October Community Newsletter
Important Dates
10/7: Special Education Parent Connection Meeting
10/10: Trustee Bell Office Hours at Sassarini
10/10: Trustee Kelly Office Hours at El Verano
10/10: SVUSD Regular Board Meeting
10/14: Indigenous Peoples' Day, Non-Student Day
10/15: School Consolidation Committee Meeting
10/18: SVHS Homecoming Football Game
10/21-10/25: Conference Week (grades K-8)
10/25 & 10/26: Portrait of a Graduate Guiding Coalition #3
10/29: SVUSD Study Session Board Meeting
10/31: Trustee Landry Office Hours at Altimira |
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Message from the Superintendent
Dear Families and Community,
We want to take the opportunity to appreciate our School Administrators and Transportation staff this month for their dedication and commitment to making our students’ school experience a positive one. Every staff member contributes to the overall experience of our students. SVUSD is also continuing our visioning process and are getting closer to completing our Portrait of A Graduate, Adult and System. We are in the process of getting input on a draft of ideas and ask that you participate by filling out the survey under the Guiding Coalition section of this newsletter. We are excited to see the final product and begin a comprehensive strategic planning process aligned to these portraits. We also really need your input as we are in the midst of a school consolidation process. This is not an ideal situation, but due to several factors such as declining enrollment, budget challenges, and running underutilized schools, the Board of Trustees is faced with making some extremely difficult decisions. We want to ensure that we provide quality programs, and continue to provide social emotional support and extra-curricular activities by allocating our resources efficiently and to best serve our students. We have held three Town Hall meetings this week to gather input, concerns and questions. We want to ensure we get to hear from you and have put together a brief survey where you can provide your thoughts and questions. We invite you to visit our School Consolidation webpage to get more information and see responses to Frequently Asked Questions. As we continue to get information and questions, we will update this page. The QR code below will lead you to this survey. Other opportunities for you to share your thoughts are attending a Board Study Session on October 29th at 4:00 p.m and Board Regular Meeting on November 14th at 5:00 p.m. We understand this is an emotional and challenging time. Ultimately, we want to improve the educational experiences of our students and create opportunities for sustainability and growth.
Jeanette Rodriguez-Chien, Superintendent
School Consolidation Input Survey
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Kindness Campaign in Action!
October is National Bullying Awareness Month. During this month we want to recognize the importance of kind and inclusive actions to prevent bullying. At our school sites, we will be launching a Caught Being Kind month in which our staff will be looking to recognize students for kind actions with our PBIS positive tickets. Additionally, we will be hosting a student-led Kindness Spirit Week during the Week of October 14th. We hope everyone will participate and help spread kindness across our district!
Awareness on the Integral Role that Reporting Plays in Prevention
As we move through the school year, we also want to take this opportunity to remind our students and families that in Sonoma Valley, we have tools for reporting threats, mistreatment, and safety concerns. For imminent safety concerns, we encourage our families to call 911. Additionally, Sonoma Valley Unified School District uses STOPiT, an anonymous reporting system, that immediately notifies school staff of a concern so we can act quickly to address the concern and ensure safety. Students and families can also reach out to trusted adults on campus. While there are multiple ways to make reports, we want to reiterate the importance for our students and families to be proactive and “if you see, hear, or read something, say something.” We take all reports seriously and work collaboratively with law enforcement to investigate all concerns to ensure the safety of our school communities.
In addition to the importance of reporting, we also want to bring attention to the importance of digital literacy and families being informed of how students are accessing social media. Often, our students are the first to hear or see online threats or acts of mistreatment and we need to stress the importance of reporting, even if they are unsure whether what they are seeing is credible. If your child has access to social media, please talk with them about the importance of saying something to a trusted adult if they are seeing anything concerning online. The Sonoma County Office of Education has shared the following resources for helping our children with being safe online.
-NetSmartz Internet Safety Resources for Students, Parents, Guardians, & Community
-Common Sense Media: Parenting, Media, and Everything in Between
Mental Health Supports and Resources
In September, our district recognized Suicide Prevention Month. All SVUSD students in grades 7, 9, 11 participated in classroom lessons to raise awareness around suicide prevention and the resources available to support mental health. As a reminder, we have free and confidential mental health support and resources available for all SVUSD students. Students and/ or families may reach out to their school and request support. All school campuses are supported through a combination of support staff including school counselors, school psychologists, and clinical staff including social workers and therapists. Clinical staff collaborate with school site staff and community partners to deliver mental health services to students in need of further support including individual and group therapy as well as assessment and case management. For additional resources, visit our Community Resource page. In the matter of a mental health crisis, please call or text 988 for immediate support. |
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SVHS Alumni receive the 2024 American FFA Degree
Three Alumni of the class of 2022, Brylee Aubin, Corrine Gilman, and George Storck are all recipients of the 2024 American FFA Degree. Each one of these students has gone above and beyond with their various agriculture endeavors. Ranging from poultry care and management, ag mechanics fabrication of projects, raising cattle, and other various livestock to be shown and sold at the Sonoma County Fair. These students are all working on pursuing their education, and working in the trades or continuing their livestock endeavors. We are beyond proud and honored to call them members, alumni, and now American Degree Recipients.
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Portrait of a Graduate, Guiding Coalition Update
Our Guiding Coalition, made up of staff, students, families and community members met last month to continue on our strategic planning/visioning process. Here are some highlights:
-Explored three different schools across the county to rethink the school day;
-Listened to a student panel reflect on school experience;
-Collaborated around themes to ideate around our Portrait of a Graduate, Portrait of an Adult and Portrait of a System.
The next stage of this journey includes asking input from YOU on the emerging themes which will inform our final portraits. We need your feedback in our visioning process for all students across Sonoma Valley. Please take a moment to complete the survey (approximately 15 minutes). The survey is open October 4th-14th.
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Celebrating our Staff!
October 13-19, 2024 is the Week of the School Administrator
In observance of the importance of educational leadership at the school and district level, Sonoma Valley Unified School District officially designates October 13-19, 2024, as the “Week of the School Administrator”. SVUSD recognizes our administrators for their continued commitment to providing outstanding services to the youth of the Sonoma Valley towards successful student achievement.
October 21-25, 2024 is National School Bus Safety Week
During the week of October 21-25, 2024, schools around the country will recognize “National School Bus Safety Week”, celebrating the theme: "My School Bus, The Safest Form of Student Transportation!” The Sonoma Valley Unified School District Community observes “National School Bus Safety, and during this week honors the District’s school bus and small vehicle drivers.
Website Update
We’re excited to announce that the new SVUSD website platform is now live! A big thank you to our IT department for their hard work and dedication in making this transition a success. Explore the updated site for enhanced features and easier navigation! Visit our new website at www.sonomaschools.org.
Special Education Parent Connection Meeting
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Sonoma County SELPA Community Advisory Committee (CAC) Meeting
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Reminder to Complete the Alternative Income Form for Free & Reduced LunchAlthough all meals, breakfast and lunch, continue to be free to all students, we still ask that all caregivers fill out an alternative income form. The alternative income form affects the amount of funding that the district will receive from the state and is used to determine eligibility for free or reduced bus passes, Boys and Girls Club, and EBT cards. The form can be filled out by clicking here.
A Big Thank you to our Community Partners!
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