Getting Ready for a New School Year

While our teaching staff members were enjoying a much-deserved summer break, our NUSD custodial and maintenance employees were busy cleaning, polishing, mowing, trimming, and repairing. MOT Director Susan Condon gave me a tour of Kennedy School’s sprucing up efforts. The custodians were busy scrubbing and polishing floors, while a contractor was trimming three trees that hadn’t been touched since the school opened over 50 year ago! We also checked out one of the new play structures. Thanks to the community’s generosity in passing our Measure G bond, last year all elementary schools received new play structures to replace those that were broken or beyond repair.

​Supervisors and Managers Return
NUSD’s annual Management Retreat on August 9 & 10 began with teambuilding with new staff, then dove deep into professional learning communities and the work site leaders will do with their staff around our PLCs. The district’s continuous improvement model applies to all district employees and concerns the ongoing evaluation efforts with clear steps toward improvement.

​Our Teachers Return
​Our teaching staff began their first day on Monday, August 20th with a light breakfast in the high school commons and welcoming remarks in the small gym by high school principal Paul Bretz and superintendent Pat Sanchez. I had the honor of addressing the group on behalf of the Board. My message was one of gratitude, acknowledging the skill, patience and dedication of our staff as they work to meet diverse needs of our students. There was something for everyone for the rest of the day – workshop on the new Big Ideas Math curriculum, grade/department planning time, and rugby training for our PE teachers.