Dear Bellflower Staff, Families and Community,

On behalf of the Board of Education, we are excited to officially welcome all students back to the 2022-23 school year. As you have read in our BUSD news, our Somerset Saints and BAE students have already been hard at work and we look forward to seeing the rest of our students on Thursday, August 11, 2022.

We are pleased to share that this year we will be increasing our Expanded Learning Programs at our elementary schools, enhancing our Career Technical Education (CTE) pathways at our high schools, and anticipate that the opening of our STEAM Building at Mayfair High School will occur later this fall. All of our classrooms have been equipped with ViewSonic boards that will help teachers enhance interactive instruction and all students will continue to have access to a Chromebook that may be used at home or school. We are also happy to share that we will be able to continue to provide free meals to ALL students in BUSD.

Although teaching and learning continues to be the main focus of our work in order to attain our mission to equip all students to be academically and socially prepared to be globally competitive, we also recognize that the mental wellness of our students and staff is also a priority. It is because of this that we have hired over 20 new counselors and behavioral aides throughout the District to directly support our students. We also will be continuing our partnership with the Community Family Guidance Center and other outside agencies to support the social, emotional needs of our students.

To ensure the health and safety of our staff and students, we will continue to adhere to all required COVID mitigation strategies. As part of our mitigation strategy, this summer, ventilation systems continued to be enhanced and this year we will be installing WiFi access outdoors to give us the flexibility of moving to outdoor instruction should the need arise. Free at home testing kits will continue to be provided for any student or staff member who is feeling symptoms or is required to test, and anyone that tests positive will be required to follow isolation protocols. For more information about the protocols, click this link. More importantly, we ask that you continue to partner with us through shared responsibility by staying home if you are feeling sick.

As you may know, Bellflower Unified is currently going through a leadership transition; however, our district and site leadership teams are strong and experienced. For this reason, we ask that you reach out to your school site directly with any questions and work with your child’s teacher or site administrator if needed. They will, in turn, work with District support if needed.

We are looking forward to a great year and working together to continue to Build Futures for our students.