Making The (Roll) Call?
Newsom expected to give school reopening guidelines today
Governor Gavin Newsom is expected to announce a decision today on if schools in the state should return to on-campus learning for the 20202021 school year.
Newsom is expected to issue guidelines on whether or not schools should reopen during his press conference at noon today.
The Porterville Unified School District and Burton School District have both presented preliminary plans to offer families the option of having their students return to on-campus learning or continue social distance learning.
PUSD has tentatively set a phased in approach in which smaller groups of students would return to school on assigned days when the school year begins on August 13. The plan calls for the district to evaluate during that time when it can allow students to return to school on a five-day, early day release schedule “as soon as possible.”
Burton also has planned to allow students to return to school for five days a week on a minimum day schedule. Burton’s new school year begins on August 11.
But both districts have stated their plans could change based on the fluid situation. And the state’s largest districts, including the two largest, Los Angeles and San Diego, have already announced they will begin the new school year totally through social distance learning.
San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland School Districts announce they will do the same. It’s expected with the state’s larger districts to begin the school year strictly with social distance learning, many other districts in the state will follow that decision.
The state has issued reopening guidelines for schools, but since that time, there has been a resurgence of COVID-19 cases in the state.
“Since we’ve issued our guidance, conditions have changed dramatically,” said State Superintendent Tony Thurmond, “We know that in many communities throughout our state we’re seeing high rates of infection in the community.
“I think that if school opened tomorrow, most of our districts would open in distance learning. And that is a decision that I think is a good decision if conditions don’t change right now.”
Thurmond added, “In any place where there is uncertainty, we should proceed with caution. In many cases, that’s going to be opening in distance learning.
But the state has acknowledged there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. Many small, rural communities would like to reopen.
“We have some counties in this state where the number of cases is actually quite low,” Thurmond said. “Schools in those counties will actually be able to open and, if they’re following the guidance that our experts have provided — hand washing, 6 feet of spacing, maintaining physical distance and of course, everyone wearing a face covering — we believe that those schools can open safely.”
But the cost of such items as face coverings and cleaning supplies for schools to reopen will be
prohibitive. It could be in the range of $8 million along for PUSD.
On Thursday Thurmond also said the state will do its best to provide schools with distance-learning standards. “We have to make it stronger and have to address equity issues,” said Thurmond about social distance learning. “This is the toughest experience that most of us will experience in our lifetime.”
It’s estimated 1 in 6 children in the state don’t have access to the internet at home.
The California Federation of Teachers, which represents 120,000 teachers and school employees has stated: “We urge the Governor to take action and delay the reopening of schools until we can guarantee our schools are safe. The stakes are as high as it gets, and we have only one chance to get this right,”
The California Teachers’ Association, which represents 310,000 members, has stated bluntly: “We cannot reopen schools until it is safe.”
Another issue to consider is the status of high school fall sports. It would be difficult to hold competitive sports this fall if students don’t return to campus.
The California Interscholastic Federation was scheduled to offer guidelines when it came to the status of fall sports on Monday. But the CIF’S guidelines will certainly be affected by whatever guidelines Governor Newsom is expected to announce today.