#WeAreASJUSD Newsletter October 2023

Let’s Talk About Attendance - We Need You to Be Our Partners!

There’s a lot of research about the relationship between student achievement and days of regular attendance. It’s only logical that for a student to learn and grow, they need to be in a class with a quality instructor. When students are gone for periods of time, they miss foundational concepts that build and interrelate. When they return, they are learning new concepts but missing those foundational pieces that came before. This is a problem and we need your help.

 In addition, all school districts must report their attendance, and we are held accountable for chronic absenteeism issues by the State of California. Chronic absenteeism rates may be impacted by a district’s faulty collection processes, and while we have had some of these issues in past years, we have corrected those issues.  The other factors are less in our control: legitimate student illness, family’s choice to take vacation when school is in session, and other parental choices for personal reasons. When a student is sick, we understand that and do want them to stay home to recuperate. You do need to produce a doctor’s note if the absence is longer than three days.  We all know that it doesn’t help the student to get better by sitting in class and it increases the risk that other students may catch the illness. But other choices for vacation and personal business are ones that impact your student’s progress and should be avoided or limited to just emergencies. 

When attendance is not taken seriously, it  becomes a problem of Chronic Absenteeism, and the County Office of Education works with us to address these issues.  We are compelled to take these issues seriously, so I want to alert you to the steps we will take to make sure your child is in school.

  1. After 3 absences, we will send Letter #1 home

Possible attendance contract, or meeting may occur to support the students attendance.

  1. If absences continue and the student continues to demonstrate a pattern of chronic absence, truancy or tardiness, we will send Letter #2 home. This will require a meeting between the principal and an attendance contract. Possible home visit or a referral to other supports may also be done at this time.

  2. If, after these efforts to correct the attendance are unsuccessful, the district will consider the student chronically absent and will take the case to the County Student Attendance Review Board, (SARB). You will be required to attend a SARB hearing and to explain your rationale for the chronic absenteeism of your child. There are consequences that can be levied against you by the county such as: Legally binding Attendance contract, court appearances and fines.

We hope that you will partner with us to ensure that your student is in school, benefitting from daily instruction from our teaching staff! 

Absences AddUp

Summer Projects funded by Measure M

Many projects have been completed:

  • Aromas: Gymnasium (air conditioned); parking lot flooding issue 

    hopefully fixed and parking lot resealed.

  • Anzar: Athletic upgrades (track reconditioned, new scoreboards for 

    football, baseball and basketball, water bottle refilling station, 

    gym locker replacement in boys and girls locker rooms; new

    Hawk Academy portable renovation with new furniture, 

    New flooring, and paint; parking lot resealed; partial roof repainted.

  • San Juan School: Gymnasium (air conditioned) and repainted/resealed inside and out; ceiling fans installed in classrooms to help with air movement during hot spells; parking lot resealed.

Looking Ahead!

San Juan School Update

Our SJ School stakeholder group met on September 20, 2023 to view a tentative map showing building placements as we envision a campus on the same property but moved back away from the fault line. We know the gymnasium which was recently painted inside and out, and the 8th grade wing, will not be replaced, so new buildings must be positioned in relation to them. 

At our Board Study Session Meeting on October 11 in the San Library at 6pm, our architects will also show some tentative visual designs of the outside of the buildings to gauge what resonates with parents and employees as to whether it should be a school  mission style in appearance, modern, or something in between. Please join us!

Regarding San Juan School Project funded by Measure O

We hope to hear from DSA soon and have been making plans for contruction to start in the summer of 2024. To that end we have hired a construction manager (John Dominguez of School Site Solutions), hired an Architectural Firm to design the school (Aedis Construction),  hired a Lease Lease Back company for construction of the new school (Flint Builders), and are conducting required environmental studies of the land and taking care of any required mitigations. We are moving forward with excitement!

