May 13, 2020 - Staff Digest

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Dear SFUSD Staff:

I know there are many questions about when school buildings will reopen. In addition to public health, there are many factors we must consider when returning to in-person instruction. 

We are actively working to create and implement a plan that considers the best available expert guidance and input from all of our community, including our staff and our families. Although there are many challenges and unknowns ahead, we have come this far by working together and we will continue to collaborate with grace and compassion in order to serve each and every one of our students.

Employee Meal Pickup for Delivery to SFUSD Students

Student Nutrition Services (SNS) recognizes that some families may experience challenges in picking up at one of our 18 meal sites. Many SFUSD teachers and staff have expressed interest in delivering to students. Any SFUSD employee can sign up to pick up meals for students they have identified as needing delivery, but we ask that you manage all logistics and communication associated with delivery. Learn more about the process to request meals for pickup at Mission High School in our SFUSD Employee Meal Pick-up Guide.

SNS also operates a door-to-door delivery program for students with disabilities or special dietary needs. If you’d like to volunteer as a delivery driver, sign up here! Please email SchoolLunch@sfusd.edu with any questions. Thank you for all that you are doing to support SFUSD students!

No Meal Pickup on Memorial Day, May 25 

On Monday, May 25, SFUSD meal sites will be closed for Memorial Day. To ensure families receive the same amount of food, a box with meals for 5 days will be distributed on Wednesday, May 20.  

These boxes will be 22x18x6 inches, and may be heavy. One box per child will be provided, up to 4 boxes per person picking up meals. Families are encouraged to plan in advance so they can transport their May 20th box with meals for 5 days home.

Ensuring Meals for Children at SFUSD Meal Sites

Student Nutrition Services is committed to ensuring that no child goes hungry and will provide free meals to all children in San Francisco while schools are closed. We will now be asking adults to provide the child's date of birth or school & age/grade when picking up meals. This verification step will help us to ensure that we are providing meals to children only. 

Eligible Families will Receive Additional Support through P-EBT

Families with children eligible for free or reduced-price school meals can receive additional support to purchase groceries through California’s Pandemic Emergency Benefits Transfer Program (P-EBT).Families with P-EBT eligible children that receive CalFresh, Medi-Cal, or Foster Care benefits do not need to apply for P-EBT benefits and will receive a P-EBT card with up to $365 for each eligible child. 

Other families receiving free or reduced-price school meal benefits but not on public benefit assistance will need to complete a short online application, which will be available starting May 22. The deadline to apply is June 30, 2020. These benefits do not replace emergency school meals. Families who receive these benefits can continue to pick up free meals at our school sites. Please email SchoolLunch@sfusd.edu with any questions.

Summer Learning 2020

In addition to remote learning summer programs for credit recovery and eligible students with IEPs, SFUSD will be providing summer programming for current Pre-Kindergarten families (who have a year round contract), as well as TK-5th grade students who currently are enrolled in Out of School Time (OST) Programs. Programs will be offered remotely and have a digital and non-digital format.

Technology Resources to Support Distance Learning

Does your student have a lost, stolen or non-working SFUSD device? You can exchange your device by appointment only.

Until the end of the school year, if students in grades 3-12 have a lost, stolen, damaged  or non-working device, families can submit a ticket through the Family Resource Link or call 415-340-1716. Once the ticket is received, a Department of Technology team member will assist with scheduling an appointment and next steps. Families must bring their damaged/non-working device to the appointment for exchange.

SFUSD cannot accept walk-ins for technology support or device replacement as our buildings are currently closed to the public.  

Share and View Teacher Created Resources

• Curriculum and Instruction and the Department of Technology have built a searchable repository of teacher-created resources to share districtwide. Here you can find curated school YouTube channels, web sites, technology tips, and slide decks to explore distance learning in SFUSD across grade levels and content areas. You can browse the current repository on the Instructional Resources page. 
• Because a community builds artifacts, this is also an invitation. If you know of an educator that has created a resource you think will benefit others, please invite them to add to our Teacher Created Resources form. After initial vetting, the resource will be posted to the district website.

Digital Learning Youtube Playlists

• Looking for additional resources to support digital distance learning? The Department of Technology has created a series of digital learning playlists to support distance learning. This resource will continue to grow and evolve, and currently contains playlists on video conferencing tools, Google Classroom and Seesaw for educators, other SFUSD tools and instructional strategies that support distance learning. You will also find a playlist with archive recordings of all digital learning webinars.
• Webinars and Professional Learning - Take advantage of Office Hours and webinars to help you make the most of digital learning.

Tips for Providing Student & Family Support

Harvard lecturer Uche Amaechi offers tips for supporting students during school closures:

• Know and understand the unique situations facing all your students and families. Every student is in a different place.
• “The better you know your population, the better that you know the needs and the variations in the needs of your population, the better you can serve them,” Amaechi says.
• Step into your students' world. While schools can’t control the learning environments right now, Amaechi advises to see the bright side and leverage this window into the students' world.
• As you attempt to integrate lessons at home for children, recognize there might be more opportunities to build connections to families and integrate learning at home. Use the learning environment that surrounds the child.

Let’s fight against this pandemic together with knowledge. Misinformation can cause fear and may even be potentially harmful. Publicly available information is often difficult to understand or is only available in a select few languages. To address this challenge, a group of medical students at UCSF have partnered to create this COVID-19 Fact Check, which provides credible information about the coronavirus in seven different languages.

Heal SF focuses on aligning resources and strategies while addressing policies and practices that would promote healing centering equity, reparation and social justice. Find resources to support mental health and healthy connections, including resources targeted to educators and school staff.

Thanks to an enormous collective effort, SFUSD deployed over 16,000 devices including Chromebooks and hotspots to support students’ distance learning for the remainder of the school year. Over 350 volunteers signed up to prep devices, support on-site deployment and deliver devices to students and families across the city. This effort made a significant difference to ensure that our students and teachers could digitally connect, so instruction and learning could continue for this year. 

Warm regards,
Superintendent Dr. Vincent Matthews