Opening of Tam schools delayed
In-person learning was to start on Wednesday
As school resumes Monday after the two-week holiday break, Marin’s coronavirus surge has derailed plans to return to in-person learning for five high schools.
The Tamalpais Union High School District, which had announced it would begin a hybrid schedule of distance and in-person learning on Wednesday, will delay those plans and instead maintain all- distance learning until the virus numbers look better, officials said.
“We are still operating under the guidelines that require Marin to be in the red tier to reopen,” Tara Taupier, the district superintendent, said Thursday. “If those guidelines change, we will reevaluate our plans.”
The red tier status, or tier 2, on the state’s virus tracking model refers to “substantial” transmission. Marin is in the purple tier, or tier 1, for “widespread” virus transmission.
Taupier said the district, which includes Tamalpais, Drake, Redwood, San Andreas and Tamiscal high schools, was hoping that the metrics could change by Jan. 19.
The Tam district is one of three where students will not return to in-person learning just yet.
San Rafael City Schools will start in-person learning at Davidson Middle School in February and at San Rafael, Madrone and Terra Linda high schools after the mid-winter break.
At the Novato Unified School District, grades seven through 10 will begin a hybrid in-person learning model on Jan. 19, while 11th and 12th graders will start Jan. 25.
Marin parents and students concerned about inperson learning plans may attend an online forum at 1 p.m. Monday with Mary Jane Burke, Marin superintendent of schools, and Marin public health officials Dr. Matt Willis and Dr. Lisa Santora. Details about the forum are online at bit. ly/3rIOIlU.
The focus on a return to in-person learning comes as Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled a $2 billion incentive plan Wednesday to encourage schools around the state — particularly elementary schools — to get their students back in classrooms.
Marin, which is ahead of much of the state in that regard, was used as a model in preparing the state plan, Burke said.
“What the governor proposed will sound very familiar to Marin residents,” Burke said. “It outlines the steps that we’ve been taking since May.”
Newsom’s plan
Santora, who is Marin’s deputy public health officer, said officials “have been sharing Marin County data and demonstrated successes” with the state public health team since early on in the pandemic.
“Marin County’s childfocused, data- driven and science- based work has informed the governor’s framework,” she said.
Santora said she and other Marin leaders “were heartened to see the governor strengthen his resolve to support the safe reopening of schools statewide.”
Newsom’s plan, which focuses on elementary grades but includes all schools, would offer cash incentives for each student who returns to in-person learning. That’s as long as the school has first set up safety and testing protocols — and commits to a series of steps, such as wearing masks.
The state is recommending that such a return to classrooms begin in February if the schools are able to meet the requirements.
“As a father of four, I know firsthand what parents, educators and pediatricians continue to say: Inperson is the best setting to meet not only the learning needs but the mental health and social-emotional needs of our kids,” Newsom said Wednesday. “In the midst of this pandemic, my administration is focused on getting students back into the classroom in a way that leads with student and teacher health.”
Details on the plan are online at bit.ly/3rO94tR.
Marin schools have already all completed school site- specific safety plans, which are posted at marinschools.org. Testing has already begun at many school sites. About 82% of Marin schools have already returned to at least 10% inperson learning, according to the county database at coronavirus.marinhhs/ schools.
Jeff Freitas, president of the California Federation of Teachers, said while the state aid is welcome, each local school district needs to find its own safety comfort level.
“Each school community is different,” he said. “Local plans that reflect local needs and that include the voices of experienced education professionals will be critical for success.”
Negative impacts
In the Larkspur- Corte Madera School District, super intendent Bret t Geithman said family commitment to in-person learning is up for the new semester, from 85% who attended from October to December, to 87% who will attend inperson from January to June.
“It is clear that distance learning has negative impacts on student learning and mental health,” Geithman said in an email. “This is why our goal in LCMSD was to provide inperson instruction in a safe and timely manner.”
“We opened our schools for all students K-8 on Oct. 5, four days after moving into red tier,” he added. “In LCMSD, reopening was not a choice, it is our obligation to provide this public service, which is funded by our community.”
In Mill Valley, parent Angie Miller said she needed more concrete virus transmission data in order to feel safe to send her children back to in-person learning. Mill Valley School District opened its five elementary schools and middle school on Nov. 30. The hybrid schedule is expected to resume Monday.
“I remain unhappy with the Mill Valley Middle School hybrid plan that significantly reduced instructional minutes and went from six courses to three courses at a time on a sixweek rotating schedule — with no access to live instruction for kids who could not or would not return to in-person classes during the most recent surge in cases,” Miller said.
She has sent a public records request to Willis, asking for more specific explanations on virus transmission rates at schools.
“My daughter is missing class three days a week because I do not feel safe sending her back in person during the surge,” she said. “The only alternative to in-person instruction was committing to a separate untested online learning platform for the next seven months.”
School virus cases
According to the Marin coronavirus school dashboard, there have been six reported incidents of school-based virus transmission. In addition, 72 students and 22 staff members have tested positive, but they did not acquire the infection at school campuses, Santora said.
“It is safer for a child to be at school than it is at many households,” she said. “Over 80% of transmission in Marin County is linked to transmission in the households.”
Even if people from outside the household are family members, it’s hard to be sure that they were not exposed somewhere else before bringing the virus back into the household bubble.
“You don’t know where Uncle Joe has been,” Santora said. “Even though he’s family.”
Newsom’s proposal, which will be submitted to the state Legislature as an adjustment of the state budget, aims first to bring back students from transitional kindergarten to second grade as well as those with special needs, such as English learners and homeless, foster and low-income children.
The remainder of elementary school students would follow shortly thereafter, with a goal to be “back on track across the spectrum by spring 2021,” he said.
Under the plan, districts that choose to transition to in-person instruction would receive about $450 per student, with the potential of up to about $700 per lowincome student, English learner and foster youth, Newsom said.
Even if a district decides to reopen, parents can opt to continue distance learning if they are not comfortable with sending their students back into a classroom, Newsom said.
During an online conversation with Newsom on Monday afternoon, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said getting children back in school and keeping them there should be the country’s “default position.”
“It looks like the schools as a unit of where people are, versus the community and home where people are, the children in school seem to be doing better when it comes to the level of infection than whatever is happening in the community,” Fauci said. “What we should do is do everything we can do to support the maintenance of the children in the schools.”