The Manhattan Beach Unified School District has announced that all of its campuses will be closed beginning Monday and instruction will be provided remotely.
Superintendent Mike Matthews sent out an email to district families last night after the city announced two reported cases in Manhattan Beach:
Dear Families,
This evening, we received notification that the City of Manhattan Beach has received information about two reported cases of COVID-19 in Manhattan Beach, one of which was reported directly by an affected resident. These cases have not been confirmed by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, nor has it been confirmed that there was any contact with other residents.
As a result of this information, and in an effort to be proactive in doing everything we can to protect the health of our students and staff, the Manhattan Beach Unified School District will close our campuses to students beginning on Monday, March 16, 2020, and will begin to provide instruction remotely (via email, google classroom, canvas, video conferencing, or other electronic platforms). This move to online instruction will remain in effect for at least a week. During this time, students and parents may come on campus (for an IEP, to pick up materials, etc.) with a scheduled appointment. We will continue to monitor this situation and inform the community about potential extensions of online instruction as soon as possible.
Over the past few weeks, our employees have been preparing for this possibility. We are committed to providing instruction that will allow us to continue educating our students. Your child’s school principal and teachers will be in touch with you to inform you of the details of these plans. While we recognize that there is no way for remote instruction to fully replace daily face-to-face classroom instruction, our teachers will be working to provide valuable educational experiences on a day-to-day basis, and we appreciate their dedication and creativity in this effort. Clearly, this is new territory for all of us, including our teachers, and I expect that we will be much better at this as we learn lessons and move forward.
School will be in session on Friday, March 13. During the school day, teachers will work to provide students with materials that they may wish to access in order to support ongoing instruction. Because much of our communication for the next week with students will be online, we hope that each student will have access to a device, and preferably one with a keyboard. If you need assistance with this, please have your student talk with their teacher (elementary) or counselor or vice principal (high school).
Please understand that during this time, all activities, events, and athletics will be cancelled as well. There will be no practices, meets or games, nor will there be any public gatherings held on campus.
We understand that this move to online instruction will be challenging for many families. We appreciate your patience and flexibility as we work to implement the measures that we feel are necessary to protect the health of our entire community. Please continue to stay informed about COVID-19 from the County Department of Public Health and the CDC and to implement all recommended measures to protect yourself and your family.
Thank you,
Mike Matthews
