Superintendent Report
She visited staff moving into 705 Serramonte this past Saturday and Sunday and thanked everyone involved for making this dream from the Board come to fruition for our staff.
She shared that on Monday, April 25, District administrators attended training their final Circle Up training of the year and thanked Tiffany Huang, Circle Up lead, for providing such stellar training to District leaders.
This past Thursday, she and Vice President Lie attended the annual Daly City Youth Poet Laureate event, hosted by Daly City Public Library Association, and congratulated the 2022-2023 winner Chole Chou, a 9th grader at Westmoor High.
This past Monday, she visited Oceana High School and complimented Principal April Holland, the staff and students, for taking part in such engaging lessons and presentations.
She is excited to be a part of next Friday's Centennial Celebration and Educational Housing Ribbon Cutting Ceremony in the courtyard of the new educational housing building.
She gave a shout-out to her 8th grade son, and future student of the District, as he visits Washington, D.C. this week with his class and enjoys participating in student activism.
Finally, she noted tonight's meeting as the first to offer Spanish interpretations with the goal of promoting language justice within the District. To listen to this meeting in Spanish, please click HERE.
AFT 1481 Report
This past week, she substitute taught at a Jefferson High School dance class and was grateful to have the opportunity to support JHS students and staff.
This past Sunday, attended the Union May Day march in downtown San Francisco and was exciting to hear Amazon's strides in beginning the process to unionize their employees, though met with great pushback. She thanked JUHSD for supporting a healthy union environment and mentioned the District beginning their next round of negations beginning tomorrow, May 4.
April Student of the Month
Alla is a student in the District’s Adult School Program and truly represents what it means to be a stellar student, regardless of when in life we choose to strengthen our academic backgrounds by attending school. Alla is that rare student who joins our Adult Education program at the beginner level and persevered all the way through the advanced level.
Alla’s Advanced ESL teacher, Andrea Jesse, had this to say about Julie: “Alla Liuta is in my morning Advanced ESL class and Audrey Wittig’s evening Intermediate ESL class. In initially visiting with Alla, we learned she is from a small town in Ukraine, 60 miles outside of Kyiv. Alla is currently there taking care of the family, including her father, and shared that they turn off the lights at night to keep from being bombed by the Russian Army. As this has been an emotional time for her, she has remained an excellent student, making her way through now being a top student in the Advanced class. She completes all of her work and is constantly asking for extra credit. She enjoys asking questions, grasping deeper conceptions of grammar, along with learning more about American history and democracy. She received a perfect score on her USCIS test and is a proud U.S. citizen.”
Alla’s Beginning ESL teacher writes,”Learning English can be daunting/frustrating for some students who like Alla were highly educated and well employed back home, yet starting a new language from square one. She has a lovely dignity of spirit, and was always friendly and helpful to classmates, with a warm smile for everyone, every day. Also she makes the world's best cheese blini, and always brought them to me frozen to take home - giving me very careful cooking instructions, with the precision of a pharmacist (how hot the pan must be, etc.).”
When Mr. Beshirs shared the news of her receiving the District’s Student of the Month for April, Alla had this to say, “Dear Mr. Mark Beshirs. I was pleasantly surprised by your attention and very appreciative of it. I am grateful to you and the teachers of our school for your work and support, especially during this terrible time for Ukraine.”
At the May 3rd board meeting, Alla was represented by her son Alex who received this award in her honor.
COVID-19 Report
Michele Jones, District Director of COVID Response, shared that according to the San Mateo County Department of Health, COVID-19 cases continue to rise in the Bay Area region.
As mentioned during the past board meeting, JUHSD is mirroring the county in terms of noticable rises in COVID-19 cases. In January, 443 positive cases reported to the District, 103 positive cases were reported in February, 18 cases were reported in March, and in April, 155 positive cases were reported to the District. As of today, 39 positive cases have been reported for the month of May.
Based on this increase in cases, and the return of proms to our schools, the District has taken a proactive approach to help reduce the number of positive cases reported. Prior to students attending their site prom, they will be provided a two pack of at-home rapid antigen tests. The District is asking prom-going students to take an at-home test prior to the event, and again 3 to 5 days following the event.
The District has been allocated an additional set of at-home tests by the State, and should be delivered to JUHSD soon. Along with taking these at-home tests, the District will continue to encourage masking at each school site.
Rapid testing continues to be provided at all sites, and at-home tests are available to staff who report a positive case so they can easily test at home before returning to their work sites.
For additional information on how JUHSD continues to fight the COVID curve, please visit the District's COVID Response webpage.
Welcome to JUHSD!
Tina Kuang is an educational leader with a strong commitment to equity and inclusion. Tina started her tenure in education as a Physics teacher at Skyline High School. She has most recently served as a science teacher at Bancroft Middle School, while also assuming an increasing number of leadership responsibilities, such as serving as the Science Department Chair, Teacher in Charge and Cohort Coordinator.
Sterling He is a strategic and collaborative educational leader. Sterling entered into education as a math teacher at Skyline High School. During his time at Skyline High School, he demonstrated a deep commitment to departmental collaboration and data driven instruction to effect positive student outcomes for all students, particularly English Language Learners. Sterling has assumed increasing leadership responsibilities, such as leading all recruitment and hiring coordination of new teachers at Skyline for three years.
We wish Tina and Sterling the best as they start their careers with JUHSD!
Solution Matrix Presentation
For the past two years, a group of JUHSD staff have been meeting to explore the creation of a less punitive and more equitable and restorative process to address discipline in schools. With support from Tiffany Huang and Circle Up Restorative Practices, This group has been working to create the framework for what we are currently calling a “Solution Matrix,” which is a tool to help school administrators assess higher level conflicts, respond equitably to them, and identify and address root causes to prevent harm.
Photo: District administrators attend a Circle Up training lead by Tiffany Huang on April 25.
Jefferson Union High School District
Email: communication@jeffersonunion.net
Website: www.juhsd.net
Location: 699 Serramonte Boulevard, Daly City, CA, USA
Phone: 650-550-7900
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JUHSD1/
Twitter: @juhsd1