Natomas Families, Staff and Community Members,
Hard to believe the first month of 2020 is almost ending, and the school year ends in just four months. If you have students in Natomas Unified, you get a number of messages from your student(s)’ sites and from our staff at-large. I have tried to scale back my personal communication and evening interruptions to you. That does not mean I am not working hard every day for our students, visiting school sites, attending sporting events, and advocating for students and staff. There are a few things I feel you need to know as we head into the latter part of the 2019-20 academic year.
If you follow us on social media or track our main web page, you can see the stories/videos of success, individual triumphs, staff excellence and all of the exciting things taking place. Our graduation rates and college access rates far exceed the state average and are at/near the top in the region. Student and parent surveys have provided positive feedback about our programs and activities. We have added or brought back more Career Technical Educational programs. To some of us, these are similar to the programs we had when we were students, except now (for example), we teach woodworking skills (and more) that lead directly into a construction career.
As you drive around, you probably see new schools, new buildings, and hopefully are seeing the modernization efforts at our older schools. We have or are modernizing American Lakes, Jefferson, and Bannon Creek while building our third new school in the past six years. All of this made possible through the support of our community through local facilities bonds. Our early planning and thoughtful work has led us to receive and/or be eligible for millions of dollars for construction from the state.
All of this being said, I want you to know that every day we are working to get better. Like every school district, each day a new student comes in with needs we do not yet know how to address. In some cases, we have tried some things to help a student, and the efforts have not been successful. We are clearly better than we have been but also have more work to do. By state metrics, it has been a few good years. Those metrics will rise and fall over time. Our focus remains on educating our children, regardless of standardized tests or what “colors” we are awarded for our results.
To our NUSD staff, thank you for all you do every day (the good days and the ones where there is not enough coffee to make that day better). To our families, thank you for trusting us with your students. We are imperfect, but strive to get better every day. We are proud when we succeed, and we’ll let you know about those successes. Please also know, we take our failures hard and are working on learning how to fail forward and improve from missteps. To our community – thank you for your continuing support. The more you share the positive and spread the good word among friends, at our grocery stores, coffee shops and our churches, synagogues, temples and elsewhere, the stronger our community becomes. As a long-time resident, I also know you keep us on our toes – as it should be. Please stop me and say “hi” when you see me out and about. It makes my day to meet my Natomas neighbors. If you are shy or just interested, please check on my new podcasts to learn more about the work our district does for our community at https://natomasunified.org/podcast/. I’ll be reaching out again soon.
Chris Evans
