Schools reopening hinges on staying in Red Tier, union negotiations

CHICO » The Chico Unified School District Board of Trustees voted 4-1 to send students back to campus on Oct. 19. However, that all hinges on if Butte County can stay in the Red Tier of the state’s reopening phases until that date and if a third option of instruction can be offered.

That third option will call for teachers to teach in- person and online simultaneously. The move allows for students who don’t want to shift from out of their school to Oak Bridge Academy, the online independent study option, to continue learning online, but still have the same teachers, curriculum and classmates.

But that third option has not been agreed on by the Chico Unified Teachers Association and the school district. Negotiations to iron out the details for teachers began Thursday.

“If we’re really going to put in place a third model, I want to have that nailed down before we reopen,” said trustee Tom Lando.

If Butte County can remain in the Red Tier until Oct. 19, schools will reopen with an a. m./p. m. model — in which half the students attend campus in the morning and half in the afternoon — a model that was approved by the board in July.

If schools reopen while a county is in the Red, but then the county moves back into the purple and more restrictive tier, schools aren’t required to close but instead must increase COVID-19 testing for staff. A school will be required to close if at least 5 percent of students and staff test positive for COVID-19 over the course of two weeks.

“Waiting another two weeks (to reopen) is not go to be helpful,” Robinson said.

Lando was the lone trustee to vote against reopening schools on Oct. 19 and instead wanted to reopen schools by Nov. 2. The logic for delaying reopening was to see if Butte County could stay in the Red Tier and if the low COVID-19 numbers were not a fluke.

He was also concerned that asking teachers to teach in-person and online at the same time would be piling on more work.

The district said teachers will be given two days, Oct. 15-16, to plan with their classes over Zoom on what to be prepared for when returning to campus.

“Having two days of prep time is not realistic,” Lando added.

The district said that it’s taken all the necessary steps to create a safe environment at school, which is why four members voted to open in-person school during Wednesday night’s lengthy special board meeting.

“I want to get our kids back into school on Oct. 19. I am in support of opening our schools on Oct. 19,” said trustee Eileen Robinson. “We have done an amazing amount of preparation. I trust us.”

The data the district presented to the board showed that 85.4 percent of parents preferred to send their kids back to inperson instruction while 14.6 percent answered no they will not send their kids to campus.

Safety

The safety guidelines the district presented include placing hand sanitizer dispensers at the entry of each classroom and around common areas on campus, schools will limit the sharing of supplies between students and masks will be required for all staff and students. If someone doesn’t have a mask, the district said the school will provide one.

Temperature checks will no longer be required at the front office for each day because that would “create a bottleneck and make social distancing almost impossible.” The board voted to remove that condition from the safety guidelines.

Touchless thermometers will be available for teachers to use and the schools will encourage families to take temperatures before bringing kids to school.

Social distancing signs will be installed next week in “high traffic areas”, said Kevin Bultema, the district’s assistant superintendent of Business Services.

“We recognize six feet of distancing may not be possible at all times,” Assistant Superintendent Jay Marchant said in the meeting

At the high school level, custodians will not be able to clean between passing periods, Bultema said.

Bultema said cleaning supplies will be available for students or teachers to use to clean surfaces.

Online learning data

Robinson, along with board president Elizabeth Griffin and trustees Linda Hovey and Kathleen Kaiser, all mentioned that they were concerned about the learning loss students have faced since the initial shutdown of schools in March.

Earlier in the meeting, Marchant presented an online learning update.

The presentation revealed that the all- day attendance rate for elementary school children was the lowest for homeless students at 82 percent. The numbers were based on students joining live online class periods and working on classwork from home.

At the secondary level, the numbers for online attendance were significantly lower than average, noted Tim Cariss, the director of Assessment and Accountability of Educational Services.

In the secondary level, students are attending online classes 88 percent of the time. Carris said normally attendance is at 95 percent.

“That’s a significant concern for us,” Carris said.

Foster students had the lowest mark at 67 percent, homeless students were at 71 percent and American Indian or Alaska Natives were at 71.5 percent. Students with disabilities measured at 82.5 percent and English learners were at 82.1 percent.

Modified schedule

In Wednesday’s meeting, a possibility of shifting to an A/B schedule for secondary schools next semester was brought up. The A/B schedule would allow for the student body to be split between two groups where half will attend inperson on an “A” day and the other half will attend on a “B” day. On the days where a group is not on campus, they would participate in school online.

One day a week could also be used as a collaboration or advisory day for staff and teachers to plan and collaborate.

The board unanimously passed to possibly consider the A/B schedule for the spring semester at the secondary level.