. Mr. Ellison was resourceful and constructed the face-plate itself for each shield with old overhead projector clear plastic sheets with holes punched to fasten them onto the holder. The strap is a mini bungee cord. We thank the Duarte Education Foundation for the funds needed to purchase the 3-D printer that was provided earlier this school year through the mini-grants offered to teachers.
Dr. Kim shared the photo below and reports the face-shields are in use in hospitals now. We are filled with pride at how Mr. Ellison and his students met this call to action to help the healthcare workers combating COVID-19 on the front lines, and their work and creativity will save lives. Simply amazing!
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COVID-19 Safety and Public Health Information
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Please only refer to trusted public health sources for information and updates regarding COVID-19.
Find a listing here.
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Story Time with Our DUSD Family
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We are putting together a collection of stories read by our staff for our students to watch. You can view them on our
website
and on our social media sites. Check for new episodes often. We hope you enjoy them! If you are a DUSD staff member willing to record a story for us to add to our collection, please email
communications@duarteusd.org.
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DUSD Social Media Directory and Posts
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We have put together a
DUSD social media directory
of all the official sites operated by our district, schools, and staff for your convenience. We encourage you to follow these sites for important information and updates. Also, it's a great way to stay connected and to "see" our students as they participate in our schools' virtual spirit week activities and daily challenges. Staff, if you have a site that you would like added to our directory, please send an email to
communications@duarteusd.org
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Our Falcons are Getting Ready to Take Flight
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Congratulations to our
Duarte High School
Falcons on their college acceptances! We are very proud of you and excited for your next chapter! Seniors, please continue to share with us where you have received acceptances to by submitting the Google Form provided by your counselors. 👏🎓
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Distance Learning Enrichment Resources
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In addition to the learning assignments teachers have provided, our district has also put together a database of supplemental resources for all grades.
Click here to access this database.
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Need Tech Support? We're Here to Help You!
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If your student runs into any technical issues, please request assistance by using the tech support email address for your child’s school. The correct addresses are listed below:
Also, please remember that students should be checking their district-issued Outlook emails. If they need assistance reaching their Outlook emails,
click here
. Students should use Google Chrome to browse the internet and sign in using their district-issued email and passwords.
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Online Registration for Kindergarten & New Students is Still Open - Enroll Today
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If you have a child that will be ready to start Kindergarten or Transitional Kindergarten (TK) next school year, it's time to register! Please register online at
register.duarteusd.org
.
We will be developing a system to submit documents, and will notify you when that is available.
We offer full-day Kindergarten at all of our Academies, and TK is offered at Beardslee Dual Language Academy and Valley View Academy of Technology and Creative Learning. Students new to the district entering preschool - 12th Grade next school year are also encouraged to begin registering now.
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Keeping Hearts and Minds Connected
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We are creating lots of clever ways to connect with our students virtually, and our students are enjoying “seeing” our staff! We’d love to help share these digital well wishes, so please send to
communications@duarteusd.org
and/or tag
@duarteusd
on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Sending loads of virtual hugs to all in gratitude for helping to keep our community close in heart and mind, especially now.
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Duarte Counts! Census Information
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Download it Today for FREE
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Stay up to date with everything that is taking place at every school across our district by downloading the DUSD APP. Check your child's grades, attendance, lunch balances, sports scores, notices from teachers, calendar of events and more all in one place! Download our free app from the Apple App and Google Play Stores.
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School Flyers Available Via Email
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Save Paper & Stay Informed
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DUSD uses Peachjar to send home school-approved flyers digitally, saving our schools time and money while eliminating paper waste. This means that now our parents can opt to receive flyers via email.
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Submit Your Newsletter Ideas
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Have an idea, information or a suggestion for a story for our newsletter?
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DUARTE UNIFIED | 626.599.5000 | communications@duarteusd.org
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