Schools set buffer for in-person return
SANTA CRUZ >> Public schools still have a plan to return to in-person services in January, despite uncertainty among other industries and businesses revolving around the coronavirus pandemic that is in its 10th month in the U.S.
“We’re continuing to look at local conditions and working with public health,” said Santa Cruz County Office of Education Superintendent Faris Sabbah. “Our goal is to continue to provide in-person services to our highest-need students, but we want to make sure we’re doing that as quickly as possible.”
COVID-19 cases continue to rise in Santa Cruz County and reported deaths from the virus hit 83 county-wide over the holiday weekend, according to a report from Santa Cruz County Health Services Agency.
Despite the surge in cases, Santa Cruz County schools are still prepared to offer in-person instruction in January. Districts across the county actually anticipated the surge in COVID-19 cases and planned ahead.
“We anticipated there was going to be increasing numbers,” Sabbah said. “That’s why we’re waiting the two weeks after the break.”
While schools throughout the county are planning an eventual return to in-person instruction, they won’t immediately return to campus at the end of winter break. Starting Monday, the schools will make their return to distance learning online for the first two weeks of the new semester, according to Sabbah. Schools plan to allow in-person instruction to resume Jan. 19.
“I mean that if we assume that families are going to be gathering during winter break, we would anticipate that people would be more likely to have COVID-19 and that in a sense would create kind of a quarantine,” Sabbah said. “Those two weeks would be an unofficial quarantine for them to minimize the likelihood they would be contagious.”
The rise in cases caused a drop in ICU bed capacity and triggered a regional stay-at-home order for the Bay Area, in which Santa Cruz County is included. However, the regional stay-at-home order doesn’t affect schools.
Schools that offered in-person learning while their county was in a less restrictive tier of the California Blueprint for a Safer Economy are allowed to carry on with operations, according to the regional stay-at-home order guidelines on covid19.ca.gov.
Schools in Santa Cruz County have been offering in-person cohorts since October. Some private schools have offered hybrid instruction periods.
Districts around the county have kept a watchful eye on health conditions within their district and Sabbah believes the protocols the county’s office of education put in place will keep students, faculty and their families safe.
“I think that our protocols are pretty tight,” Sabbah said. “All of those protocols that we’ve put in place have made it much less
likely that transmissions take place at school.”
The office of education and all 10 Santa Cruz County school districts unveiled plans at the start of November in the event of a coronavirus breakout within any of the schools. The plan involves extensive testing of faculty and responsive contact tracing in the event of a positive case.
Testing of school staff will be done on a cyclical basis, Sabbah said in November’s public count y school board meeting. The California Department of Public Health is requiring at least 25% of all school staff to be tested ever y two weeks, he continued.
Districts are also prepared to offer surge testing in the event of an outbreak to get a jump on quarantining students, faculty and their families. Students aren’t required to get tested by the districts, but the surge testing will be made available to them and their families.
Districts will also be sending students and faculty home who test positive for the virus. They and anyone they came into contact with will be asked to self- isolate for two weeks.
Districts are also prepared to suspend in-person activities in the event of an outbreak they are unable to control, said Santa Cruz City Schools Superintendent Kris Munro at November’s meeting.
While the plan is to move forward with in-person instruction, for now, Santa Cruz County school districts are ready to adapt if they need to. Sabbah holds weekly meetings with district superintendents to talk about any changes to plans. The next meeting is Jan. 4.
“We just want to reassure folks that we are committed to bringing students back to in-person services and we are keeping an eye on local conditions,” Sabbah said. “( We’re) doing everything we can to keep our schools and community safe.