Rallies for full reopening ‘The district needs to know that people want students back full-time, five days a week’
Local families rallied to advocate for local schools to fully reopen, with demonstrations carried out on both sides of the Feather
River simultaneously on Tuesday.
Two parents each organized a rally with the hope of having Marysville Joint Unified School District and Yuba
City Unified School District schools go back to full-time, in-person instruction five days per week – the districts’ schools have been utilizing distance learning and a hybrid model, which combines in-person instruction and distance learning, amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sara Sandgren, who organized the rally in Yuba City, has a fourth grader and a sixth grader that attend
YCUSD schools.
“The district needs to know that people want students back fulltime, five days a week,” Sandgren said.
She’s concerned about the students’ academics, social-emotional wellbeing and mental health.
“It’s so important that (they are) having interaction with their teachers and peers,” Sandgren said.
At YCUSD, students in grades preschool through fifth are using an a.m./ p.m. hybrid model while sixth- through 12th-grade students are on an A/B hybrid model.
Sandgren said this poses a challenge for some parents.
“I know some parents are having a hard time having two different schedules,” she said. “Trying to get kids there and back and working with daycare and trying to keep your job I know is a struggle many parents are dealing with … and when kids are home, it’s difficult for them to stay engaged and be engaged when it’s over a screen.”
Doreen Osumi, superintendent of
YCUSD, said the district’s governing board gave direction during Tuesday’s meeting to pursue fully reopening for grades transitional kindergarten through fifth – they will be conducting a parent survey to see who would be interested in returning to the classroom full-time and who would be interested in remaining on distance learning.
“We know that there is a group of families looking forward to coming back fully – we need to know who those (are) and those who want to stay on distance learning,” Osumi said. “We’ve got to be able to meet both of those needs.”
With middle and high schools, she said they just started back using the hybrid model this week and it’s a little more difficult because those students change classes while elementary school classes don’t necessarily intermingle, and they need to make sure the health and safety precautions are in place.
“I appreciate our parents perspective and point of view,” Osumi said.
Sarah Hyatt has three children who attend schools in the Marysville Joint Unified School District – a third grader, sixth grader and seventh grader. She organized the Marysville rally.
“Distance learning is not working,” Hyatt said. “The kids are getting nowhere near the education they did (with in-person instruction).”
MJUSD students in preschool through sixth grade are currently on a blended learning model and secondary schools – grades seventh through 12th – are expected to return using the blended model on March 31.
Hyatt said with the blended model schedule, students have a shorter day in the classroom and picking students up in the middle of the day can be a challenge.
“You have to keep your kid on full distance learning because you have to work,” she said. “...I would like to see schools open back up full-time … (students) want to be in the classroom actually learning because they’re lost and they’ve gotten so far behind.”
She also supports those who want to remain on distance learning if it’s working for them, but it hasn’t worked for everybody, she said.
Gary Cena, superintendent of
MJUSD, said since schools first closed in March 2020, they have been working toward the goal of having all students return to full-time, inperson instruction five days per week.
“Toward this ultimate goal we empathize with students’ and parents’ frustrations and appreciate everyone’s patience, perseverance, and resilience as we work together to provide the most direct instruction in the safest and healthiest manner we can,” Cena said in an email. “The reality is we are in a pandemic, and we need an instructional delivery system that is flexible and seamless so we can transition from one instructional delivery model (distance learning, blended learning, traditional learning) to the next, and back again, depending on the varying viral transmission. Inherent in this, we want to maintain the relationship between the teacher and the student, so, in this uncertain and ever evolving time, students and families maintain one positive constant in their lives.”
Cena said, since new California Department of Public Health guidelines were released, they are working on plans to permit elementary school students access to up to four days of in-person instruction per week.