The following letter is from Mount Diablo Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Adam Clark:
Dear MDUSD Families,
The MDUSD Governing Board met yesterday and concluded that distance learning must continue into March, 2021. This was also my recommendation, and comes as Contra Costa County continues now in the Purple Tier—the worst possible pandemic status—in which public health authorities are against reopening schools and larger social gatherings. Walnut Creek USD, Pittsburg USD, Antioch USD, and West Contra Costa USD confirmed that they have the same standing—distance learning must continue into the 3rd quarter.
This is not where we had hoped to be right now, but it is the reality of the pandemic in our area. The California Department of Public Health recommendation is clear that students should not be on campus while our county is in the Purple Tier.
In this moment, our focus as a school district must be on how to improve distance learning and how best we can meet the needs of students, with emphasis on social-emotional wellbeing and mental health supports. I would encourage all to continue best practices for safety, to keep wearing face coverings, continue social distancing, and to wash hands frequently. These remain the best way to fight the virus and improve our metrics.
For now, distance learning will continue. Going forward, our communication with you will continue weekly, and our Governing Board will revisit reopening plans in March.
Respectfully,
Superintendent Adam Clark, Ed.D.
Mt. Diablo Unified School District
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47 comments
This is terrible. This is our school board being bullied by the teachers union.
I would like to propose that we start a parents group similar to the one in the San Ramon Valley district and start recalling board members until they start to represent the interests of students and parents instead of the political whims of the Teachers Union.
Who is with me?
I’m with you but I’m in Martinez school district
LimeRidge
Tell where to sign up. I have emailed Adam Clark, but do not expect an answer. Seriously, where do we meet to start this conversation?
Works for me.
Sounds good. There is a FB group for Contra Costa Parents for In Person Learning and another one for Reopening CA Schools. Hop on, see what is happening and help us out!
I’m with u!! Let me know how we can connect and push the recall.
I am ready to fight for the kids
Absolutely, 100%.
Lets do it!
Earthquake a few minutes ago 11:18 Shook wildly for 1 second. That was weird I thought a car ran into our house.
ABSOLUTELY ridiculous.
I have already sent an email out to the entire board my self with my opinion. This is sickening and sad for our children. Private schools, child care programs are all open, but MDUSD cannot get their act together to represent and care for our children.
I am ANGRY at the board and this tool, Adam Clark. I am sad for my children that they are suffering because of the lack of effort by the board and the public school teachers. My spouse and I are looking for private schools, something I never wanted for a multitude of reasons, to send our children too. They need an education …
SHAME on the board.
Agree 100%. I’m so frustrated. MDUSD won’t care until they start getting pressured.
Useless officials…Quit stringing us along like lost puppies. Just close everything down until the Fall. We get it. You lose credibility like the Gov everytime you hint of possible openings.
we always knew newscum was beholding to pelosi and leftist policy and socialism and corruption and screwing us over for our tax money
and yet another reason to recall
he is beholding to the unions
and we are a 12 on his ladder of caring
well actually like a 32 really
his beholdings are getting more and more as kamala gets closer to him
and his boozze
We have to send our kids back to school so that one day, they can be doctors and scientists, and everyone can ignore them.
Thats the best one yet
You left out politicians.
Your pointed sarcasm requires a false presumption that the medical and scientific community are 100% in favor of lockdowns and school closures. Even God, er I mean Fauci, says schools need to be open. But you’re right, our children need to become doctors and scientists so they can steer well clear of garbage unions.
hey Mr./Mrs. so concerned about kids…any idea on the change in youth suicide rates this last year? what about protracted impact of mental health issues? what about kids that don’t have access to schools or support like other kids?
nah, I guess we’ll just deal with those issues later…
additionally, you say people wont believe the kids when they become doctors and scientists…you realize kids aren’t huge vectors of the virus, right? why don’t you believe those studies? what about the doctors that don’t support our current shelter in place, do you not believe them?
Finally, CA has had some of the most restrictive policies and is an extremely blue state…yet southern CA is getting hammered, how can that be? Must be all those maga supports in LA.
Um, well, since all the doctors worth their salt and most of the medical community (not to mention every other single country) is advocating for schools to be open… I think you just put your foot in it.
Gavin Newsom’s kids are in school, why are everyone else’s not worth the same effort?
