Hi everyone,

MDUSD is holding a Town Hall TODAY at 3pm! Just go to mdusd.org/townhall to watch or participate.  See you there!

(this was in the Superintendent's March 20th Friday letter, which if you missed it can be found here)

Also in the letter, did you know that meals are now being served at 9 sites?  "With the addition of Bel Air Elementary, we are providing free community meals at 9 school sites district-wide for all children 18 years and younger. Please see the attached flyers for a list of locations and details: English Flyer | Spanish Flyer "

And here are a few additional resources that have come to my attention in the past week:

1. Free Meals App
2. Free Groceries 
3. Free Tutoring & AP Resources
4. COVID resources for Undocumented communities
5. Tools for Special Needs & Struggling Students
6. Mental Health, Non-screen Activities, & Spirit Week

Free Meals App

Check out this new free app from CA Dept of Education!

Our MDUSD 9 sites are on there as you can see below, so it's a great way to share this out to our community.  Contra Costa County Food Bank has been providing fresh produce at our sites too!  From MDUSD Food Services Director Dominic Machi: "I want to thank my MDUSD Food & Nutrition Services staff for supporting me and their students. On the front lines preparing food for our kids and distributing over 5000 meals in three days (last) week. As we asked my staff on the front lines, if they would continue to do the work needed? Everyone of my staff responded" we are in this for the long haul, these are our kids". They are now my heroes and could not be more proud. Take care and be safe to all!"

Free Groceries: Monument Crisis Center

Monument Crisis Center is helping with groceries for entire families in the Monument area.  See their flyers here for how to access food or donate:

Free Tutoring & AP resources

Students can access from their phone a ton of resources now to stay on track with learning.  Here's two that came up just this week:

• Free AP review courses, support, & possible at-home testing

• Free online tutoring for ages 5-18 at GoPeer.org, from university students including MDUSD alumni who are now at Cal

COVID Resources for Undocumented Communities

This comprehensive list in English & Spanish details national & CA resources for undocumented community members to access health services and education during COVID19. 

Tools for Special Needs & Struggling Students

This resource shows how teachers & parents can use over 30 Chrome web extensions that can assist students in five main categories:

• Text to Speech
• Readability
• Reading Comprehension
• Focus
• Navigation

There's even a way to verride all fonts on a webpage with the OpenDyslexic font, making the text more easily readable!

Mental Health, Non-Screen Activities & Spirit Week

Lastly, I wanted to share a few ways to keep your spirits up and things you can do off-screen:

• Check out these Tools to Bring Calm & Connection during Chaos, from MDUSD parent & school psychologist Katie Raher - https://www.constantloveandlearning.com/coping-tools

• Non-Screen Activities shared by MDUSD Health Teacher on Special Assignment Courtney Longua

• Spirit Week!  This was shared on Twitter by teachers from a few different schools: Ms Cattalini and Ms Moura. And I see some schools have their own they are sharing too.  Wonderful ways that teachers are keeping spirits up!