"District leaders seemed wary, however, of digging into student mental health. Rudolph said that gathering data about student wellbeing would be a "heavy lift" that would require taking something else off staff's plate.

"Adding that would send people over the top," Rudolph said. "It doesn't mean it's not possible; that's just a heavy lift. It's not something we traditionally think about it in terms of school settings."

This concerns me so much. We don't traditionally think about student mental health in school settings? Am I misunderstanding Dr. Rudolph? Social and emotional health is part of what schools should be teaching and should be checking in on - pandemic or not. Might Dr. Rudolph be referring to the need for privacy when it comes to medical matters? Even so, some sort of survey of families or weekly check-ins with teachers could help bring to light students who are in need of connection or assistance. If teachers are wondering where and how to start then look into Responsive Classroom or Yale's RULER. SEL has a place in our schools as one cannot learn effectively if they are struggling emotionally or socially. Schools not only take care of our heads, but our hearts as well. This is a time for our community to pull together and go the extra mile for those who are in need. If our medical community can push themselves to help those in need, our educators should be doing the same for our young and vulnerable.

Meanwhile, if you ask those of us on the ground, we are spending time talking to kids, making connections, calling home, doing SEL surveys, playing games, connecting students to counselors - we *are* doing the work on the ground. It's what we always do, and part of who we are as educators. Making sure they are healthy, safe, and cared for is our top priority.

What I found most concerning about the board presentation was the data on COVID cases. Of my 120+ students, I have had at least 20 positive cases, over that number of "possible contact so quarantine," and several have lost family members. The district does not seem to have an accurate picture of the true transmission in our school communities, which is worrisome when planning for reopening.

" surging COVID-19 case rates in Mountain View, especially compared to the neighboring cities of Los Altos" - Many Mountain View kids attend the Los Altos School District -which has resumed some in person instruction- . Are cases broken down by school district?

Just a Teacher: That is concerning - does your principal/HR know about these cases? Maybe parents aren't always communicating to schools?

Take care!

@Another teacher: I've mentioned it, but there is no official reporting to district or admin. With everyone home, most kids just do what they can on Zoom and if they're really sick get called in. AFAIK, most parents just call in "sick". It's really distressing how it's affecting and scaring the kids. I do what I can to make them understand that their health and well-being is my top priority. With the news that Newsome is going to lift stay at home orders, I'm even more worried for our school community.

A waste of Money for CHROMEBOOKS - when thousands are sitting in the elemenrary classrooms in CARTS? The botched distict-wide rollout of iReady at the start of 2019-20 school year resulted in hundreds of poor students not having home (homeword/practice) access to iReady in Fall 2019 (before the quarantine fell). Stupid planning — poor kids suffering (again).

Then - wait to purchase new Chromebooks (for poor kids) while 1:1 computers sat in carts in the empty classrooms - unused? What is that?

Congradulations to Christopher Chiang - the only Trustee seeming to to have a clear view of things From The Student-Learning perspective. SEL is a real issue - and even semi-in-person (like Palo Alto and Los Altos) helps.