Schools OK’d to reopen — but aren’t

Concerns include COVID-19 case levels, inadequate testing

After more than six months of state and county health mandates that kept students out of classrooms, Santa Clara County schools have the green light starting today to usher in a phased return to real face-to-face lessons.

But the vast majority of school districts across the county are not yet biting at the apple — opting instead to stay the course through the rest of the semester.

“Our parents and students need some semblance of structure and consistency during these times,” Cupertino Union School District Superintendent Stacy McAfee-Yao said. “I think that’s a very important part of delivering instruction, and we don’t yet have good reason to disrupt the daily patterns we’ve established.

“Although we all have a desire to be back in our schools full time, we can’t do it in a healthy and safe way yet, so we’ll continue to move slow.”

When Santa Clara County moved from the most-restrictive purple tier to the red tier in California’s new COVID-19 monitoring system earlier this month, it allowed schools to reopen for in-person instruction two weeks later, on Sept. 23.

Unlike inside activities at gyms and shopping malls, the county’s public health department has not set capacity limits on schools. The county’s office of

education has advised that schools planning to reopen should do so gradually before welcoming everyone back at once, but it has not issued any mandates.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, teachers and their unions have played a powerful role in determining the approach districts have taken, with many unions demanding that they stick to virtual learning until their communities’ COVID-19 outlook improves and stronger safety protocols can be met.

But like Cupertino, most school districts have decided to stick to primarily distance learning, citing anxiety from students and parents, extended bans on other indoor activities and ongoing concerns about COVID-19 case levels and inadequate testing and contact tracing.

San Jose Unified Superintendent Nancy Albarrán called the decision to extend distance learning throughout the first semester “one of the most difficult decisions we have ever had to make as a district.”

The county’s largest school district, which serves more than 30,000 students, was adamant late last spring about bringing students back to campus in the greatest capacity possible while complying with public health guidance. Since the county announced its new red tier reopening restrictions, however, district officials have had a change of heart.

“Santa Clara County continues to prohibit activities such as indoor dining, indoor movies and indoor gatherings while allowing K-12 schools to reopen with no capacity limits or distancing requirements,” Albarrán said in a letter last week. “We cannot reconcile how a school classroom differs from other indoor gatherings.”

Cupertino Union School District — the third-largest district in the county — told parents and students in July that the entirety of the first semester would be taught online and district officials plan to keep their word. McAfee-Yao expects to decide by the end of November whether schools will resume any large-scale in-person instruction for the second semester, but welcoming all of its students back at once is not an option on the table.

“Right now, given the distancing parameters, it would be impossible to do social distancing with 1,000 kids in a high school throughout an entire day,” McAfeeYao said. “We just can’t go from students not attending school in person to 100% in full. I don’t think that would be fair to anyone.”

Up until today, only elementary schools with a waiver could begin offering in-person instruction again. Over the past month, Santa Clara County awarded 48 waivers — most for smaller private and charter schools but also a handful of public school districts.

Campbell Union received its waiver on Aug. 31, but most students are still tuning into their classes from desks in their bedrooms or kitchen tables at home.

Superintendent Shelly Viramontez said the district requested the waiver primarily to bring in small cohorts of students, such as special education students or English language learners, who need more support. Now that the county has the state’s green light to welcome back pupils, Viramontez is hoping to move forward with the next phase of the district’s reopening plan — a hybrid approach where classes are broken up into two groups, with each group coming in two days a week and working at home the remaining three days.

“That’s my motivation,” the superintendent said. “But I also recognize the anxiety that my families and my staff have about the unknown elements.”

Unlike many other public school districts in the county that did not apply for a waiver, Cupertino Union’s reopening plan was vetted by both county and state officials. In turn, Viramontez said she’s very confident with the district’s plan and the protocols it put in place to keep staff and students safe.

But she’s not moving fullsteam ahead just yet.

The district recently put out a survey to see whether parents are ready to send their students back into a classroom and has promised to give them at least two weeks’ notice before moving into a hybrid model of inperson and virtual learning.

“I feel like we are ready, but I don’t want to throw a party and have nobody show up,” Viramontez said.

Cyndi Bull, a grandparent and guardian of one high school student in Cupertino Union School District and two in Union School District, said she can’t wait for her grandchildren to go back to school.

Since classes went online in March, Bull’s grandchildren have struggled to keep up. Her eighth grader went from maintaining high grades to failing most of her classes, and her high schooler, who typically receives oneon-one help through an early intervention program, is not getting the assistance he desperately needs.

“They’re falling behind, and the dynamics here at home are intense,” Bull said. “Now that officials are saying it’s safe to go back, they need to because not only are my kids suffering, but districts that wait are going to have so much catching up to do with some of these kids.”