Superintendent's Message - February 2019

MUSD Community,

We have so many exciting things happening in MUSD it is hard to capture it all in a monthly newsletter!  Have no fear; we’ll give it our best shot, and if we miss something you can always catch more fun stuff on our social media accounts (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter). Here are just some of the highlights for MUSD:

 Martinez Education Foundation

Huge shout out to the Martinez Education Foundation for their annual grant funds dedicated to the staff and students of MUSD.  This year, MEF raised enough funds to provide over $120,000.00 in grant funding for our schools. What a great example of local leadership and support for the children of our community. Thanks to the MEF Executive Board and to all the community members who support their work each year, especially Shell Oil who sponsors the MEF Run For Education.

New School Calendar Announced

MUSD is pleased to share the next three years of school calendars!  That’s right; we have three years of calendars approved, published, and ready for your vacation plans.  Please note, we have adjusted the start of school back a few days and the end of the school will also happen a few days earlier than normal.  In most cases, the adjustment is roughly one week or less. This adjustment helps us keep finals before the winter break for our high school students and also keeps us in line with most local and neighboring districts.  You can review the 2019-2020, 2020-2021, and 2021-2022 calendars here: MUSD Calendars

School Safety

At the end of this week, we are launching our Say Something Anonymous Reporting System for MUSD!  This is an amazing safety enhancement for our schools and our community that we are grateful to launch with the incredible support the Sandy Hook Promise.  What’s the Say Something Anonymous Reporting System you ask? Great question. Here’s a short summary directly from the Sandy Hook Promise website, and if you want to know even more you can check out the link (below).

Say Something is an education and awareness program that provides tools and practices to:

• Recognize the signs & signals of a potential threat – especially in social media
• Teach and instill in participants how to take action
• Drive awareness and reinforce the need to Say Something

Say Something informs and educates about observable warning signs (written, spoken, photographed, in video) that are often present in behavior that could lead to someone hurting themselves or others.  It also educates individuals on how to safely and anonymously report potential threats. Additionally, the program provides tools on how best to promote and reinforce Say Something. Sandy Hook Promise Prevention Programs

This week, 6th - 12th grade students at MJHS, Vicente/Briones, and Alhambra High school will receive training directly from Sandy Hook representatives on the three areas highlighted above. The Say Something program can be accessed through a mobile app, any web browser, or via the Say Something hotline. This reporting platform is for parents, students, educators, administrators, community-based organizations and other adults who come into contact with children.   

The training is specific to only 6th - 12th graders based on the direction and advice of the experts from Sandy Hook Promise.  As a parent of a 3rd grader, I can certainly relate to the desire to see her safe at school too. Please know, that reports can be made for any schools in MUSD.  Administrators at each site are prepared to receive tips through the Say Something program. However, we won’t be having TK-5 students go through the training program, as it may not be developmentally leveled for all elementary students.  

We are the first district in Contra Costa County to launch this program, and I am very grateful to the Martinez Police Department and the Sheriff’s Office for their commitment to our students. The Say Something program will automatically refer tips pertaining to a life-safety issue to our local police for immediate intervention. Please be informed that a more detailed letter regarding the Say Something Program, as well as parent resources, will be sent out Thursday, February 7, 2019 when the program goes live. Please check our website on Thursday for more information.  

In addition to the Say Something Anonymous Reporting System, we are also deploying our new Emergency Radio Communication systems in MUSD.  Over the next two months, each school site will be equipped with an emergency base radio and handheld radios for each classroom. These radios will improve communication across all school sites in MUSD during an emergency situation.  Our emergency radios at each school site will be able to communicate on their own FCC established channel across the entire district. These radios will also increase the capacity for day-to-day communication and supervision within each individual school site.  Our phone systems are reliant on our servers, internet functionality, and a source of power. The emergency radios can keep communication open across the district in a wide range of potential situations where emergency communication is required. Many thanks to our Board of Education for their approval of this system development.

Thanks to our Safety Committee members who continue to attend meetings and engage in discussions about how we can continue the work keeping our schools safe. Recent meetings included in-depth discussions on social media - how we can train parents to support their students’ appropriate use of social media and additional discussion about policies related to student communication via district-based email. I am grateful to all those who volunteer their time for this work.  

Local Control Accountability Plan

We want to hear from you!  No, really, we do want to hear from you.  Each year, as part of our Local Control Accountability Plan (our plan to accomplish our goals and plans for MUSD), we ask for community feedback on our schools, our programs, and our progress.  Please take just a few moments and complete the annual survey. Here are the links for both the English and Spanish versions of the survey:

• English - LCAP Survey
• Spanish - LCAP Survey

If you’d like to be part of our LCAP Executive Advisory Committee, please contact Mr. Tom Doppe at tdoppe@martinez.k12.ca.us.  The dates of our meetings are tentatively set for 2/20/19, 3/13/19, 4/10/19, and, 5/1/19

Congratulations to our Teacher of the Year nominees!

We are so lucky to have an abundance of incredible teachers and support staff in MUSD.  It is really tough to single out just a few since so many are deserving of equal recognition.  However, each year we honor nominees from each site, and then one person is selected as our MUSD Teacher of the Year to compete in the Contra Costa County Teacher of the Year Program through the County Office of Education.  I am pleased to recognize the following individuals for being the Teachers of the Year from their respective school sites. The final award will be presented during the Board of Education Meeting on February 11, 2019, shortly after 6:30 p.m. Be ready for our classified employees of the year to be announced in the March newsletter! 

• Gerry Wiener - Alhambra High School     
• Gretchen Van Til - Vicente Martinez High School/Briones Independent Study Program   
• Janette Smith - Martinez Junior High School
• Lindsay Fuller- Las Juntas Elementary
• Pam Galletti - John Muir Elementary     
• Kellie Crane - John Swett Elementary     
• Amy Benz - Morello Park Elementary

Sincerely, 


CJ Cammack, Superintendent
Martinez Unified School District