Dear MTUESD Community,
We are swiftly approaching school start and I moving in to my permanent place tomorrow and unpacking boxes, so this message will find you a bit early.
I am excited to welcome your students back to school with our administrative team of Carri Penafiel and Sara Tutthill and our staff on August 14. We are excited to see your students!
This summer has been a busy one with maintenance projects on-gong. We will continue our refresh of the campuses right up until August 13. I would like to thank Ken Malvini for his coordination with vendors on these projects and his crew. The Mark Twain cafeteria is scheduled to be repainted on the lower walls to the wainscoting and also the floors refinished. The pressure washing, particularly on the bathroom tile floors, is making the site look so much better. I learned when I arrived there was pizza on the ceiling from a food fight. It's down now, and please be assured that behavior will not be allowed, tolerated or condoned. We treat our spaces and our students with a culture of respect.
Custodians have done an outstanding job at Copper refreshing the site along with the insurance contractors. We will be getting a flooring price for the linoleum in the portable bathroom. We are still troubleshooting the two AC units that serve the main gym at Copper but the other two units carry the load and keep everyone cool while we resolve this issue.
We thank the Calaveras County Office Tech Team as they began the wiring for the installation of the cameras and the vape detectors. The vape detectors have an app that is installed on various staff email and phones. When it goes off, we are able to respond. Does it stop vaping? No. Does it make it harder and get it out of the bathrooms so kids can go use the facilities without worrying about it? Yes! Please talk with your student about not using at school, if you believe they may be experimenting. If you aren’t familiar with the wide variety of vapes and what they look like, come talk to me. If your student is offering to get the mail frequently (and they didn’t used to) and are requesting Amazon cards, those are two key signs of mail order vaping by kids. Ask for help, and we can support you.
The painting bids are scheduled to be received August 5. The board will review the bids at the August 8 board meeting and per public bidding guidelines, if the Board decides to move forward, the award is given to the lowest qualified bidder for the contract. This is for a full exterior repaint at both sites. The colors will be determined. We need to go fairly light color on the buildings, especially at Copper, so we don’t increase the heat. The trim color can be more saturated. Let me know your suggestions!
We are still searching for some great classified staff and bus drivers. Please contact Lisa Stewart at lstewart@mtwain.k12.ca.us to learn about opportunities in the district. Please forgive the incorrect QR code on the jobs banner. Those were ordered late in the end of year transition and there was a mix up on the QR code. Please come into the office and visit and learn more about the positions.
A huge shout out to interim city manager, Steve, who came and walked the cross walks with me. PLEASE be aware that the four-way stop is going to take a little getting used to! Steve pledged the crosswalks would be freshly repainted and the signs in before school starts. We appreciate that partnership! THANK YOU!
I would like to thank the middle school team for their work on the new schedule. This is referred to as a “waterfall schedule” and the intention is to make sure that students are at their peak learning times for all classes throughout the week. It is a little bit different and will take a little getting used to you, but just hang in there. The team decided last Spring this would provide an important opportunity for all kids to have classes at optimum time of day by rotating them. If any of you are Bret Harte alumni, you may remember this schedule from your high school years.
I appreciate everyone’s time and energy and the warm welcome, as I have on-boarded. It has been terrific! One thing I do want to review is to please if you have concerns or suggestions about your student’s program to first always reach out to the teacher so they have an opportunity to address it. If you don’t receive the collaboration that you are seeking, then involve the site principal, and finally, don’t hesitate to reach out to me if the satisfactory resolution cannot be achieved. Our local teachers and leaders are committed to working as partners with you and creating solutions, and we hope that by following this progression, we can address any issues swiftly and do our very best for kids!
In many of the conversations with staff and adults and some kids too, particularly at Mark Twain, the idea that the “rules” are not explicitly taught to students has been brought up repeatedly. The staff will be working on uniform expectations and communicating them to the students so there is no ambiguity. We are actively seeking parent volunteers to pledge to temporarily support yard duty on a regular day during school to get us off to a good start for a brief period while we try and hire some yard coverage! Contact the site principal if you may be interested. We have a 10 minute training that will be needed for that as we kick off school.
I also want to take a minute to talk about social media. In my last district, when I arrived, there was a real culture of posting negative issues on social media before talking with the people involved. We unwound that and got to a much nicer place where everyone could be upfront about their concerns and suggestions and it worked out to be pretty magical when we all could visit in a room and work things out. As a courtesy, before you post on social media, I request that you reach out to the teacher or the administrator or me so that we have an opportunity to work things out. It's such a different culture now with an audience at our fingertips. The mutual respect of an in-person or phone conversation is greatly appreciated and valued and usually results in a faster and more collaborative outcome.
Regarding the ELOP program, hang in there just a few more days. THIS IS A MADDENINGLY COMPLICATED state program, and we need to get it right, not fast. We will have more information out shortly. Please keep in mind that enrollment is based on a series of criteria. Even if you have turned in your paperwork, enrollment is not guaranteed. Please keep an eye out for a message soon with updated information and times.
For our SDC K-3 families, I want to assure you that we did hire a teacher and we will be pairing the new teacher with the veteran teacher for support. We are excited to welcome them!
I don't know about you, but I am getting excited for school start! Good things coming for kids...
Sincerely yours,
Louise Simson, Superintendent
650-996-3290