Sycamore Elementary School

Dear Simi Valley Schools Community:

As we enter our last two weeks of school, I hope all of you are all doing well and staying healthy.

There is a lot to share with you, so I ask that you please read this message to the end. The most important thing is that we have created a Parent Survey to help direct us with future learning options should we continue to face guidelines from the Covid-19 outbreak.

Please go to the link below to take this short survey. We are asking that if you have more than one child in our schools, that you retake the survey for each child, as your experiences will vary among teachers and grade levels.

MAY 2020 PARENT SURVEY-ENGLISH

MAY 2020 PARENT SURVEY-SPANISH

The deadline for submitting this survey is Friday, May 29. It should take no more than a few minutes to finish, but the information you provide is vitally important for guiding us in next year’s instruction.

Usually I am reluctant to ask for opinions when I can’t be sure if we can deliver on your responses, but in order to start planning for next fall, we need your input, even if the eventual guidelines we receive dictate that we can’t move in the directions we see now.

Which brings me to some additional updates. I want to clarify what we currently know about what school will look like next fall and about our budget. There is a lot of misinformation circulating that needs to be corrected.

NEXT FALL

Right now, we have no information from the California Department of Education or Ventura County Public Health on what guidelines we will have to follow, assuming we’re allowed to reopen our campuses. We receive our direction from these agencies and then work with our neighboring Ventura County school districts to develop plans that are as consistent as possible. As we sit in this wait-and-see position, we know that our neighboring districts are in the same place.

We are preparing for several different scenarios for the coming year, which include a normal return to school, a hybrid model (Distance Learning and in-person combined), and a Distance Learning model. (This is why the survey information we are requesting from you is so important. Please complete it as soon as possible.) If we have to remain with Distance Learning, please know that it will be conducted with a lot more structure and consistency, and that we will work closely with our teachers to make sure they are comfortable and supported with these new modes of instruction.

Until we receive our guidelines from the county and state agencies, we do not know which direction we are pursuing. Because we know that every other district is in the same position, please understand that any information you might have heard about other districts having a set plan for next year is simply not true.

As we have concrete information to share with our community, we will share it. As always, make sure that your email addresses are current in your child’s Aeries account and also know that you can check on our Facebook page and on the District’s website, www.simivalleyusd.org, for the most current information available.

BUDGET:

Most of you are aware that the State of California predicts large budget shortfalls in the coming years which could have a huge impact on public education. I want everyone to know that our District has done amazing work over the last few years to put ourselves in a very good fiscal position. Although these cuts will ultimately be devastating for school districts across the State, we are in a better position than most. While we may have to look at cuts in the future, based on what we’ve been told recently, we are not in crisis mode right now.

The State is working on many scenarios to help fill the expected funding gaps, but please know that like the start of next school year, we do not have any real guidance yet on how to work our budget. We don’t expect to receive guidance until after the start of the next school year because the State’s tax revenue collection was extended until July. We also can’t submit the normally required three-year budget plan because we have no guidelines for the next few years. Again, we are not in crisis mode right now. We are preparing for the possibility that this could change with the information coming in the fall. We are looking into the future and will continue to be extremely conservative with our funding, but any reports of cuts, layoffs or other radical measures at the SVUSD are not true as of now.

As I keep saying, I could not be prouder of our community. We know that this has not been perfect for every family, but I know that we have done our best given the extreme circumstances. Our staff, students and families have consistently remained patient and flexible throughout this ordeal. As we come to the end of the school year, even with stay-at-home orders still in place, I still feel as united as possible with you all. Thank you for all that you are doing.

Dr. Jason Peplinski

Superintendent

Simi Valley Unified School District