PVUSD Superintendent: Tests, Masks, Subs & Graduation Dates, Q&A

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PVUSD Superintendent: Tests, Masks, Subs & Graduation Dates

Q&A With Dr. Michelle Rodriguez, Superintendent, Pajaro Valley Unified School District

I heard that the District is providing antigen tests for after the break. Where do I pick them up?

Unlike during winter break, we received these antigen tests from the State prior to our release for spring break. Therefore, we will be able to provide the antigen tests to the students through their individual school sites.

All PVUSD students will receive their antigen tests from their school on Wednesday, March 30. There will not be additional locations to pick up antigen tests.

Do we have to take the antigen tests and who do I give the results to?

We are highly recommending but are not requiring all students and staff to take these antigen tests. We are recommending they take the first test on Friday, April 8, and the second test on Sunday, April 10.

You are not asked to provide the results to the school site if you have a negative result. However, if your child or a staff member has a positive result, they should quarantine and contact their school site.

You sent out a survey about a new nine-hour day. This is too much! Why are you doing this?

The Expanded Learning Opportunities Program provides funding for all California public schools, including PVUSD, to offer enrichment programs before school, after school and non-school days.

The focus of these learning programs is to develop the academic, social-emotional, and physical needs and interests of students through hands-on, engaging learning experiences.

The programs will be student-centered, results-driven and may include community partners. These programs are optional for students and families, however, a school district must provide at least 9 hours of regular-day instructional time and expanded learning opportunities every day. These programs will be offered before school, after school, or a combination of both.

Additionally, PVUSD must also provide the program opportunities for at least 30 additional days during summer, winter and/or spring breaks. While this will not be a needed resource for some students and their families, we do believe that these programs will be valuable for many of our families who desire additional enrichment programs for their children before or after school.

The survey was released to ensure that we include the voice of our students, staff and families in the development of these opportunities. PVUSD is planning for students to experience a safe and supportive environment, where they are active and engaged in their learning, can build meaningful skills, can participate in leadership activities, and are offered venues to address cultural and linguistic diversity with an equity lens.

I missed the first LCAP Meeting.

When will you have another meeting?

We look forward to hearing from more students, staff and families during two additional scheduled LCAP meetings on April 18 and April 25 from 6:30-7:30 p.m. and can be assessed through this link: https://tinyurl.com/ydfgovtm.

Thank you for your working with PVFT and the board to draft a resolution on behalf of the district strongly recommending that staff and students continue to wear masks and educate students and families about the importance of doing so after the mask mandate was lifted. However, I have been disheartened at how widely that “strong recommendation” is being interpreted by district staff, especially some in positions of leadership. I fully understand that staff cannot request students to wear masks, nor should we request colleagues to do so. But shouldn’t administrators and health educators be following the resolution? This week we had a staff meeting and our (otherwise fabulous) administrator did not wear a mask while leading the meeting. Also, this week we had a vision and hearing screening at our site and the nurses did not wear masks. And today a colleague attended a professional development training at the district office and the presenters were not wearing masks. All three of these situations involved district leaders who were clearly disregarding the intent of the board’s resolution. This gives a mixed message to students and staff alike, and certainly to families who come on campus.

Do we or you have any recourse to ask administrators, medical professionals and professional development presenters to model the intent of the resolution?

As the author of the resolution, I do model the behavior of wearing a face mask while on school sites or while I am indoors at PVUSD buildings with other people.

All staff members including administrators and health care staff have the same option as all other staff of making the choice to wear a mask or not.

How is this district helping support staff and students impacted by staffing issues?

This has been a challenging year for vacancies, which is why we did place all of our Teachers on Special Assignment within the classrooms to fill the vacancies at the beginning of the year.

In addition, we increased our substitute rate with PVUSD paying substitutes significantly more than other districts in our county resulting in a larger substitute pool.

PVUSD daily rate is $180 compared to the average daily substitute rate in Santa Cruz County of $130. Previously, PVUSD paid long-term substitutes $200 after 10 consecutive days, compared to $185 for Santa Cruz County after 20 consecutive days.

In an effort to obtain more long- term substitutes, on Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2021, the Board approved our recommendation and PVUSD now pays long-term substitutes at the rate of $240 a day after 10 consecutive days.

District Administration, including myself, continues to substitute for teacher and staff vacancies throughout the District with a focus on Mondays and Fridays when absences are higher.

We are seeing a positive impact of the new signing bonuses with many new teaching contracts signed already for the 2022-2023 school year. We are all doing our part to provide the best education for our students.

When will Aptos High have a new cell tower? We were assured in September, by Sheriff Hart, that this was a main priority for AHS but 7 months later, we are still waiting.

PVUSD is in communication with the major cellular carriers to investigate options to deploy cellular infrastructure that would provide better cell coverage at Aptos High.

Although the design, application, environmental impact evaluation, and permit process may take a long time for these types of installations, there is one project through AT&T that has already begun.

It is still in the early stages but we are hopeful that it will progress and eventually be installed. PVUSD remains vigilant in doing what we are able to do to speed up and advocate for faster processes, we are in the midst of deploying additional outdoor wifi infrastructure to expand the district wireless network in outdoor areas at Aptos High.

This will allow staff and students to have a stronger network/Internet connection in more outdoor spaces across campus for text communication and wifi calling.

The children at Freedom School used to have access to the courts to play basketball and to the grass field to play soccer and run laps around. My son tells me that there is a fence that prohibits them from entering those areas and that during breaks it is difficult to find areas to play soccer with his friends. It is understood that during construction the area will be fenced off to protect students. Is that fence going to be removed so that the children can use those areas during their breaks as before?

The fence that separates the soccer field from Freedom Elementary’s playground is there as a permanent barrier to provide safety during non-school hours. Fence gates will open during school hours for students to access the field once the field grass is ready for use.

Mr. Morales, Freedom’s principal, will continue to keep students, parents, and staff updated on the timeline for the completion of the field project.

As we’re nearing the 4th quarter of the 2021-2022 school year, when will we receive information about graduation ceremonies for the individual school sites?

High Schools throughout PVUSD have now completed their final plans for the in-person graduations for our 2022 seniors. Some of the sites have already informed their parents of the dates and times of their graduations.

June 2 is the date for Aptos Junior High, 11 a.m., and Aptos High, 4 p.m., both ceremonies at Cabrillo.

I filled an intra- district interest form online. When will I be notified if it was accepted or placed on a waiting list? Should

I email someone specifically to ask?

If you submitted your intradistrict transfer form during the Open Enrollment timeframe (Nov. 29 – Jan. 28), you should have already been notified. If you completed the online form after Jan. 28, you should have been notified by March 14.

If you have not heard anything please contact Rick Ito, Director of Student Services, at 831-786-2390 ext. 2601. n