March 14, 2021
Dear CSUS Parents and Caregivers,
We hope you and your scholars enjoyed the
sunshine this weekend and are ready to embark on a week of rich learning
(and warmer temperatures)! There are many updates and reminders to
share this week; please see below for information regarding
- Important Community Announcement
- Full-Time In-Person Learning update
- Listening Conferences
- Diversity Dialogues
Congratulations to Mr. Fernandez
TEAM CSUS is proud to share that Mr. Fernandez
has been asked to serve as Cambridge Public Schools’ interim Chief
Equity Officer for the 2021-22 school year. You can read Mr Fernandez’
full letter to the community here.
Cambridge Street is grateful for his nine years of dedicated, visionary
leadership. We look forward to his continued support of our school and
CSUS’ commitment to equity and anti-racism in this new role.
Full-Time In-Person Learning This Spring
Superintendent Salim emailed the Cambridge
community on Friday regarding the new requirement that all districts in
Massachusetts offer full-time, in-person learning this spring. Full-time
remote learning will continue to be available for all families this
school year.
In-person learning will be full days, five days a
week; it is expected that Upper Schools will begin on Wednesday, April
28. All families will receive a follow up message with a form to select
in-person learning for your student. Click here to read the Superintendent’s full message to the community.
Listening conferences
Last week Cobra Den Leaders began outreach to
families to hear about your scholar’s transition into second semester.
You are welcome to meet with your child’s Den Leader, or to reach out to
another teacher if you have class-specific questions. You can contact
all CSUS teachers and staff via email; most email addresses are a
combination of the individual’s first initial and last name @cpsd.us.
For example, you can reach Christen Sohn at csohn@cpsd.us. If you need assistance finding an email address, please reach out to Ms. Sohn or Ms. Robinson.
If you would like to provide feedback via survey
instead of a listening conference, you can access our survey here.
Diversity Dialogues
Last Wednesday caregivers and educators gathered
for our first Diversity Dialogue Community Care Clinic event of the
year! The event, designed by guest facilitator Naqibah Al-Kaleem,
reflected the need we have heard from caregivers to come together and
build community so we can begin to heal after experiencing the dueling
pandemics, racism and COVID. One caregiver summed up the event perfectly
by sharing:
"I REALLY appreciated spending time with the
educators in my group... I appreciated how open they were with me. I
think just being in the room with them helped me to feel that things
will be okay. Sometimes the fear of how this all will affect my scholar
seeps into my engagement with him. So I'm nervous and on edge. But
talking to the educators in my group and connecting with them on a
person to person level - it makes me feel more comfortable knowing that
he is with good people who care about him."
We are looking forward to continuing these
conversations and more at our next event in April, and hope that you can
join us!
As always, thank you for entrusting Cambridge
Street with your scholar’s learning. We understand that you have
choices regarding your child’s education, and we appreciate you choosing
CSUS.
Peace,
Manuel and Christen