Dear TTUSD families and community members,

I hope you are having a great fall. We are a quarter of the way into the school year, and outstanding work is underway throughout the district to enhance the educational experience and options for all scholars.

I am very proud of our staff and grateful for the strong partnerships, collaboration and support we have within our district and community.

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Our Wellness Team and School Counselors hosted multiple Challenge Days a few weeks ago. They did a fantastic job organizing an interactive and empowering day for our students. Three Challenge Days were held reaching a total of 277 ninth-grade students and 27 youth leaders. They also hosted Challenge Day training for all of our sixth through 12th-grade teachers, which was new this year.

This special session gave teachers tools on how to extend the learning from Challenge Days into classrooms, other activities and overall student support. I am very appreciative of all the hard work our team dedicates to address the well-being of our scholars throughout the year.

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Last month, eight people from the California Department of Education (CDE) visited our school district to conduct the Federal Program Monitoring (FPM) process, a requirement for all school districts who receive federal funding. We receive federal funding to address students who need extra support, as well as for our English Learners and Career Technical Education.

The purpose of the review is to ensure that we are spending the federal funding as required by law and implementing federal legal requirements. CDE conducts a site visit every four years, and it is a very intense process.

Our site visit was extremely successful because of the outstanding programs and practices consistently in place throughout our district. I want to acknowledge everyone who went through this challenging endeavor and spent countless hours documenting how the District meets the compliance needs of the programs.

We received a very positive review from CDE, and this is a strong testament to the incredible work going on in our district and our amazing staff. Thank you!

We had two great Spanish-speaking Coffee and Conversation parent meetings recently. We tried something a little different and included a potluck. Thanks to everyone for sharing the amazing food that you made. It was all delicious!

Our next Coffee and Conversation meeting will be on Tuesday, Nov. 17, at Tahoe Lake Elementary, and I encourage you to attend and learn more about our progress on the facility upgrades funded by Measures U and E.

We have a fun-filled, hands-on, family event tomorrow night, Nov. 5 — the fourth annual STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) Fair. It starts at 6 p.m. at Truckee High and all students in our district, as well as their families, are encouraged to attend.

Winter will be upon us before we know it, and it is time to start preparing for snow. We are going to have a real winter this year! Our TTUSD website has information about our snow day policies and procedures.

In the event of a snow day, we will use our regular phone blast notifications, and information will be shared on our website and the snow phones.

Rob Leri is superintendent of the Tahoe Truckee Unified School District. Email him at rleri@ttusd.org.