Meeting the Moment

MEETING theMOMENT Stories from the Essential Staff, Inspiring Students, and Everyday Heroes of the Pandemic in Our Public Schools SPECIAL REPORT Our Pledge Every student in Riverside County will graduate from high school academically and socially prepared for college, the workforce, and civic responsibility. Riverside County Board of Education Kim Joseph Cousins, President • Wendel W. Tucker, Ph.D., Vice-President Ray “Coach” Curtis • Bruce N. Dennis • Barbara Hale Corey A. Jackson • Elizabeth F. Romero Table of ESSENTIAL STAFF Contents EVERYDAY HERO INSPIRING STUDENT Essential Staff Meet the frontline workers who stepped up to meet the moment and maintained continuity of service to students and schools. School Nurses Taking Center Stage . 1 Preparing Teachers for Distance Learning . 6 Facilities Teams Become Pre-Responders . .8 Wifi, Chromebooks, Hot Spots, and Extraordinary Service . .11 A Little Piece of Normal for Preschool Students and Families . 12 Communicating in a Crisis: Public Information in a Pandemic . 15 Return to In-Person Instruction Caps Long Year for Principals . 17 Everyday Heroes Meet the teachers, counselors, and school employees whose heroic efforts to serve students reached new heights during the pandemic. Converting Bus Stops Into Nutrition Stations . 2 Helping Students Take AP Tests at Home . .4 Teachers Pivot to Distance Learning . 7 Special Needs, Special Focus . 10 Counselors Lead Focus on Social-Emotional Health of Students . 14 Inspiring Students Meet local students whose motivation, resilience, and commitment to education inspired all of us in 2020-2021. Healing Power of the Arts . 3 Graduate Trades Distance Learning for Paradise . 5 Starting Kindergarten in a Pandemic . 9 Using 3-D Printing to Protect Frontline Workers . 13 Rediscovering a Love for Learning . 16 Schools are back! As you read about a few of the outstanding educators highlighted in the following pages, you should know As we have all experienced, this that the efforts of these individuals are symbolic of last year was unlike any other. the similar heroism and dedication throughout all And, accordingly, you will find schools and districts in Riverside County. that this annual report will be unlike any other, as we share While we celebrate the outstanding sacrifice and the stories of the essential staff, commitment from the last year, the reality of what has everyday heroes, and inspiring been lost during that same time period has not gone students who have refused to without notice. Loss of life, loss of employment, learning quit in the face of the COVID-19 loss, and long-lost opportunities to celebrate milestones pandemic. together have conspired to widen the cracks into which our most vulnerable students can fall through. It would be difficult to share the highlights from the last year It is imperative that our educational system rise to the Riverside County Superintendent in our public schools without of Schools, Dr. Edwin Gomez occasion in the upcoming year to serve students in new recognizing the tremendous and extraordinary ways. In fact, four initiatives launched efforts to provide educational services and programs to the in late 2020 are aimed at doing just that (see below for 430,000+ students in Riverside County. details). As you’ll learn from the stories that fill the following pages, We look forward to engaging with the community to our schools never closed. Just because the student parking showcase how our public schools are stronger when we lots, classrooms, and stadiums were empty, that didn’t work together as essential staff and everyday heroes to mean that schools were closed. support inspiring students—a winning formula that not even a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic can extinguish. In reality, teachers, counselors, administrators, and many educators across the county worked harder than ever to Sincerely, serve our students’ needs while parents and guardians linked virtual arms with schools to take on additional responsibilities to further the educational success of their own children. Edwin Gomez, Ed.D. Riverside County Superintendent of Schools Equity & Inclusive Financial Literacy Literacy by 5th Mental Health Practices Initiative Initiative Grade Initiative Initiative integrating the concepts providing essential ensuring middle and high addressing the needs of access, equity, and knowledge about school readiness through of the whole student inclusion into policies, money for students, confident, competent beyond the classroom processes, and programs training educators, and reading skills by supporting and incorporating financial expanding mental health literacy into curriculum programs and services and programs For more information on any of these initiatives, please visit www.rcoe.us/initiatives. 