Superintendent's Update on Strategic Planning Process 11-22-23

Dear SSFUSD Community, 

 

As we approach the Thanksgiving holiday, I wanted to take a moment to share my gratitude to all of you. I am grateful for our SSFUSD community that seeks to foster an environment of inclusivity, respect, openness, and interconnectedness, so that every student, family, and staff member feels safe, seen, and supported.  Your collaboration, engagement, involvement, and kind and compassionate nature have created a wonderfully inclusive community, and I remain deeply appreciative. 

 

The focus of this Thanksgiving message will highlight your active participation and feedback from this last round of strategic planning community engagement efforts. Over the last six weeks, we heard from over 2,000 staff, families, and students from every school site through PTA and ELAC meetings, staff collaboration time, student advisory periods, and online surveys. 

 

Staff across every site named ways to bring the Portrait of a Graduate to life in our schools and committed to taking action right away to make it a reality. One hundred and twenty-two staff members, representing all sites, were interested in piloting new mini-projects this spring to start bringing the Portrait of a Graduate to life! 

 

 

More than 550 families joined site meetings or participated in a bilingual, online survey about how school staff and families can work together better. Twenty-five percent of our responses were from Spanish-speaking families; we worked hard and intentionally to ensure we heard from families whose experiences aren’t always part of the conversations due to language barriers. According to the survey:

 

Nearly 1,000 middle and high school students filled out our college and career readiness survey. They shared similar thoughts across all schools:

I am so thankful for our community’s commitment to our students and their overall well-being and success! I also want to acknowledge and empathize with those who are suffering locally, across the country, and world and express the hurt in my heart for their circumstances. At the same time, I don’t take for granted the privilege of being part of a diverse community where we support and lift each other up despite our differences and where our diversity is seen as a strength, not weakness. We are blessed to be part of a community that is willing to come together to praise what’s working, while also challenging ourselves to find ways to do even better for our kids.

 

When times are hard, we may not always have control over what is going on in the world around us, but we do have control over how we respond. As we go into this Thanksgiving holiday, please remember to treat each other and yourself with love and kindness. 

 

In partnership, 
Dr. Shawnterra Moore 
Superintendent
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Estimada comunidad de SSFUSD,