Get ready, but not set, for in-person middle, high school to start March 15 in Stanislaus
A meeting of superintendents for school districts across Stanislaus County on Friday included a discussion of a timeline to reopen middle and high schools by the middle of March.
“March 15 is clearly a target, and I’m hopeful and really encouraged with cases going down so quickly,” said Sara Noguchi, superintendent of Modesto City School District, after participating in the meeting.
She added, “We want all of our kids in brick-and-mortar schools, but we’ve got to align health and safety protocols... We have to ensure that teachers, staff, student, everyone feels safe.”
MCS is the largest district in the county, serving about 30,000 K-12 students.
Waiting for another few weeks allows districts time to ramp up for students to return for in-person learning, as preparations are labor-intensive and require extensive planning.
Some district offiicials are hoping to get students back on campus even before that. Dana Salles Trevethan, superintendent of Turlock Unified School District, said in an email, “ The 15th is good, but earlier will be even better for our students in grades 7-12. TUSD will be ready to return students as soon as we hear we can.”
The county, as well as 52 other counties, is in the most restrictive purple tier as of Feb. 12, which doesn’t permit opening of schools.
“I guess we’re ahead of the curve,” said Terry Metzger, superintendent of Denair Unified School District.
DUSD set a target date of March 1 to reopen schools more broadly for in-person learning, depending on the COVID-19 burden in the community. DUSD has had small groups, totaling about 30% of their 1,300 students, learning on campus since last November, when the county was in the red tier. However, this was halted in early January during the post-holiday surge of COVID-19.
Metzger said the district began planning for their reopening soon after schools closed last spring, including input from parents, the school board, administrators, teachers and labor representatives, and consultations with county public health.
“We have to think of it as a runway,” Metzger said, “It takes a lot of planning.”
She acknowledged being a smaller district allows Denair more flexibility for reopening. The final decision about the March 1 reopening date will be made on Feb. 22, following the district’s core principles of “reasonable and sustainable” for keeping students and personnel safe.
Don Davis, superintendent of Waterford School District, was optimistic about the March date but added a word of caution.
“It would be nice, but we should be careful about getting students’ and parents’ hopes up, only to disappoint them should the infection rate increase,” Davis said in an email.
Nearly all of the public school districts in the county have been working on plans for reopening since the pandemic closed their campuses last March. Many of the districts were able to open for hybrid or in-person learning last November, when the county had lower rates of COVID-19.
“We are optimistic that 7-12th grade students can return to school campuses in March based on projected declining COVID-19 cases in Stanislaus County. We will continue to work with our local public health department as we move forward, “ Scott Kuykendall, superintendent of Stanislaus County schools said in an email.
The district superintendents’ discussions about reopening and vaccination of teachers and school personnel were in line with updated guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for reopening schools, also released on Friday.
CDC guidance for opening schools
The CDC recommendations stated, “It is critical for schools to open as safely and as soon as possible, and remain open, to achieve the benefits of in-person learning and key support services.”
The 35-page document emphasized the critical importance of unwavering implementation of mitigation efforts, including “universal and consistent” wearing of masks, hand and respiratory hygiene, social distancing, use of viral testing and contract tracing, and following local public health recommendations. The agency cited experience that many K-12 schools that have strictly implemented mitigation strategies have been able to operate safely.
“We’ve learned with our elementary grades open, schools that follow the health and safety protocols have less COVID,” said Noguchi.
The CDC said K-12 schools should be the “last to close and the first to reopen” after all COVID-mitigation efforts have been followed in a community, and maintaining in-person learning should be prioritized over non-essential businesses and other activities.
The document emphasized that all community members have a responsibility for protecting themselves and others from the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, as preventing transmission in the community is directly related to facilitating reopening schools.
A few highlights of the CDC recommendations include:
- Vaccination of teachers and staff is not a requirement to reopen, but immunizing individuals in the education sector should be completed as soon as feasible Stanislaus County on Friday announced a plan to allocate vaccinations for school employees.
- In-person learning should be prioritized over extracurricular activities, such as sports
- Officials should identify priority students for in-person learning, such as those in special education, low-resource schools, and kids at increased risk for learning loss
- Schools should provide the option for virtual learning for children at high risk or living with someone at high risk for COVID-19
- Officials should continually monitor viral activity in the community, using two parameters: the total number of new cases AND the percent of positive PCR tests in the previous 7 days in the community to adjust plans
Students’ well-being a concern
“We are getting more and more calls from teachers and parents concerned about depression and anxiety, showing up as losing motivation for the kids, even for doing things they like,” Metzger said.
Overall child well-being was cited by the California chapters of the American Academy of Pediatrics as the main impetus to get TK-12 students safely and promptly back to in-person schools, in a statement released on Feb. 9.
“We urgently need to get students and teachers in school safely!” said Yasuko Fukuda, MD, San Francisco pediatrician and AAP chairperson of the district chapter in California.
She said, “Families rely on schools to provide equitable access to a safe, stimulating space for all children to learn, opportunities for socialization, and access to school based mental, physical and nutritional health services.”
All school districts are addressing student and personnel mental health concerns as part of their preparations for bring more students back to campuses.
“Everybody has a story; some are traumatic,” said Noguchi. “We have to ask how are we going to allow for them space and arm the adults to handle what could be very difficult conversations.”
She said not only has everyone been living through a pandemic, but also a year full of social injustices and witnessing historic events at The Capitol.
The student member of the DUSD school board conducted her own survey of Denair high school students and presented the results at the board meeting, according to Metzger. The students identified mental health struggles as one of their main concerns.
“Mental health is a big part of our reentry plan,” Metzger said. “How do we warmly welcome students and staff in a way that is physically safe, but also mentally and socially safe.”
The full CDC document can be found at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/downloads/community/schools-childcare/K-12-Operational-Strategy-2021-2-12.pdf
This story was produced with financial support from The Stanislaus County Office of Education and the Stanislaus Community Foundation, along with the GroundTruth Project’s Report for America initiative. The Modesto Bee maintains full editorial control of this work.
To help fund The Bee’s children’s health and economic development reporters with Report for America, go to bitly.com/ModbeeRFA
This story was originally published February 13, 2021 at 7:35 AM.
