Superintendents give snapshots
Forum offered a look at how multiple school districts are coping with COVID-19
The Yolo County Office of Education held an Elected Officials and Leaders Forum in which school superintendents updated viewers on where their districts stand regarding COVID-19 protections and reopening.
Each education leader in the county was given ample time during the Wednesday event to show the current challenges and successes each district has experienced during the pandemic.
Participants included YCOE Superintendent Garth Lewis, Davis Joint Unified Superintendent Dr. John Bowes, Esparto Unified Superintendent Dr. Christina “Christy” Goennier, Washington Unified Superintendent Dr. Cheryl Hildreth, Winters Joint Unified Superintendent Diana Jiménez and Woodland Superintendent Tom Pritchard.
The forum, held via Zoom, began with a breakdown of the 30,000-plus students in the county.
Latinos made up 47% of the student population in Yolo County.
White students accounted for 35%, while Asian students were the only other group, over 5%, and made up 10% of the population. 17.7% of students spoke a language other than English or were classified as English Learners.
A total of 357 were deemed to be in foster care, while 13% of all students were identified as special needs. All numbers were provided by kidsdata.org.
The first presentation came from Davis Unified. Davis is currently in its own phase two, which is defined as a partial return and limited physical contact. The district remains focused on working toward phase three, which will be a full hybrid model. The date set is April 12, in line with the Woodland School District’s start.
Bowes stated that 90% of staff have reported getting their first or second vaccines. On-campus saliva testing sites will be on Davis school campuses.
Davis’s Return to Campus guide is being finalized and will gauge family interest in returning or staying home.
In Esparto, transitional kindergarten through fifthgrade and Madison High School students will return full time on March 22, five days a week. On March 25, Esparto middle and high schools will return in a hybrid model.
To combat learning loss and offer enrichment, the district will offer two summer school sessions from June 3 through June 23 and then June 24 through July 15.
Over in the Washington United District, Hildreth has just completed her second month on the job.
Washington’s plan to reopen schools includes six phases. The next phase for them will be returning to in-person assessments and bringing back small cohorts of in-person instruction, which would be their phase four.
The district is planning graduation and summer sessions for families and students and working toward a full in-person program for the fall.
In Winters, the six school sites, with around 1,500 students, are also on a phasedin approach. Their hybrid inperson model is set to begin on March 8.
Along with Plexiglass, full personal protection equipment, air purifiers, hand washing stations, thermal scanners and touchless water fountains have been installed, as well as weekly asymptomatic testing for staff.
Woodland is still set to begin in-person instruction for all K-12 grade students on April 12, the Monday following spring break.
Small cohorts of Special Day Class students have been on campus since Feb. 1 and brought back additional targeted groups of students on Monday, March 1.
To prepare for phase three, district staff and administrators have continued to adjust classrooms and HVAC systems, install hand hygiene stations, provide air purifiers and implement a robust contact tracing process, according to Pritchard.
Programs like Head Start, Greengate, and Cesar Chaves Community School under the guidance of the YCOE opened up in hybrid models on Monday, March 1 as well.
According to Lewis, 2,100 of the employed staff have reported for in-person instruction. An additional 1,360 are projected to return before March 21.
Before the end of the forum, Lewis estimated that over 1,500 YCOE educators had received at least the COVID-19 vaccine’s first dose.