Burton, PUSD to close for rest of school year Page 3A

While it’s almost assuredly inevitable all school districts in California will suspend their on-campus classes for the rest of the school year, Burton School District took the official action on Friday to suspend its on-campus classes for the rest of the school year.

Burton superintendent Sergio Mendoza announced the decision on Friday. On Wednesday, Governor Gavin Newsom effectively stated students shouldn’t return to school for the rest of the school year.

“With this new action,” Mendoza wrote in his letter referring to Newsom’s statement, “and an abudance of caution we are taking a safety first approach and immediate action to extend the school facility closures through the end of the school year.”

But Mendoza added, “To be clear the 2019-2020 school year is not over, it has just transitioned from classroom instruction into distance learning. We ask for patience and understanding as we are all transitioning into a new way of teaching and learning to meet the health and safety impacts of COVID-19. It’s challenging to many educators and our families to learn and communicate in a very new world but working together we can and will meet this challenge.”

Mendoza went onto write: “We are also extremely concerned about the social and emotional well-being of all of our students and are working on ways to stay connected even at a distance. This is especially true for all students within the Class of 2020, which includes our rising preschoolers, promoting middle schoolers and most significantly our high school seniors.”

Mendoza also stated district and site leaders would be working on offering plans on how they could offer experiences in different formats. He stated in the coming days and weeks information will be provided on how grades, graduation, transcripts and continued distance learning will be handled.

“While we recognize this extension of school closure facility closures poses challenges and hardships to many families in Burton the most effective way to slow and disrupt the transmission of this pandemic is buy continuing to implement social distancing practices,” Mendoza stated. “We are grateful to community members throughout Burton for their tremendous prevention efforts during this unique and difficult time.”

Burton has also suspended its grab and go meal services for the time being. All children can receive meals at Porterville Unified School District sites. For information on PUSD’S grab and go meals program visit https://www. portervilleschools.org/ apps/news/article/1191177