Bay Area’s open schools dodge the worst of coronavirus surge
Outbreaks are few so far and not traced to classes; parents say they feel safe
Whitney Gaynor showed no sign of worry about the rapidly spreading coronavirus Thursday as she dropped off her son Beckett at Encinal Elementary School. The Atherton campus is among just a few California public schools where kids have been learning on campus instead of just on computers at home.
“We feel the safety measures are effective,” Gaynor, 38, of Menlo Park said as Beckett scampered out of her car in his face mask, grabbed an orange ticket after a temperature check to show he was fever-free and trotted off to kindergarten. “He loves it. He’s so happy to be with other kids and his teacher.”
As pupils at schools like Encinal take their socially distanced seats for the last time this week before their winter break, there’s more than the upcoming holidays to lift spirits. Schools that reopened classrooms have remained largely virus-free even as COVID-19 surged all around this fall, with record infections, hospitaliza
tions and deaths and a new round of restrictions imposed across the Bay Area this week.
But the debate over reopening more campuses to students around the state has only intensified. For most school districts, the current case surge puts tenta
tive plans to reopen after the break in January on ice. State restrictions allow only those now open or about to open to continue until outbreaks subside, which may take weeks.
And the handful of school-based out
breaks so far, along with rapidly rising case rates, have given districts that could reopen pause. The 32,000- student San Ramon Valley Unified School District this week shelved a broader January classroom reopening after an outbreak involving five staff members and three students at a high school for developmentally disabled adults.
Ann Katzburg, president of the district’s teachers union, said that was the right move.
“Our teachers are really frightened,” Katzburg said. “We want to come back and be with our students. But we also have to make sure we’re safe and our students are safe.”
But pressure continues to mount from parents and lawmakers concerned that kids are falling behind with the online “distance learning” from home. Assemblyman Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, has introduced a bill that would compel districts to reopen as soon as state and local health authorities allow.
At the Saratoga Union School District’s meeting last week, parents told trustees they were losing hope.
“It’s more than the district not having a solid reopening plan nine months into this,” said Kristen Terlizzi, whose boys are in second and first grade and whose younger son struggles with online class. “It’s the lack of urgency or attention to helping struggling children and families.”
There are no comprehensive national or state figures on coronavirus in schools. But local health and school officials have reported few cases and fewer outbreaks linked to the relatively small number of schools — which in California are mostly private campuses — that reopened classrooms.
“We aren’t aware of any confirmed clusters associated with any school site at this time,” said Neetu Balram, spokeswoman for the Alameda County Public Health Department.
In Santa Clara County, health officials said they continue to see low numbers of COVID-19 cases in open K-12 campuses. Since Oct. 1, there have been 54 student and 31 staff cases of COVID-19 involving in-person class settings and just two incidents of suspected school-based transmission.
Of the Menlo Park City School District’s 3,000 students and 344 staff in four K- 8 schools including Encinal, 23 became infected since classrooms reopened Sept. 7, with a steady trickle of one to four cases a week since late October and none in the past week. While all four district schools have had cases, the infections weren’t acquired or spread on campus, said spokeswoman Parke Treadway.
At Palo Alto Unified School District, which reopened for a hybrid inclass and online program in October, Superintendent Don Austin said that out of 2,200 mostly elementary students doing in-person learning, there have been 20 confirmed infections, none of which was acquired at school. And more parents chose hybrid over online instruction for the next term.
“People get COVID, but our schools have not contributed to the spread,” Austin said. “Many of our teachers and staff members say they feel safer here than in other parts of their lives.”
At Sunnyvale Christian School, the first to reopen classrooms in the Bay Area, enrollment at the private school has grown to 114, and there’s now a waiting list to get in. Margo Dickson, the vice principal and preschool director, said they have had “close calls” with staff exposures, but none tested positive.
“Our parents realize that if they want schools to stay open,” said Menlo Park City School District Superintendent Erik Burmeister, “they have to make good decisions when they aren’t in school.”
At Encinal, parents and teachers say the layers of safety protocols are reassuring. Students interact in stable cohorts or groups to reduce mixing of households and make it easier to isolate kids if there is an exposure.
Those in grades 2-8 spend alternate weeks on campus and remote learning. Temperatures are checked on arrival. Teachers are tested weekly. Each class has its own playground equipment, and they rotate recess play areas.
During recess, adult supervisors occasionally remind kids to keep their mask over their nose and mouth and break up clusters when too many gather too closely.
“I just feel safe,” said fourth- grade teacher Susan Preston, 58.
So does Melinda Au, who said her daughters Dee and Nina, who are in kindergarten and second grade at Encinal, are enjoying school more since they returned to campus.
“T hey seemed more happy, more content,” Au said. “I feel pretty confident.”