Dear Novato Community,

As we continue our monthly “Modeling the Way” recognition, we are grateful to our parent organizations for providing plants and gift cards for our recipients. This month we thank San Ramon PTA for providing for donating the plants and cards.

Please keep the nominations coming as they are so inspiring. It provides us an opportunity to honor others as we travel this road in education together and make a difference for the students and adults we meet along the way. You can nominate NUSD staff here:  https://nusd.org/modeling-the-way/

December Honorees

Jeff Packman  View Jeff’s video here: https://youtu.be/n68l-GK1FOc
Jeff has taught Leadership, PE, Credit Recovery, and Bridges at Marin Oaks. Jeff is described as:

  • Strong collaborator
  • Flexible
  • Accommodates others willingly
  • Passion for students
  • Well-planned and always follows up with students
  • Positive attitude
  • Role model and an integral part of the Marin Oaks team

Susanne Jarjoura  View Susanne’s video here: https://youtu.be/B2pDKU0aydM
Susanne is a Treatment Nurse at Novato High School. Susanne described as:

  • One of a kind caregiver
  • Performs job duties with empathy, care, professionalism, and commitment to tailor services to individual needs
  • Exceptional expertise in serving the unique needs of student with grace and professionalism
  • Intuition, persistence and expertise quite possibly saved the life of one of our treasured employees

Christina  Tellez  Christina’s video here: https://youtu.be/Pldxpt8rSp4

Christina is a custodian at San Jose Middle School. Christina is described as:

  • Strong work ethic
  • Desire to support staff and students alike
  • A sense of pride in all she does
  • Caring attitude for everyone
  • Gets things done quietly for the common good of the school

Catherine Nam  View Cath’s video here:  https://youtu.be/Fbvg1UK-wpU

Catherine is the principal at Rancho School. Catherine is described as:

  • A leader that greets families and students every single morning of the school year
  • Children say Catherine knows the names of every student in the entire school
  • Caring and incredibly smart and resourceful
  • Designer of an amazing matrix to ensure Universal Access in protected time across grade levels to support students with learning
  • Supports teachers directly to access services like counseling and support for English Learners
  • Always asks students, staff and families, “What can be improved?” Then she takes steps to make those improvements!


PTA Budget Meetings – Thank you Tenesa Garrison, Amy O’Conner, and Lisa Swanson
Special thanks to North Marin Council Leadership for supporting the budget presentations at each of our schools. I am also grateful to Amy and Lisa for creating a “user friendly” budget overview for each of sharing complex budget information with parents and the community. That overview can be found here for your information. It will be used for our PTA presentations scheduled as listed below. We have a few more to schedule.

Our goal is to share as much pertinent information as possible so that parents can become ambassadors for the district as we experience the challenges and triumphs of budget reductions. Trustees are clearly directing us to protect student programs and to scrutinize the budgets general fund to best keep our programs intact and support teaching and learning for our students. The Marin County Office of Education continues to oversee our finances and we continue to adhere to the established conditions of budget approval.

I look forward to meeting each PTA as scheduled and to having a dialogue to better understand the community concerns and to respond to questions. I am looking forward to our conversations. Additionally, we will be presenting some community forums once we have clearer knowledge of the Governor’s Budget projections for 2022-23 after January 20, 2022.

You may wish to participate in Zoom Annual School Funding Forum on January 20, 2021 from 5-6:30pm to hear from Michael Fine, Chief Executive Officer of Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team (FCMAT) and Brooks Allen, Executive Director of the California State Board of Education. Here is the Zoom link:  https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81153319799?pwd=Tzl0dkF3ak8xRHVUbnpDbGsyWXBSZz09#success Webinar ID: 811 5331 9799 with this passcode – 371944. To call in, dial: 1. 408.638.0968

PTA Meeting for Budget Overview

Hamilton              12/9/21       6:30pm

Loma Verde           1/5/22       7pm

Lu Sutton              12/16/21     6:30pm

Lynwood

Olive                    11/10/21      6:30pm

Pleasant Valley     1/12/22       6pm

Rancho                 11/29/21     6pm

San Ramon          11/10/21     7:30 pm

San  Jose

Sinaloa

Novato High

San Marin

Reminder

Students return to school after the Winter Break on January 4, 2022.  There is no school for students on January 3, 2022.  The Calendar Committee established 2 make-up days in the event we needed them for in the fall for days off for fires, PSPS, etc.

How are you?

As we wrap up the first semester of full in-person school since the COVID-19 pandemic began, I’m wondering how you are doing and what is on your hearts and minds as we prepare for winter break. This ThoughtExchange is intended to learn and share what you’re thinking and feeling and is completely voluntary and anonymous.

https://tejoin.com/scroll/886781867

I appreciate your participation and will share the anonymous responses with you next week.  Feel free to enter in as many thoughts as you like and to rate others that may resonant with you. It will remain open until the end of the day on December 14, 2021.  Again, this is completely anonymous.

Looking forward to our time together to discuss the budget.

Respectfully,

Jan La Torre-Derby, Ed.D.
Superintendent