Another reason to *stop* voting yes on any bond measures for this District!
A Generation of stupid kids in the making
MDUSD = Lazy, inept losers.
Replace them all.
All staff members of MDUSD failed the local tax payers and should have their employment terminated immediately.
I can’t wait to see the same tag names complaining when schools open up and everyone catches covid.
You won’t hear it from me … I know and understand virus’s and bacterial infections can spread in school settings . It’s called living . I also know that 99.8% will be okay.
Sadly, I know of a child that died from flu complications a few years ago.
I’ve also known a few teens to die in separate car crashes and yet I bet most people don’t think twice every time they are behind the wheel.
Don’t divide just bc my opinion is different than yours
It’s called discussion for a reason
Keep it healthy folks! Don’t make it political
Since that won’t happen (and since we have the data from loads of other countries and states), it won’t be a problem.
This is such horsesh**! Shame on them, do your job and get a plan together. We still haven’t even heard a plan about okay when we are in the red tier this is what we are doing…..all we hear is we will plan another time when numbers are lower. Unbelievable
That is my concern too. Do they even have a plan ready to go? When they say “closed till March then we will revisit”….are they ready to open in March if numbers are OK? Or are they going to start thinking about it in March? They’ve had almost a YEAR to come up with a plan. I don’t feel like they have a plan and they don’t seem to be getting much pressure to put one together so …what’s the motivation for them?
They have no plan. And they will not for next year, either.
Stop paying school taxes until real education resumes.
Add to the recall list….
Your School Building Improvement Bond dollars at work 🙂 🙂 Maybe we could suspend payment on those for a while…Ease up on our property taxes? Nah, Not likely.
You know, letting buildings sit empty causes more harm than actually Using them does. We’re gonna need another “repair” bond.
This is absolutely pathetic. And exactly why California schools consistently rank in the bottom 10 in the country. Poor leaders with no plan and no commitment to the students or parents. These poor children may never catch up from an entire lost year. And what has been the other cost in depression with probably life long medication, suicides, etc.
And this is also why so many are fleeing California.
If you calculates the current infection rate it is 0.7 % – not exactly widespread – and that is over a 14 day period and many people experience no symptoms or feel mild symptoms for a day or two.
Who is desperately trying to ruin the whole state and why????
I find it funny that all of you parents are so eager to put your kids back in school so you can get back to your gym’s and Starbucks groups. Fess up to it, you know its true. You live in Clayton, the higher income part of Concord and W.C. This decision was not because of the Teachers Union, it is because we are in the purple tier and people don’t know how to follow the rules.
You want to send kids back to schools when there is no vaccine for them? Hell there is no available vaccine for most of us yet! There are kids getting sick while distance learning and you want to sending them into school where their are NO precautions in place? You are quick to bash but I hear no solutions coming from you.
So, I suggest you come up with some solutions then post. Oh and I have been on the Board committee’s for re opening and gave my solutions. So I have done my part.
Some parents have full time jobs outside of the home that they still have to go to. They have mortgages to pay and cannot work from home. They are not trying to get back to Starbucks and the gym. Some of us have kids at home that are struggling A LOT with the isolation and depression. For teens or preteens, it’s not as easy as “take them for a walk!” Or “in my day we made them do chores!”. They would greatly benefit from even 2 days per week in person school just to stave off the loneliness and sadness they feel. Distance learning has been going on for almost a year now. It’s hard for these kids who had their lives completely changed overnight. As a parent, I would just like for their to be a plan. My frustration is that MDUSD does not seem to have an actual plan to return when safe to do so. MDUSD offers zero to kids as mental health support either, so unless you have the means to pay out of pocket for therapy (Kaiser mental health is overwhelmed now so even insurance coverage is not a guarantee that you can get your kids help) or private school, you are completely on your own.
For example, my child’s MDUSD middle school continues to employee 2 counselors. In the many months of this pandemic and having zero kids on campus, it might be nice if the counselors personally called the homes of their students just once to check in. Never happened. So…what are those counselors doing?
Hey Jimmy
Relax dude.
1. There is no vaccine for kids. So is your solution to wait till then, cause if so .. it might be a few years.
2. If private schools can open, and other public schools in California, and other states can open their schools during these times, why can’t we?
3. You may (weakly) try to argue that those other schools should not be open, if they have been open without a noticeable able increase in cases.