1 School Nurses Taking Center Stage Bevy Escobar, Perris Union HSD ESSENTIAL STAFF When Perris Union High School “We tried to give people a sense of “A pandemic pushes you as a society District nurse, Bevy Escobar, left her control over that fear,” Bevy said. to consider better ways to mitigate role as a nurse in a hospital seven “It’s one thing to keep yourself these types of situations. History years ago, she thought that being calm because you have a family and repeats itself and it’s important a school nurse would mean sitting elderly parents, but it was a whole to always remember what has in the office waiting for students to other thing with students and staff happened and learn from it,” Bevy come by with a question or a need coming to you constantly.” said. “Life is always going to take you for a Band-Aid. forward. Everybody is a hero, and For the next year, all school nurses we’ve all sacrificed for the kids. I feel In actuality, her role required her to were thrust into the spotlight; blessed to be part of the process.” come up with health strategies to stepping in for press conferences, keep thousands of kids healthy—a leading expeditions to secure major responsibility that she personal protective equipment describes as “the most fun and (PPE), giving board presentations, intellectually challenging feat of my and making drop-in Zoom health “It’s one thing to career.” consultations. keep yourself calm And, that was before COVID-19. “For the most part, our job is a behind-the-scenes job and nobody because you have a “The first time I heard about this really knows what we’re doing each family and elderly coronavirus, I figured it was going day,” Bevy said. “It was interesting to to be another flu that we would get be up front and to be the face of the parents, but it was past,” Bevy said. “The first time I response.” a whole other thing addressed it was with the assistant superintendent, and I told him we’d Bevy described an aspect of nursing with students and keep an eye on it. I’ll never forget as regularly reflecting on life and the that conversation, because only days profession. Even when you’re doing staff coming to you later, we were shutting down. It took everything right, a patient’s health constantly.” us all by surprise.” can still go downhill and there’s no explanation or different steps you Bevy and her team’s initial role was could have taken. For more information on any of these initiatives, to help teach people how to protect please visit www.rcoe.us/initiatives. themselves. 2 Converting Bus Stops Into Nutrition Stations Jesse Gutierrez and Steve Styers, Palo Verde USD When schools closed in Riverside “Even though we hardly knew each County on March 13, 2020, students other before, Jesse and I both said we weren’t just prevented from would do whatever we could,” Steve attending their local schools. Many said. “Every single vehicle available students who relied on schools for was running meals out to kids— breakfast and lunch were figuring including our own personal vehicles. out where to find their next meal. We worked and re-worked the route to where we could make it happen Quick thinking and inventive with six buses and vans.” solutions by staff in all districts transformed cafeteria operations to From mid-March to July 30 alone, grab and go food distributions for PVUSD delivered 142,818 meals at students and families. 98 different stops along six routes— EVERYDAY HERO “This is what you ask for in a career, to be given that opportunity to step up in a positive manner.” In the Palo Verde Unified School even mixing in the delivery of District (PVUSD), an unlikely instructional packets with food bags partnership materialized between as every staff member on their teams Jesse Gutierrez, Supervisor of was focused on the goal of serving Nutrition Services, and Steve students. Styers, Coordinator of Facilities, Maintenance, Operations, and “We knew there was a significant Transportation. need, and this was an opportunity to make a big difference,” Steve said. “Students rely on our meals for “Being able to see the expression survival,” Jesse said. “Some students of gratitude in kids’ faces meant were many miles away from their everything. That kept us going and Jesse Gutierrez (left) and Steve Styers (right) stand inside a PVUSD bus filled with meals for students. nearest schools in the rural areas, drove us to keep finding ways to and only a fraction of students improve and expand. Knowing that were able to come and pick up their we had a chance to make a difference meals.” in a situation that was entirely new for all of us, was incredible.” After studying the food distribution data, Steve and Jesse hatched a “In the midst of everything, as plan to ensure that all students exhausted as I was, there was always could be served. Instead of more push to keep going because delivering students to school, I knew I was making a difference,” PVUSD’s transportation team began Jesse said.

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