LASD Board Highlights

You may also read the Board Highlights on our homepage in the "Latest Headlines" section.

Para traducir, haga clic en el enlace "Ver en el navegador", luego haga clic en el enlace Traducir al final del boletín.

要进行翻译，请单击“在浏览器中查看”链接，然后单击新闻稿末尾的翻译链接

Чтобы перевести, нажмите ссылку «Просмотреть в браузере», затем нажмите ссылку «Перевести» в конце бюллетеня.

翻訳するには、「ブラウザで表示」リンクをクリックしてから、ニュースレターの最後にある翻訳リンクをクリックしてください

If you missed the meeting, you can view the video here. The highlights of the meeting are below.

Los Altos Art Docent Coordinator, Kimberly Dickerson, presented information to the Board of Trustees regarding the amazing work the organization is doing to support a robust art program for all students in our schools. Celebrating its 50 year Anniversary, volunteers with the Los Altos Art Docents have come up with amazingly creative ways to adapt art curriculum in our distance learning environment. Our students are experiencing even more creative opportunities in this unusual school year thanks to their commitment to providing rich art lessons to all students. The Art Docents have revamped existing lessons to fit the distance learning model. Additionally, they are creating new grade-level lessons to bolster the offerings available to all students this year. To honor the 50 Year Anniversary, the Art Docents provided a wonderful sketch book to every single LASD student, which includes dozens of prompts to encourage creativity. For more information, check out the Los Altos Art Docent video below and review item H.1. on our agenda online.

The Board unanimously approved the Learning Continuity and Attendance Plan for LASD. The plan set forth LASD's actions in Spring 2020 in the distance learning environment, as well as goals and plans for the current school year regarding stakeholder engagement, distance learning, student assessments to prevent learning loss, social-emotional well-being, school nutrition services and more.

For more information, please check out item H.3. on our agenda online, including the approved LCAP plan.

Monday marked the first day of students returning to our campuses, as students enrolled in Special Day Class began in-person learning. Reports from the first day were very positive, with students wearing masks, remaining physically distanced and learning about new procedures through school walk throughs. Despite these new challenges to the school experience, students were excited to learn and see their friends and teachers once again. The next wave of students to return to campus are Transitional Kindergarten through 1st Grade students, who will return in our Blended Learning format on October 12.

Please see below for the schedule of target dates for the subsequent return of other grade levels, in addition to the deadlines to switch the program for your student to Virtual or Blended.

For more information, check out item H.2. on our agenda online.

This year, the Los Altos School District Board of Trustees adopted a new Equity Policy to "eradicate institutional bias of any kind, including implicit or unintentional biases and prejudices that affect student achievement, and to eliminate disparities in educational outcomes for students from historically underserved and underrepresented populations.”

To ensure the policy is implemented quickly and uniformly across the district, the district formed an Equity Task Force to contribute meaningfully to this work by providing commentary, critical feedback, and recommendations regarding the ongoing implementation of the LASD equity policy. The Equity Task Force will meet approximately once per month. To ensure full representation and inclusion on the committee, the Task Force will begin recruiting members from the parent and staff community as participants in this critical work.

We believe the LASD Equity Task Force is a critical step forward to ensuring our school district community reflects our values and commitment to diversity, anti-racism and inclusion, as well as recognizing the importance of the Black Lives Matter movement to ensure justice and equality for all.

If you are interested in participating as a member of the Equity Task Force, please look for an application form from your Principal in the coming days.

For more information check out item H.4. on our agenda online.

As we move forward in this unusual school year to reopen our campuses, we are grateful for the partnership of our teachers and staff. We greatly appreciate their dedication to our students' success and their excellent work providing continuity in the academic experience in distance learning and soon, once again in the classroom. The Board unanimously approved new Memorandums of Understanding with both of our employee organizations. The health and safety of our staff and students is a top priority. We thank our teachers and staff for their collaboration in creating the plan to move ahead to safely and responsibly reopen our schools.

For more information please see items H.5 and H.6. on our agenda online.

The next meeting of the Los Altos School District Board of Trustees will take place on Monday, October 12 at 7:00pm via Zoom. To attend the meeting please visit our Board web page and register for the meeting using the provided link. The link will be posted on Thursday at 5:00pm the week prior to each meeting.

If you would like to stay updated regarding upcoming Board meetings, please email mbirnie@lasdschools.org, providing your name, email address and a request to be added to the email list for Brown Act updates, including upcoming meetings and agendas.

Website: www.lasdschools.org
Location: 201 Covington Road
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LASDK8/