News on long road for schools
When I was sworn in as your County Superintendent of Schools at the start of 2019, I could never have imagined the strain our educational system would be put under in the years to come.
Looking back over the past two years of remote learning, vaccination clinics, extensive testing programs and myriad protocols — it can boggle the mind. Our students, families and staff have been asked to pivot, adapt, readapt and pivot again. And these recent weeks, returning from winter break to a massive Omicron surge, have for many in our school community been among the most challenging to date. The efforts of our teachers, support staff and administrators have been nothing short of heroic.
Now, we believe we are seeing the downslope of this third major COVID-19 case surge.
Positivity rates from our past week of school community testing show a distinct downward trend, data that mirror what we are witnessing in our county and elsewhere in our state. As of this writing, the data is still being studied by our public health partners and our own staff. But it does appear we may have passed the Omicron peak, as public health experts had predicted.
That is welcome news. But it’s important to keep in mind that the downslope of a surge has just as many cases as the upslope.
The trend is promising, but the hard work is not done. We expect significant levels of exposures will continue in some of our schools during the weeks ahead, and are continuing to make access to testing a top priority.
So, what does that look like? As you may know, all Santa Cruz County school districts, the COE, and the County Public Health Department partnered to open a new, large-scale testing site at the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds. That site is open to our entire community, and joins extensive school-based testing and three existing school-community testing sites located in Santa Cruz, Watsonville and Aptos. For hours and location information, visit covid19test.santacruzcoe.org.
All told, the school community testing has performed an average of 7,000 PCR tests and 600 antigen tests daily since the return from winter break. Results from our testing have given us a powerful tool to understand and respond to this latest surge within our schools. While it may not always feel like it, we are among the fortunate in our state to be
able to muster this level of response and keep our schools open — despite, and amid, persistent challenges.
Understandably, many of us have grown fatigued. But having seen the impacts of fully remote learning once, we know what we are fighting for. During this recent surge, many community members and media members have asked us about the prospects of returning to remote learning. There are very clear reasons we have held that line and continue to view distance learning as a last resort.
Going to distance learning, even for a short timeframe will be very disruptive to students as we have seen firsthand socio-emotional and academic impacts to students. And we’ve seen that our students who need the most support are those most impacted by distance learning, furthering existing inequities. State lawmakers agree, which is why they have passed AB 130, a bill that restricts districts from offering distance learning.
Our system has certainly been strained, as every educator and family knows too well. At the same time, our community has demonstrated remarkable resilience and adaptability. So whatever the coming weeks bring, let’s remember our top priorities: Closely following the guidance of our public health partners, and doing all that we can to ensure students can continue to safely and equitably access in-person education and have the tools to achieve excellence in our classrooms and community.
The Superintendent’s Community Report is a Sunday column written by Santa Cruz County Superintendent of Schools Faris Sabbah. He can be reached at fsabbah@santacruzcoe.org or at santacruzcoe.org. He can also be reached on Facebook at facebook.com/SantaCruzCOE and on Twitter at twitter.com/SCSupt.