San Jose Unified plans to reopen classrooms

Officials target January if area’s virus status holds

San Jose Unified School District officials announced plans Monday to reopen classrooms in January to students who have been studying at home through online remote learning since the coronavirus pandemic erupted in March.

The announcement from the district with more than 28,000 students in 41 elementary, middle and high schools comes amid g rowing impatience among many parents with continued school closures even as coronavirus cases subside and many private, charter and small district schools have students back in classrooms.

“We are actively planning and preparing to welcome students back for in-person instruction in January,” said Superintendent Nancy Albarrán. “Our amazing staff are continuing to prepare our schools, including classrooms and common areas, and are developing training for our students and staff.”

The reopening plan assumes that Santa Clara County continues to show improvement in coronavirus numbers. The district won’t confirm the decision until Dec. 30, the last day before the targeted Jan. 5 reopening when the county’s ranking could change in the state’s reopening system.

Under that system’s four color- coded tiers, schools in the purple tier for widespread outbreaks cannot reopen classrooms unless they are elementary schools granted waivers by state and local health authorities. Schools can reopen after two weeks in the red tier for significant outbreaks, or after progressing further to the orange moderate or yellow minimal outbreak tiers.

Santa Clara County reached the red tier in early September and the orange tier in mid-October. Palo Alto Unified returned younger students to the classroom on Oct. 12, More than 50 other mostly private, charter and small public elementary schools have opened with waivers in Santa Clara County, but most large public school dis

tricts have not.

Oakland Unified School District also has yet to reopen.

“It won’t be before January at the earliest,” said Oakland Unified spokesman John Sasaki.

But with mounting consensus that distance learning, though much improved since the spring, isn’t as good as in-person instruction, as well as indications that schools have not seen many virus outbreaks, parents are becoming more eager to return.

Jessica Nemire, whose daughters Charlie, 9, and Maddie, 7, attend Booksin Elementary in Willow Glen, said she’s hopeful they can get back in the classoom as soon as possible. She has friends whose kids attend private schools that have gone back.

“I’d love for my kids to go back to school as long as it’s safe,” Nemire said. “I think my kids are doing the best they could, but it’s definitely not an ideal solution and certainly not a long-term solution. I’m cautiously optimistic they’ll actually go back in January. I would love to have them already back in school.”