4. Board meetings; yeah been there and done that. They do not want to listen. Thankfully Brian Lawrence is gone … but more to leave to solve this issue apparently. I have offered my help to clean and prep classrooms for my kids school. Since I WFH, I will schedule to come down and clean a classroom every day. But, that does not fit the teachers union agenda so my suggestion was not accepted.
Parents are willing to help, but we expect teachers to do their job!
Dude some of us have special needs children that need their one on one therapy and one on one. This Distance learning and trying to get them to engage on a computer is next to impossible for some and is frustrating for the teachers to properly asses their progress and track their goals. Not to mention most parents in this district still go to work outside the home. Bills never stopped and the gov certainly doesn’t want to help so they need so some one needs to pay them. All the board has done is delay with all talk and 0 action. They seriously had a whole year to come up with something at least for the special needs children yet they did nothing while other industries seems to have figured something out. Teachers are now apart of this first round of vaccine so yeah not too much an excuse anymore. Waiting for a vaccine for kids could take years and parents can’t do years of this. They are barely banning on by a thread with no end in sight.
@Jim C.:
“I find it funny that all of you parents are so eager to put your kids back in school so you can get back to your gym’s and Starbucks groups.”
Yeah, you’re right – nobody is really thinking about the kids and the life changing damage this horses**t is doing to them. None of us are capable of looking at the data and reaching the OBVIOUS conclusion that not only are school age kids largely unaffected by the virus, they’re not major vectors of spread. You’re a tool.
And yet private schools are open and seem to be doing just fine. Preschools are doing just fine. Schools in Idaho, Texas and Utah are doing just fine. ( I know this cause I have friends in those states and that is what they tell me ) Our public schools in CA are clearly just pu**ies!! But then again CA ranks last in school education so it makes sense that they don’t want to open up.
With all the negative remarks about teachers and how schools are run why are people so anxious to send their children back? It seems that now is the time to search for alternatives to those ill run schools. Schools are rewriting history, science and changing the English language. Is that what people really want?
You are so right . Vouchers,.private schools and charter schools are the answer to a good education .Parents need to take action and get more involved in their kids future . Having politicians in charge is a terrible and dumb way to educate our kids .
Stop paying teachers and watch how quickly they return to the classroom!
This is not a teacher thing!!!!! My wife is a teacher and she would love to go back. It is not a UNION thing!!!! When will people get it? IT IS A ITS NOT SAFE THING!!!
There are no precautions in place—That’s on the District-not teachers or union
The District wants teachers to get their own Vaccinations, that could take a long while. Why doesn’t the county do it? District wont do that! There is no Vaccine for kids, and kids are getting Covid while sitting at home because parents don’t care and don’t follow the safety guidelines because they are tired of them!
So its not on the teachers, its not on the unions its on the Parents to keep kids safe and US to get out of purple and the District.
Jim
It MOST DEFINATELY is a union thing. Ask your wife if the union has prioritized woke and political elements over returning to the classroom? Ask your wife why other public school districts can go back to the classroom? Ask your wife why teachers in private schools can go back to the classroom?
Those teachers do not have vaccines. They do not extra money for classrooms. Those teachers are teaching children.
So why is MDUSD so special … are they more knowledgeable than others? Doubt it … I have seen their leadership (Brian Lawrence and Adam Clark)
These lying crooked thieves will have to answer one day for what they’re doing to the kids. Until then, the effort and loud screams to get rid of them has started
As a teacher in the district I can tell you that this decision was not a union thing. The majority of us WANT to go back into the classroom. You might not hear about this but we do..many of our students and their families have COVID. It is quite frightening hearing our students tell us about their weekends playing with friends and traveling all over the U.S. Many are Zooming from hotels or vacation rentals. Everyone needs to follow the rules so we can move out of the purple tier. We teachers do not want to bring COVID back to our elderly parents. Believe me, we would much rather be with our precious students in the classroom than online. Hearing blame put on teachers by parents is extremely disheartening. We didn’t ask for this and we care about your children more than you’ll ever know.
My children have been back at their private school full time in person since October 13. They are happier and healthier than ever. There have been no large out breaks and no deaths. If you don’t want your parents getting Wuhan 19, then stay away from them until they are vaccinated. Obvious the governor isn’t worried about the virus if he is at a French Laundry party and his children are attending private school.
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