Panel: Pandemic hurt Marin schools

Formation of county task force urged to address learning losses

Although Marin K-12 schools have returned to classroom instruction, it will take a concerted and focused community effort to recoup from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new county report.

“In Marin's history, schools have never experienced anything as disruptive as the 2020 onset of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the

Marin County Civil Grand Jury said in a new 14-page report. “Marin's schools are now open, but damage caused by the pandemic will have lasting effects on a generation of students.”

The report, titled “Marin Schools: A Prescription for COVID Recovery,” was released on April 27. Its main recommendation is that the county should form a “lost learning task force” by Aug. 1 to unite various groups in Marin toward a common goal of stabilizing and strengthening schools and the students' experiences.

“The pandemic exposed a critical need for more active collaboration among Marin's 18 school districts to share best practices,” the report said. “A lost learning recovery program is urgently needed.”

Although Marin had 18 school districts before the pandemic, two rural districts, Lincoln and Union Joint, merged into the Laguna Joint School District, according to Mary Jane Burke, Marin superintendent of schools.

As to the report's recommendations, Burke said there was already “extensive work underway in our schools to address learning loss during the pandemic.” That said, the schools would review the report's findings to “see

if they can add value” to what is already being done, Burke said.

“It is true that distance learning for any length of time was not optimum for our students and that families were frustrated and challenged by the situation,” Burke said. “It is also true that the courage, commitment and dedication of Marin's teachers and school staff resulted in Marin's public schools opening several weeks — and even months — earlier than other districts in our region and our state.”

The grand jury praised the collaboration between Marin County public health officials and the Marin County Office of Education for their regular communications with the public. The panel also praised a 30-point school site specific plan that became a model for the rest of the state for how to return safely to onsite instruction.

The effectiveness of Marin's 30-point plan was noted in a peer-reviewed study published in the National Library of Medicine in November.

“The study, based on 21 weeks of data involving 17,639 students and 4,938 educators in Marin County, demonstrated that schools were low-risk environments for COVID transmission because they were structured, supervised and stabilized,” the grand jury said. “In contrast, the risk of COVID transmission outside the schools was higher.”

Also, the grand jury report devotes an entire section to the success of the Larkspur-Corte Madera School District in its COVID response and its quick return of students to classrooms. The report cites a February 2021 article by the Learning Policy Institute, titled “Marin County: Leveraging Education and Public Health Partnerships to Support School Reopening,” that celebrates the district's efforts.

The district “managed to reopen in-person classes most days of the 2020-21 school year with the help of split sessions,” the grand jury said.

“The district was forced to cut instruction time by breaking the classes into morning and afternoon sessions for most of the year in order to comply with required distancing standards,” the report adds. “Despite this reduction in in-person learning, the district was able to avoid a significant learning loss according to state test scores, which were equal to or better than the year prior to the pandemic.”

According to the report, Larkspur-Corte Madera School District, which opened for in-person learning in October 2020, had Marin public schools' second highest number of inperson school days during 2020-21, with 140 days.

The Sausalito Marin City School District, which received a state waiver to open in September 2020, had 176 in-person days, the report states.

Several other Marin public school districts did not reopen for in-person learning until the spring of 2021. Private schools in Marin reopened the earliest, the grand jury states.

The report also states that Marin districts' standardized test scores reflect the pandemic's disruption. Although the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress test was suspended in 2019-20, public school districts had the option in 2021 to take it. The tests measure math and language skills against state standards for thirdthrough eighth-grade students.

“With the exception of the Larkspur-Corte Madera, Bolinas-Stinson, and Lagunitas school districts, scores on learning progress fell for those other Marin school districts that administered the test,” the grand jury report states. “Compared to their 2018-19 results, the 2021 CAASPP results for Marin County overall fell by nine and twelve points for English Language Arts and Mathematics, respectively.”

Finally, regarding enrollment declines, the report cites early 2021-22 figures that indicate a 5% drop in Marin's public school enrollment, to about 32,000 students. Earlier this year, the California Department of Education said the figure was closer to a 3.5% decline — still higher than the traditional 1% annual decline that Marin had been experiencing for several years.

“While the state implemented temporary measures that shielded schools from financial losses due to declining attendance during the pandemic, funding is uncertain for the 20222023 school year,” the grand jury said.

“In Marin, the two of the largest school districts — Novato Unified and San Rafael Elementary — rely on enrollment-based state funding,” the report adds. “These two districts, which represent 36 percent of Marin's public school students, are at risk of longterm financial loss from reduced enrollment.”

In compiling the report, the grand jury said its research included 25 “confidential” interviews with “educators, healthcare professionals and other individuals knowledgeable about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the students, teachers, parents and staff of Marin County's public schools.”

The grand jury also reviewed data and materials “developed by educational experts on optimal teaching environments, the challenges of learning remotely and assessments of academic progress made by students in the face of the pandemic.” Other research included studying district “recovery plans, enrollment trends, and processes for sharing best practices and coordinating COVID response plans.”

The grand jury sent the report to each Marin school district with a request for a written response.

The civil grand jury is an investigative arm empowered by the local judiciary to examine the workings of government entities.