IN-PERSON HIGH SCHOOL PRESENTS CHALLENGE

More specialized classes and instructors make schedule shifting difficult

On Oct. 20, campuses in the Vista Unified School District opened to the general student body for the first time since March, in a move to bring 10,000 students back to classrooms.

Just days later, in separate incidents, two students tested positive for COVID-19. The students most likely did not catch the infection at school, but they could spread it there. And with six or seven high school classes each, that potential for transmission is multiplied.

In response, the district placed hundreds of students in quarantine, along with their teachers. The school board later voted to place the entire Mission Vista High School campus on quarantine — and back in virtual learning — for two weeks. As of Friday, the district reported a total of 14 cases at its campuses, and closed three additional schools — Vista High School, Madison Middle School and Roosevelt Middle School — switching all students at those sites back to remote learning, after positive cases were reported at each.

Vista’s experience illustrates the dilemma educators face as they labor over school reopening plans, and the even thornier challenge of opening high school campuses. It also explains why so few school districts have attempted it.

Officials confront seemingly in

solvable equations as they weigh the risks of COVID-19 transmission against the risks of learning loss and emotional harm associated with remote learning. For high schools, that calculation is complicated by complex schedules and large student populations.

“In an elementary school, students typically have one teacher, and their day is already set up with little modification,” said Bob Mueller, a program specialist with the San Diego County Office of Education. “In a high school, kids have six teachers, and no two students have exactly the same schedule.”

Health authorities recommend placing students in cohorts — small, stable groups that don’t mix with other classes. In high schools, it’s hard to create a master schedule that groups students together given their different interests, graduation requirements and college entrance needs.

“We’ve had to take a look at the (California Department of Public Health) guidelines, which very clearly says keep students in a stable cohort to the extent possible,” said Carlsbad Unified Superintendent Ben Churchill. “And that’s just not possible at middle and high school. So we’ve been trying to balance the need for students to go back to school, with the very real public health concerns if you get too many bodies in the same space at the same time.”

Not only do high school students have different schedules, but teachers also have separate, specific credentials that are not interchangeable. You can’t simply assign an English teacher to teach science or vice versa, let alone staff specialized classes. So creating blocks of students who move through the same periods with the same teachers is a challenge, administrators say.

“When state guidance came out, it was really written with a lens of elementary school, where you have one teacher who has a credential to teach all students in all subjects,” said Robert

Haley, superintendent of San Dieguito Union High School District, which has not reopened to the student body at large. “In high school, students have multiple teachers, all of whom have credentials for the subjects they teach .... There’s not that many te achers ready to step into bioengineering.”

In Vista Unified, staffing was a limiting factor in the high school closure. When teachers are placed on quarantine, substitutes must be hired to teach their classes, and it’s not clear that there will be enough substitute teachers in the near future.

Passing periods also pose a dilemma: How do you move students from one classroom to another while minimizing contact? There’s also the size of high schools to consider. Many comprehensive high schools enroll more than 2,000 students. Even with half of those on campus, that’s 1,000 kids — several times the number of most elementary schools.

On top of that, there are questions about transmission rates among young people. Children and teens are less likely to become severely ill from COVID-19 than older adults, and may be less prone to catch it. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that children comprise proportionally fewer cases of COVID-19 than adults, making up 22 percent of the population, but just 7.3 percent of COVID-19 cases, as of Aug. 29.

“It is unclear whether children are as susceptible to infection by SARS-COV-2 compared with adults and whether they can transmit the virus as effectively as adults,” the CDC stated.

But there are some wrinkles in that data; since children and teens are more likely to have asymptomatic infections, their cases may go unreported, skewing their numbers downward. Moreover, most kids have quarantined at home since spring, so it’s unknown how many will catch or spread COVID-19 when they go back to school. San Diego saw a recent increase in positive tests among children under 18, raising concern about their role in the pandemic.

Some health authorities believe that children younger than 10 are less likely to contract or transmit COVID-19 than tweens or teens, so school officials are viewing middle and high school reopenings with more caution.

“Guidance from medical experts indicates that adolescents have a similar COVID-19 transmission rate as adults, indicating that it is prudent for high schools to open later, while prioritizing the opening of elementary classes,” Escondido Union High School District stated.

Nonetheless, there are real risks to remaining in virtual school indefinitely. Without in-person instruction, some students just aren’t learning. Escondido Union High School District officials acknowledged at a recent board meeting that the first grading period indicated more students failing classes this year than last. That could impact graduation rates, and leave students with long-term learning loss.

Staying home, without the social contact students expect from school, is also triggering depression and anxiety. All those issues are bigger problems for vulnerable students including those in special education, English learners, and those from lowincome families. In some districts, including Carlsbad Unified and San Dieguito Union High School District, families have protested delays in reopening schools, arguing that children need to return in person.

There’s also the questions of whether school reopenings are elevating COVID-19 case numbers, or simply bringing them to light. Officials note that during a pandemic, some kids will get sick, no matter where they’re learning. Now that they’re at school, the positive cases, previously included only in overall county numbers, are reported by campus.

“I know some people were surprised by this, but this is our community,” Vista Superintendent Matt Doyle said. “We should expect to have COVID positives.”

Careful testing and case tracking on campus could help control community spread, Doyle said. And the desire to keep schools open may provide an incentive for students and their families to exercise COVID-19 precautions, he said.

Bringing students back to secondary schools on a broad scale will require disciplined planning and cooperation, officials say. Vista officials said that after more than half a year of pandemic, students take precautions seriously; no one had to remind them to wear masks or wash their hands. Educators said they trust students to do the right thing, under the right conditions.

“No one that I’ve talked to says, we can’t open because we’re worried about what kids are going to do,” Mueller said. “The challenge is, we can’t create environments that are likely to fail.”

That means limiting interactions in close spaces, maintaining strict rules for face coverings and hand washing, sanitizing facilities, and scrupulously tracking cases. Despite the challenges of scheduling middle or high school students in cohorts, some districts are considering it, said Erin Richison, a senior director for the San Diego County Office of Education.

“I believe we’ve been working with the high school districts, and many have been looking at how they can build a master schedule that would allow for students to stay together,” she said.

Students may be assigned to “linked learning groups,” where they take several classes together and share a group of teachers, reducing the amount of mingling on campus.

Returning safely also involves “bundling” mitigation measureson top of encouraging protective behavior, Churchill said. Ramping up testing and contact tracing for students and staff will be a final step toward safe reopening, he said.

“As we add increased testing availability in the county, we’re feeling much more confident about our ability to bring students on campus, and keep them on campus for a long period of time,” he said.