Learning Spaces Pilot Program funded by Furniture Reserves

Nine Classroom teachers and our Director of Curriculum and  Instruction have worked with our consultant David Jakes to redesign  learning spaces in their classrooms as well as a district teaching and learning studio. Over winter holidays, these spaces will first be refloored and repainted. Furniture addressing their teaching requirements has been ordered and will be placed in these spaces. We are providing teachers with professional development to learn how to flexibly use the furniture and adjust configurations depending on learning activities. These 9 teachers (3 at each of our schools) represent kindergarten through grade 12. Each room will be different.

They will collect data from students who will let us know what is comfortable, what works best for their learning needs and from teachers who must work with the furniture.  The furniture purchases are coming from furniture fund reserves the distinct set aside several years ago. What we learn from the pilots during second semester will help us make decisions for the new San Juan School as well as all classrooms that will gradually be renovated in years to come as funding is available. 

Air Conditioning most classrooms at Aromas and Anzar

We have plans drawn up and are awaiting DSA approval so we can order equipment and plan for installation. Our goal is to be ready for Fall of 2024. San Juan school had ceiling fans installed and Aromas’s  gymnasium is now air conditioned to provide a needed cooling center. Once  we get state approval, we will move ahead with the plans to complete air  conditioning at all sites.

Robotic Field Liner coming soon

We are ordering a small robotic field striping machine that can take  over the time intensive task of lining the soccer field, the football field, the baseball field, etc.  It sometimes takes two men a full day to  line the field while it can take this robot about 1 hour.  We have a limited groundskeeping staff and this task should not fall to coaches who could spend time with their teams. It is a smart decision and one we believe is more than worth the expense.

San Juan Preschool - Mi Escuelita

We offer a half day preschool program at both of our elementary schools.  Currently, we still have a few openings at San Juan’s preschool for qualifying families.  You may contact Margarita Carrillogaitan at the preschool at San Juan to obtain more information.

Some Upcoming Dates to Keep in Mind

District Office
As Superintendent, I will be meeting with parents monthly at each site as part of the “coffee with the principal/superintendent” meetings. I also hope to organize some other forums, town halls, advisory groups to increase our engagement with our families and community.  As a member of the San Juan Rotary, I hope to grow those connections with our community groups, too.  I welcome fresh ideas and, as I am able, I welcome opportunities to dialogue with you during this school year!  As always, my door is open to you.  My school email is: bdillvarga@asjusd.org.

Fingerprinting at the DO!
One added note!  We now offer fingerprinting service at the district office to facilitate processing our new hires and volunteers.  Soon it will be available for a small fee as a service to the community.

Superintendent - Principal Coffees:
Please come join us for a cup of joe and conversation. My next coffee is at Aromas -October 10 - 8:30 AM. Check with your building principal to see what your next opportunities are!

DELAC, ELAC meetings
Under the direction of our Director of Curriculum and Instruction, Jivan Dhaliwal, we have organized a series of site and district English Language Advisory Committees. The role of this committee is to provide advice on a site plan for English learners,  assist in needs assessments, focus on importance of school attendance and have one representative as part of the district DELAC. For more information and meeting dates and times, please refer to the last page of this newsletter.  We are excited about increasing our service for our English Language Learners!

Upcoming Board of Trustee Meetings:

Regular Board Meetings  (Closed session 6PM; Open Session 7PM ) At the Anzar High School Library

  • October 18, 2023

  • November 15, 2023

  • December 13, 2023 

Our School Board Meetings are now live streamed on VIMEO. We would love for you to attend in person or to watch from a remote location.  If you wish to offer comments in person, please fill out a comment card when you come at 7pm or if you will attend remotely, send in comments by 11 am the day of the Board meeting to be read aloud during the meeting. (3 minute maximum). A link to the live stream is on the agenda we send out and which gets posted on our website.  While it is not the practice of the Board to respond at that moment to questions and comments, they do listen carefully to them and consider them as they do their work.

In gratitude,

Dr. Barb Dill-Varga, Superintendent of ASJUSD