SDUSD DETAILS LATEST STEP TO REOPEN
Start date for Phase Two likely to be announced after next COVID update
San Diego Unified’s elementary students will return to in-person learning for half days, while middle and high school students will return for two days a week during the next phase of the district reopening schools — but there is still no start date, the district announced Thursday.
The district is planning to announce Tuesday a date for the start of what it calls its Phase Two opening, following the county’s update of COVID-19 statistics.
The district also revealed there will be a Phase Three and Phase Four to schools opening, which will gradually increase how often students come to campus for inperson learning.
The district’s reopening plans announced Thursday are subject to collective bargaining negotiations with unions, the district added.
For Phase Two, students in grades pre-K through fifth grade will get to attend school in-person four days a week — with students coming for half a day, either in the morning or the afternoon, accord
ing to reopening plan details released Thursday.
Meanwhile students in grades 6-12 will attend school in-person two days a week, for four hours a day of on-site instruction. Middle and high school students also will spend two hours a day doing “flex time,” which can involve independent learning, sports, extracurricular activities, internships, college courses, special education services, tutoring and student clubs.
On Fridays, students in all grades will do live online learning and independent work at home.
In Phase Two all teachers and staff will return to work on campus, according to the plan.
San Diego Unified is now in Phase One of reopening, where some select students with high needs have been invited back to campus for limited in-person sessions. Currently Phase One only serves students in transitional kindergarten through fifth grade.
Phase One is voluntary for teachers, so sessions are limited and vary by teacher. Schools are not required to offer Phase One sessions and some are not.
San Diego Unified says it plans to expand Phase One to include students in grades 6-12 and infant, toddler and preschool students.
Athletic coaches will also return to campuses during Phase One, and sports practice will begin Dec. 12, according to the district’s plan.
Phase Three will allow students in all grades to attend in-person for four days a week, without morning and afternoon cohorts. Friday will remain a distance learning day.
Then the final Phase Four will increase in-person learning to five days a week.
Throughout Phases Three and Four, middle and high school students will continue having four hours daily of in-person learning and two hours daily of f lex time.
For safety schools will require daily health screenings for everyone who enters campus. District officials have said masks will be required for all students and staff, unless they have medical exceptions.
Schools will ask parents to screen their students daily before school, either by a mobile app or paper, and schools will confirm the screenings when students arrive at school, according to the district’s plan.
The district says it is working on a more comprehensive testing and tracing strategy. Last week the district asked the state for 10,000 daily COVID-19 tests so it can test all students and staff every other week.
Meanwhile students who come to school with potential COVID-19 symptoms will be isolated in a waiting area then sent home.
The district will still offer bus transportation to “the maximum number” of students who qualify, including special education students and students in magnet school programs. Students will have to follow six-foot
distancing rules when getting on and off the bus.
Schools will continue distributing meals grab-and-go style through Phase Two.
Schools will start serving meals on campus in Phase Three for elementary students only, and students will either eat outdoors or in classrooms. Secondary students will receive grab-andgo meals throughout all the phases.
A broad plan
The district’s announcement comes as several parents have been demanding schools to reopen now and warning of the emotional and academic toll of continued school closures on children. A parent group called Reopen SDUSD has been holding reopening protests at the district’s headquarters.
Meanwhile district leaders have been adamant about reopening slowly to avoid facilitating COVID-19 outbreaks in their schools or in the community and to prevent students and staff from contracting the disease at school.
“We know behind every student, behind every educator eager to return to the classroom, there is a family worried about the safety of their loved ones. That is why our reopening plans are centered on the health, safety and wellbeing of our students, staff and families,” Superintendent Cindy Marten said in a statement.
Gina Smith, a parent who helped found the Reopen SDUSD group, said she sees the district’s announcement Thursday as an attempt to appease the public less than two weeks before the school board election.
Two incumbents, Richard Barrera and Sharon Whitehurst-Payne, are run
ning to keep their seats.
District officials said they are and have always been basing their reopening plan and timeline on science. The district frequently points out that there is another group of parents who support the district’s slow reopening pace.
“What we’ve said from the start is we’re not gonna focus on any of the outside factors; we’re gonna focus on the science,” said district spokesman Andrew Sharp.
Smith said she is skeptical of the district’s reopening plans announced Thursday, partly because many parents have already been dissatisfied with Phase One.
The district originally said Phase One would bring back up to 12,000 students for in-person services. But Smith said Phase One has been smaller than parents expected because it’s voluntary for teachers.
Last week, which was the first week of Phase One, district schools held 2,000 appointments for in-person support, district spokeswoman Maureen Magee said. The district has said it expects Phase One will expand to include more students.
Smith said some parents in her group are at schools where no teachers opted to participate in Phase One. Other parents said their children are getting Phase One sessions once a week that last less than an hour.
Smith also said she doubts whether the reopening plans will happen as the district announced them, considering that the plans haven’t been negotiated with unions yet.
“I don’t know how [Marten] can make this announcement before the union has been negotiated,” Smith said.
Kisha Borden, president of the San Diego Unified teachers union, said the union learned of the district’s reopening plan details on Thursday of last week.
“They’re pretty broad plans, and we really haven’t had a chance to go over them,” Borden said.
“I don’t want folks to see it as a fully fleshed out plan because it’s a rough draft; it’s preliminary.”
Borden added that the union will need to work with the district to decide what county COVID-19 case metrics and other safety thresholds will determine when to move from one phase to the next.
She said the teachers union ideally wants baseline COVID-19 testing for all students and staff before they return to campus.
“Definitely testing and tracing is going to be a major factor in any phase,” Borden said.