Oceanside will close elementary schools
Oceanside elementary schools will close their campuses starting Monday and return to virtual learning, the Oceanside Unified School District board voted Thursday.
The district also announced that it will delay plans for reopening secondary schools in person until San Diego County returns to the red tier of the state’s COVID-19 restrictions.
“These decisions were made to provide consistency moving forward, and as a precautionary measure in an effort to support our region as we work together to slow the rapid rise of COVID-19 cases,” the district stated in a message Thursday.
The county is currently in the most restrictive purple tier, which indicates widespread transmission of the virus, and is also under state-mandated closure orders aimed at preserving hospital capacity.
The new restrictions don’t apply to schools that have already reopened. However, Oceanside officials said the switch to virtual learning was taken as a precaution, and as a result of staffing shortages that occur when employees are sent home because of illness or quarantine requirements.
“With the recent rapid rise of COVID-19 cases, and our commitment to keep staff at home who are feeling sick, we’ve experienced a direct impact on staffing,” the district stated. “As a result of compounding staff shortages, we are unable to provide the amount of substitutes needed to effectively run our schools and classrooms.”
Health officials have said there is not significant transmission of COVID-19 on school campuses. Oceanside Unified has reported a total of 24 cases at its elementary schools, which reopened to in-person learning on Nov. 9.
However, any time a positive case is reported among staff members or students on campus, the school must send home the infected individual, and quarantine all close contacts for 14 days. Several districts that have reopened have said that quarantines of teachers, administrators and custodial staffers has left them struggling to provide instruction and sanitize classrooms.