Board to decide reopening plan
CHICO >> The Chico Unified School District board of trustees will decide the reopening plan for the fall semester during Wednesday night’s meeting.
The school district, which operated in the a.m./p.m. modified traditional schedule for much of the 2020-21 school year, is planning to return to a full-time, inperson model.
The proposed model created by the school district which will be presented to the board for approval includes guidelines for social distancing and face coverings.
The plan states that desks and seating of students and staff will be “distanced to the greatest extent practicable.”
The plan also states that the district will follow the California Department of Public Health guidelines which state “students are required to wear face coverings indoors. No face coverings are required to be worn outdoors
regardless of vaccination status.”
Masking of students has been the latest debate throughout school districts nationwide. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said fully vaccinated adults and teens can go without a mask, including at school. However, CDPH guidance still requires facial coverings inside classrooms at school.
Other local school districts, such as the Orland Unified School District and the Hamilton Unified School District, have pushed back against the CDPH guidance for requiring masks for students. OUSD Superintendent Dwayne Newman signed a letter addressed to state public health officer Dr. Tomas Aragon supporting students to go without masks. Jeremy Powell, the Hamilton superintendent, also spoke against the mask guidance tweeting, “As a public educational leader, I can not continue enforcing policies not only I do not support but rather feel are bordering on child abuse.”
In addition to CUSD’s reopening plan, the board will also consider submitting a letter to the state to adopt “local control over mask mandates.”
The proposed letter states that the extra staffing and new furniture have allowed classrooms to accommodate three feet of spacing.
Also on tap for Wednesday’s meeting is the adoption of district-wide goals and the mission statement. The goals that are approved by the board will be used as a guideline for decisions throughout the rest of the academic year.
The meeting begins at 5 p.m. and will be held at the Pleasant Valley High School Center for the Arts. It can also be livestreamed at https://bit.ly/3eBgVpM.
Comments can be emailed to the board at publiccomment@chicousd.org and speaker cards can be submitted at https://bit.ly/3rmDSCr.