Happy Friday, Ukiah Unified! We are halfway through the school year, and I am so proud when I think about everything we have accomplished together! I hope you enjoy this holiday break with your family. Thank you so much for your patience, love, and kindness throughout this year! Hug your kids!
Communication During an Emergency One of our goals at Ukiah Unified is to provide open, transparent, and accurate information as quickly as possible. We always strive to do this, but especially during a school emergency. As a parent, school emergencies can elicit fear in ourselves and students, which compounds our immediate need for information. It is often impossible to communicate immediately in emergencies because the staff’s first concern is student safety. In a lockdown or threat involving multi-agency law enforcement and first responders, our priority is to secure our students first. When we have done so, and after carefully considering all the facts, we will then communicate. Often, some details are confidential in school emergencies either because we are dealing with minors or we do not want to compromise a law enforcement investigation. You can be sure that as soon as we can, we will share as much information as possible regarding any school emergency.
Please have conversations with your children about school safety. Urge them to report anything they see or hear that makes them feel unsafe. I urge you to report any safety concerns to your school site administrator immediately. We appreciate your patience and support during school emergencies. We can keep our schools safe if we all work together! Learn more about Ukiah Unified emergency communications.
Holiday Meal Distribution We are excited to offer ingredients for a free holiday meal to all Ukiah Unified students and ANY family with a child 18 years or younger at Ukiah High School tomorrow, Saturday, December 18, from 8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. Food items include a fully-cooked, frozen spiral ham, a bag of potatoes, a bag of apples, a box of stuffing, biscuit mix, cornbread mix or dinner rolls, and milk.
FREE Digital Books for Ukiah Unified Students As part of State Superintendent Tony Thurmond’s new literacy initiative, students will have free and unlimited access to thousands of digital books on the Renaissance myON platform through January 31, 2022. Students can read these books and articles on any digital device connected to the Internet, even in low bandwidth areas. Children can also download myON books onto mobile devices for offline reading. Learn more about how to access free myON books.
COVID-19 Self-Tests at Home To help prevent school-based exposures after the break, each school site has two COVID-19 self-tests available for each student. Please contact your school to ensure you receive the tests. The tests should be done on December 31, 2021, and again on January 3, 2022. If your child develops symptoms of COVID-19 over the holiday, you can also use the tests at that time. The COVID-19 Antigen Rapid Test is a simple and easy way to detect COVID-19 and help prevent any school-based exposures after our break. The test will take 15 minutes to complete. Learn more about the test.
The tests are meant to be completed at home by students or by parents on their students. Please report the results on Primary.Health, do not report results on the iHealth app mentioned on the test instructions. Written instructions on how to perform the tests can be found inside the test box in English and Spanish, or learn how to use the test by watching this video.
TK and Kindergarten Registration Opens January 5, 2022 Please visit www.uusd.net starting January 5th and click on the Enrollment link.
What’s Happening
Winter Break - No School - December 20–January 3
First Day of School After Winter Break - Tuesday, January 4
Title VI Native American Parent Advisory Committee Meeting - January 10
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day - No School - January 17
District Advisory Committee Meeting - January 18
DELAC/MPAC Meeting - January 19
As a reminder, schools are closed from December 20th through January 3rd. We will welcome students back to school on Tuesday, January 4th. I hope you can get some family time and rest over the break.