In the wake of Orange County being removed from the statewide COVID-19 monitoring list, a number of you have expressed your frustrations with how the potential reopening of NMUSD schools has been handled by the district. This has of course been exacerbated by news flashes that other districts in the county have seemingly been able to provide hard dates and/or milestones for reopening their schools. The DEANs leadership team has had several discussions over the past few days with district officials on this topic. We wanted to share some key takeaways and potential action items with the Andersen community:
District Communication – There has been a recognition amongst certain district officials that the communication effort to date by NMUSD has been poor at best. There have been a number of steps taken by district officials over the past several weeks to help prepare our schools for a safe reopening, purchases of PPE for example, much of which have not been mentioned in their email updates. From their perspective, the district has been doing more to prepare for reopening than we have been made aware. This feedback has been escalated to the upper levels of the district and we can expect better and more frequent communication in the weeks ahead.
Reopening waiver – While the reopening waiver was a solution for the Los Alamitos School District, our district includes a substantially larger number and more diverse set of schools and so it is highly unlikely that the waiver process will be successful at NMUSD. It would not be a good use of our time to continue pressuring district officials on this topic.
What can we all do? – the guidance we received is that the Andersen Community can and should continue to press district officials to expedite a safe reopening process. And of course, if you feel that school campuses should remain closed, you have a right to voice this opinion as well. While a select few board members are aware of the opinions of the Andersen community, most board members and area trustees are not aware of our thoughts and concerns. So, we need a groundswell of communication from you all to ensure you are heard.
Please take a moment to make ALL of the Board of Education aware of your thoughts, concerns and demands. You have a right to voice your opinion and they have an obligation as elected officials to hear you out. I have provided their email addresses below for your convenience:
Martha Flour: [email protected]
Karen Yelsey:[email protected]
Dana Black:[email protected]
Ashley Anderson:[email protected]
Michelle Barto:[email protected]
Charlene Metoyer:[email protected]
Vicki Snell:[email protected]
On behalf of the DEANs Board, I hope you find these updates to be helpful. Please feel free to share this email and the contact information for the NMUSD board members with others in our community or other areas around our district. To the extent that you would like to discuss further, the DEANs leadership stands ready to field your calls or emails.
Best regards,
Ryan Hart
DEANs President
