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FEATURED COLUMNIST On Graduation, Summer School and Fall Options
Q&A With Dr. Michelle Rodriguez, Superintendent, Pajaro Valley Unified School District
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Will students be subjected to COVID testing when they return full-time? Many, many parents are against this.
Currently, the only students required to test are student athletes who are playing a sport not allowed in the current tier.
For example, indoor basketball cannot be played until we reach the yellow tier unless we engage in surveillance testing for those athletes.
Since we are currently in the orange tier, any basketball player who wishes to participate must be tested. No other students are being required to test for COVID-19 through the school district.
Will there be the opportunity for students ages 12-15 to receive the COVID-19 vaccine?
Yes, we are working with the Dominican Hospital and the Santa Cruz County Office of Education to provide the COVID-19 vaccine once approved for 12–15-year-old students.
According to U.S. health officials, the Food and Drug Administration is expected to authorize the use of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for 12- to 15-year-olds within the next few days.
The approval is anticipated after the vaccine was found to be safe, effective and produced a robust antibody responses in 12- to 15-year-olds in a clinical trial.
Why are you providing vaccines to your high school students?
PVUSD has placed the health and safety of students, staff and the community as our number one priority throughout this pandemic.
We believe that all staff, eligible students and community members should have access to the vaccine so they can choose what is best for them and their families.
The availability of the vaccine will also reduce the potential impact of COVID-19 on children as they attend summer school, camps and return to full time in-person instruction in the fall.
What is the plan for summer school?
At PVUSD we are committed to providing a summer school experience that allows the student opportunities to connect, accelerate, recover, and engage in project-based learning. For that reason, we have increased our programming and will have two sessions planned for summer school for students.
The first session is from June 14-July 9 and is available to all K-12 students but held at five sites including Aptos Jr. High, Alianza Charter, Pajaro Middle School, Rolling Hills Middle School and WCSA.
The second session is from July 14-Aug. 4 and will be available at all school sites and for all K-12 students.
All families should have received an infographic with all of the summer school information earlier this week. Here is the link in English: https://drive.google.com/ file/d/10-eQMOT_wTVx5m8DwgOc4aUYYTweUEok/view and Spanish: https://www.pvusd.net/pf4/cms2/ news_themed_display?id=1620119047510.
Will a hybrid option or distance learning with PVUSD teacher (not virtual academy) still be an option for those families that may still wish to do so in the fall because of the pandemic?
Parents will have the option of having their children attend the PVUSD Virtual Academy. To provide a higher level of choice in distance learning options, we will offer 2 pathways at the K-8 grade levels for the 2021-2022 school year: Pathway 1: 100% Independent Study
Model with learning coach at home / Meet once a week with supervising teacher / Complete all course work online Pathway 2: 50% Independent Study Model with learning coach at home — complete coursework online / Meet once a week with supervising teacher / 50% Direct Instruction Virtual Classes (10 hrs/week) for academic acceleration, intervention, peer collaboration and socialization; current K-5 schedule: K-5 DL Pathway Schedule. For grades 9-12, weekly direct instruction tutoring is offered in all subjects; current 9-12 schedule: Weekly Tutoring Schedule
Does MacQuiddy Elementary have a graduation date yet?
Yes. We have the times and dates for all our elementary promotions. Parents should receive more information directly from their school site in the coming weeks. (Editor’s note: Mar Vista: Friday, June 4 at 9:30 a.m. on the field • Rio Del Mar: Friday, June 4, at 9:30 a.m. on the blacktop • Valencia: Friday, June 4, at 9:30 a.m. on outdoor stage on the blacktop)
For the 2021-22 school year it has been stated that we as a district will continue to adhere to 3 foot distancing in all classrooms. I am wondering how this will work, there are several schools that have no space available to them. Will they have to commandeer multipurpose rooms, gyms and libraries to have a place to put the newly formed classrooms? If so, how will our libraries continue to operate? We know that students have not been reading during the pandemic, many studies have shown that they have fallen behind.
If we have to temporarily close our school libraries how will students get books. Libraries are an essential part of our student’s education not only for the books they hold but for the people who staff them. They were deemed essential during the pandemic and now what will they be?
As noted in the last Ask Dr. Rodriguez, we have measured all classrooms at each site to ensure we have the space necessary to have full day in-person learning and maintain the three-foot distancing.
While we will use every classroom space and use the gyms/multipurpose rooms for physical education, we will not have to use our library space for ongoing classroom needs.
I would like to know why Pajaro
School has a dress code, if other Jr.
High Schools don’t. My niece was a student at Ohlone School and now
Pajaro, and they are the only schools with a dress code. It is very depressing to only be allowed to wear black, white and grey. I understand the reason why no red or blue, but pink, yellow, mint, are amazing colors. Please advise. Thank you.
Originally, the dress code was a proposal by the Pajaro Middle School Site Council. About three years ago, the uniform policy was again brought to the School Site Council.
The majority voted to keep the uniforms; however, they decided that the best course of action was to allow all parents to vote during registration when all parents could participate.
The overwhelming response by families was to maintain the dress code.
