SCHOOL REOPENING PLAN APPROVED
Willits Unified School District (WUSD) School Board approved a phased in re-opening plan during a Special Board Meeting held online Feb. 24, with almost 90 community members in attendance.
In the first phase, students at Brookside Elementary and Blosser Elementary will return to campus for daily instruction, Monday-friday from 8 a.m. to noon and students will be sent home with a school lunch. There will be an option for students to remain on distance learning as well. Masks will be required on campus and students will be spaced six feet apart.
The district is still working on a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the teacher’s union, which WUSD Superintendent Mark Westerburg said is 75 percent complete.
Due to COVID-19 safety precautions imposed by Mendocino County Health Department, the
district is limited in opening at this time. Once the county enters the Red Tier, Westerburg said, “What we can do expands.”
Currently, WUSD can have 15 students per teacher in a classroom.
Sherwood School is the next site that will be reopened for onsite instruction, the nature of the school having three classrooms and three teachers for grades
kindergarten-eight grade complicates the reopening process of the campus. Baechtel Grove Middle School is currently in negotiations to open for sixth grade students.
Westerburg said, “We’re trying to get the plans in place the best we can and get the (Willits Teachers Association) WTA on board to get back into session. Baechtel is not ready yet, Brookside and Blosser are, Sherwood will be right behind them.
Independent Study will have some options to come to those buildings when we have slots available.” Westerburg also explained the district is trying to provide bussing for students that need to ride the school bus to campus.
Community members expressed their desire to see students back in the classroom after attending virtual school for a year. The Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) recommendation of schools returning to on sight instruction as soon as possible was sited during the open comment period.
Parents stated how much their children were missing out on educationally, emotionally and socially by remaining on distance learning for such a prolonged period.
Local Real Estate Agent Tara Moratti advocated on behalf of the Willits community. Moratti said, “The rest of the world has
continued to move on. I think it’s time for us to move on, too, to get our teachers, our community, our children back in school. I think this can be done safely… the current model does not work; it doesn’t work for anybody. Specifically, teachers, specifically students, specifically our community. I think it’s very important that people come at this with a solution-based attitude.”
Moratti stated that she was hopeful because teachers, by nature, are solution-based.
There was some controversy about Independent Study students possibly not being able to return to the classroom in the first phase of the reopening. Westerburg said that teachers would first reach out to parents to see how many want their children to return to campus at this time. If there are spaces available in the classroom, Independent Study students will be allowed to fill them.
The Board unanimously voted to approve School Sites Reopening Plan as well as consideration to open some school sites pending approval of Mendocino County Public
Health.
The Reopening Plan must be approved by the County Health Department before students can return for on sight instruction.
The phased-in reopening will not begin before March 8, which was given as a possible but not likely the date to reopen, as the plan is still pending approval and negotiations are still underway for BGMS as well as the teacher’s union. Phase 1 of the Reopening Plan will include all Kindergarten through 5th grade students at Brookside and Blosser whose parents would like them to return for on-site instruction.