CVCHS serving students, families and community during school closure
Everyone faces adversity at some point during their life – whether it’s at home, work, or a personal challenge to overcome. But none of us could ever imagine the unforeseen magnitude of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) and its impact on our loved ones, friends, neighbors and in our daily lives.
American novelist, James Lane Allen, said it best: “Adversity does not build character, it reveals it.” Here at Clayton Valley Charter High School, I’ve been humbled to witness firsthand the resilience our students, families and staff exhibited each and every day since this crisis hit us.
Serving our students and families
Upon notice of our school’s closure, our teachers, counselors, custodians, staff, coaches, food service staff and administrators stepped up. Without hesitation, the entire CVCHS team demonstrated an incredible spirit and dedication to our students’ success.
With our school closure announcement coming on Friday, March 13th, our team went to work immediately to provide structure and protocols for our distance learning and student support programs to ensure our 2,200 plus students did not fall behind. This allowed us to have learning in place by Tuesday, March 17th for all our students along with the accompanying supports to work towards success for all.
As we move forward, CVCHS is working with our teaching staff to ensure high academic expectations remain in effect to support our students’ academic progress.
It is important that all of our students stay in an engaging, productive routine, completing course work and communicating with their teachers online.
In our first week, CVCHS checked out 230 Chromebooks (laptop devices) to our students so they can continue learning remotely from home. We are also ensuring all families are connected to the Internet and utilizing our state-of-the-art online curriculum platforms. This was a massive undertaking involving staff and parent volunteers to make it happen.
Serving our Community
CVCHS is also contributing to the community during these challenging times. As we all know, medical professionals and local hospitals are desperately in need of basic supplies. In response, our Science Department donated 66 pairs of safety goggles (100% of our supply) and CVCHS sent over 1,100 N95 respirator masks to Contra Costa County hospitals.
CVCHS’ Food & Nutrition Services program is providing free meals for all CVCHS students and for any child in our community. All meals are served between 9:00 AM and 12:00 PM Monday through Friday and include an entree, fruit, vegetable, and milk. To date, over 6,000 meals have been served.
While all of our school-related activities, events and athletic competitions have been postponed, it’s important to note that the spirit of our school community still thrives. CVCHS is committed to continuing to provide academic and social-emotional support to students and families during our closure and we look forward to celebrating our seniors in the coming months.
As I have emphasized in our communication with our students, families and staff: this is a challenging and surreal episode in each of our lives. We must remain hopeful and know that together we will grow stronger through this adversity. I cannot wait to be back to normal at CVCHS and see all of our students and staff together and thriving on campus. We are Ugly Strong!
Jim Scheible is Executive Director, Clayton Valley Charter High School. Visit their website at www.claytonvalley.org