School reopenings threatened
Surge could mean some Bay Area schools won’t return to classroom until next school year
For public school parents anxious about their kids’ struggles with online distance learning at home, the recent coronavirus case surge is a dispiriting sign likely to further delay a return to the classroom.
And some school officials are starting to fear that an ongoing winter outbreak could keep kids from coming back until next school year.
California’s move on Monday of dozens of counties to the most restrictive red and purple reopening tiers doesn’t change anything immediately — students who already were having in-class instruction are allowed to continue. But schools that were tentatively targeting a return to class later this year or early next year are signaling to parents that may be unrealistic.
At least one large Bay Area district even suggested that if they are unable to bring older students back to classrooms in January, they may have to wait until next summer or fall.
“I wish we had better news to preserve the option of reopening secondary schools for students desperate to get back,” Palo Alto Unified School District Superintendent Don Austin said Tuesday. “If we are unable to reopen at the semester, we may remain in the status quo at the secondary level for the remainder of the year.”
From Dublin to Fremont to San Jose, school officials are scrambling to reexamine their plans after Gov. Gavin Newsom’s announcement Monday that the state was hitting the “emergency brake” on reopening. The dilemmas are as diverse as the districts.
Under the state’s reopening framework, for the most restrictive purple-tier counties, in- class instruction is allowed only for elementary schools that received a stateapproved waiver. After a county advances to and stays in the red tier for
two weeks, or to the even less restrictive orange and yellow tiers, K-12 schools may reopen classrooms to students without waivers. On Monday, every Bay Area county fell back into the purple tier except for San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin, which moved back to red.
And that’s made things even more confusing.
Unlike most large public school districts where instruction has primarily been online, Palo Alto Unified already reopened its elementary schools in midOctober to all kids whose parents wanted them back in classrooms, and those 2,100 students will continue their in-person learning, Austin said.
But Santa Clara County’s return to the purple reopening tier this week may upend Palo Alto’s plans to bring middle and high school students back to classrooms by January. Austin said that while his district still is processing parents’ requests for transitioning their middle and high school kids to a hybrid instruction — part online, part in-class — those grades cannot reopen in purpletier counties.
Unless things improve soon, he said, the district will have to scuttle in- class instruction for its next semester that begins in January.
“Our efforts will shift soon to reopening for summer school and the fall,” Austin said.
For other districts that have remained online and announced tentative plans to reopen classrooms in January, that is also looking more doubtful.
At Fremont Unif ied School District, where no schools have reopened classrooms, the school board will consider an update Dec. 16. Dublin Unified School District continues to move forward with plans to open its elementary schools Jan. 19, but spokesman Charles Dehnert said Alameda County’s move back to the purple tier “may have an impact on our timeline.” Instruction throughout the county has remained online.
“We will continue with distance learning as we plan for the opening of hybrid-instruction in an environment that is safe for students and staff,” Dehnert said. “The question mark is
when. The ‘ when’ is out of our hands.”
San Jose Unified School District told parents two weeks ago it aims to resume in- class instruction in January but cautioned that depends on the outbreak situation, and a final decision won’t be made until late December.
Parents in most districts have been divided between those content to stick with distance learning indefinitely until the virus outbreaks subside and those
eager for their kids to return to in- class instruction out of concern that their education and mental health are suffering from remote instruction. Educators agree that while online instruction has improved since the spring, kids learn better in classrooms. And California health officials say they have seen few cases arising in schools this fall.
Daniel Rodriguez said that with the ongoing delay in reopening classrooms at San Jose Unified, he’s come to regret his decision to enroll his 5-yearold son, Jayce, at Williams Elementary, knowing that classrooms at most private and some public and charter schools are open to students and have been running without outbreaks.
“When schools that are for profit are safely allowing returning to school, it’s very hard for the parents to wrap their heads around why the unified school district isn’t,” Rodriguez said.
Another Williams parent just pulled her daughters out and enrolled them in Catholic school at St. Frances Cabrini out of concern that the district’s teacher union had not yet blessed its January reopening plan, putting it in doubt. The Diocese of San Jose, which applied for reopening waivers for elementary schools earlier in the fall, said its classrooms will remain open.
Jeannette Guinn said that while her 7-year- old Mia was doing OK with first grade online, for her 5-yearold transitional kindergartner Zoey, “it was a disaster.” They had their first day back in a classroom at St. Frances Cabrini this week.
“I asked them yesterday, ‘ Do you guys want to go back to online learning?’ ” Guinn said. “And they said ‘ No way, Mommy!’ ”
But for now, with the virus surging again, tens of thousands of other Bay Area students have no choice.