Schools make closures official
Districts in six Bay Area counties announce that their campuses will remain shuttered through the end of the academic year.
Schools across six Bay Area counties will remain shuttered through the rest of the academic year, officials announced Tuesday.
The decision officially confirms what state and local officials already said was all but inevitable given the ongoing rise of coronavirus cases across the region and the need to continue to shelter in place.
“We know that social distancing is the most powerful weapon in slowing the spread of COVID19,” said Dr. Chris Farnitano, health officer for Contra Costa County, in a statement. “As hard as it is to extend school closures, we know that it is critical to protecting the health and safety of all residents of Contra Costa County and the Bay Area in general.”
The announcement applies to all public schools in Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Mateo, Santa Clara and San Francisco counties, with nearly 1 million students affected.
Oakland Unified was among the first districts to announce that schools would not reopen in May.
Most, if not all, districts across the state are expected to remain closed this school year, continuing to teach students online or through other means of distance learning, including phone calls and paper packets.
“I want to be clear: The 20192020 school year has not ended,” said San Francisco Superintendent Vincent Matthews. “Learning will continue to the greatest extent possible through both digital and nondigital interactive teacherled learning.”
The state has allocated $100 million to help districts upgrade or purchase technology, and private companies like Comcast, Verizon and Google are offering free WiFi access.
But what that looks like in each district already varies greatly. In Santa Clara Unified, 98% of students were participating in distance learning last week via either videoconferences or other contact with teachers. The district started ramping up online learning in midMarch after the district closed schools.
Other districts, however, have been negotiating with teachers unions to determine what will be expected of teachers, while also launching teachertraining webinars to help get educators up to speed on technology.
Berkeley, Oakland and San Francisco expect to start formal distance learning Monday, with distribution of Chromebooks and other technology continuing this week.
In many districts, teachers have provided students learning opportunities or even optional assignments but have not necessarily started teaching the curriculum or gradelevel academic content.
Some have organized class video conferences or have recorded lessons on YouTube or other platforms for students to watch on their own time.
Yet not all children have computers at home or internet access, meaning they haven’t been able to participate in online learning. District and state officials have said students should not be penalized on report cards for not doing schoolwork during the entirety of the closure.
“We want to make sure every child has a device and has access to the internet,” said San Francisco school board President Mark Sanchez. “I’m sure that will be our biggest challenge.”
Districts across the Bay Area had hoped to reopen schools this week after closing in midMarch, with the reopening date then pushed to May 4.
But last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom and state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond acknowledged that given the safety and health concerns, schools would not be able to reopen.
The state announcement was not a directive, with each district required to make the determination individually. Several districts quickly announced that schools would not reopen. Others waited several days before making the same announcement.
The longterm closure will have a significant impact on grading and curriculum as well as rites of passage for high school seniors, including postponement or cancellation of inperson graduation ceremonies and proms.
And how much students learn during the rest of the school year will vary greatly by school and district, Sanchez said.
“I anticipate it will be not nearly as much as students would normally get in a classroom setting,” Sanchez said. “It’s going to be all over the map.”