August 11, 2020
Hello Dunham Families,
I hope everyone is doing well and staying healthy. The first day of school is quickly approaching and I’d like to share with you some information and important dates as we get ready for the start of the school year. As you know, we will start the school year off in distance learning per the criteria shared by Governor Newsom on July 17. Even before the Governor’s announcement, the staff at Dunham had been working diligently to build a stronger program to better meet the needs of our students, families and staff if the possibility of distance learning was to happen again.
There is more information to come but I wanted to share some of the more common points of interest that are on people’s minds.
First Day of School: August 24
Improved program will include:
- Daily live interaction with teacher and peers
- Content aligned to grade level standards
- High quality and intellectual challenging instruction
- Grading and feedback
- Progress monitoring
- Assessments
- Intervention
- Support for English learners, students with disabilities, and foster youth/ homeless students
- Social/emotional support
- Whole class, small group, 1 on 1 instruction, and independent work
- Daily attendance taken
Daily minimum instructional minutes:
- TK-K 180 minutes
- 1st-3rd 230 minutes
- 4th-6th 240 minutes
Conferences: Teachers will be holding virtual conferences at the start of the school year to meet their new students and share information about their classes with parents.
Platforms: Seesaw (TK-2nd), Google Applications, and Zoom (TK-6th)
Schedules: We are finalizing daily classroom schedules and will have them available by the end of the week.
Initial materials pick up: Our initial materials pick will be on Wednesday, August 19, from 2:00-7:00pm and on Thursday, August 20, from 4:00pm-7:00pm. It will be a drive through style pick up and there will be more information to come this week about it.
Weekly material drop off/pick up: Starting on September 2nd , materials drop off and pick up will be weekly, every Wednesday from 2:00-7:00pm. More information will follow on the procedures for the weekly drop off/pick up.
Classroom supplies for at home learning: The school will provide families with the supplies needed for the lessons being taught. Supplies will be sent home at pick ups as needed.
School supplies donation list: This list will be shared by the school in an effort to gather donations for school supplies for when students return to school. This list will be made available soon.
Technology: We have reached out to our Dunham families to assess their technology needs and are working to ensure that every student has an appropriate device (Chromebook, laptop or desktop) and connection to the internet during school days and hours.
Parent resources: We are currently creating a resource page for parents that will include tutorials, support, and applicable information.
Passwords: We have created universal passwords for every student. This means that your student would use the same username and password to login into things like Google, Lexia, and Dreambox. This was a big undertaking that we hope will make life a little bit easier at home.
Hybrid model: When we are able to safely return to on-site instruction Dunham will be following the Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday A.M. / P.M. cohorts model (Wednesdays: distance learning for all).
Q&A parent night: Mr. Hoffman will be holding a question and answer night via Zoom during the week before school starts. More information about this event will be shared in the coming days.
This evening, August 11, at 6:30pm (Open Session), there is a Board Meeting. At this meeting, I will be sharing our Plan for reopening School to students once it is deemed safe as well the new guidelines for distance learning that Dunham will be implementing to ensure greater student support and success.
Here is the Zoom information for the Board Meeting:
Join Zoom Meeting:
https://zoom.us/j/95996232756?pwd=a1hMZWFtQ0NYTTg3SDA0d3pJNE1ldz09
Meeting ID: 959 9623 2756
Passcode: 851616
- When it comes time to make public comments, per the agenda, use the “Raise your hand” functionality. The attendees will be called upon, their microphone unmuted, and then allowed to make their statement for up to two minutes. At the end of the two minutes, the attendee’s microphone will be muted and the next participant will be called upon.
- Speakers must be present in the Zoom meeting when their name is called in order to be given an opportunity to address the Board.
- Speakers need to rename their Zoom profile to their real name (first and last) to be allowed into the meeting from the Zoom “lobby.”
- Speakers are requested to state their name prior to addressing the Board.
- After a speaker completes their public comment or if the two-minute speaker time limit has been reached, the microphone for the speaker’s Zoom profile will be muted.
Also attached is a draft of the Reopening School Master Plan. This plan contains the guidelines we would follow when students are able to come back on to campus for on-site, in-person learning.
Thank you for your patience in this process. It has been a big undertaking and the staff at Dunham has risen to the challenges and opportunities before us. It is going to be a great year regardless. The staff is anxious to get working with the kids again.
Take care and stay safe.
Daniel Hoffman
Superintendent / Principal
