School opening delayed: Stanislaus districts change plans as COVID-19 cases keep rising
Stanislaus County schoolchildren will not return to campuses in-person learning during the first two weeks of August, as districts have been working toward.
That was the outcome of a meeting Monday morning between district superintendents and Dr. Julie Vaishampayan, the Stanislaus County public health officer.
The message from the doctor was that because of the 2,000-plus residents who have tested positive for COVID-19 in the past couple of weeks, it would not be responsible to open schools at least in the first two weeks of next month, said Sara Noguchi, superintendent of Modesto City Schools, which starts its academic year Aug. 10.
MCS and other districts will start the year with distance learning, as they finished the last school year. But Modesto has promised the new home study will be much more robust than that of March, April and May. There will be accountability for teachers to work with students daily, and for students to be logging in and engaging in their schoolwork. There will be grading and assessment of performance.
Modesto City Schools also will be working to expand its Modesto Virtual Academy, the independent-study program that’s been offered to families who were not comfortable with having their children return to campuses.
Because the county currently is not in a shelter-at-home lockdown as it was at the end of the last school year, Noguchi said, she intends to have teachers meet with students and their families individually when possible to ensure they have the support they need to start the year. Such meetings will take place outdoors, perhaps beneath pop-up canopies, the superintendent said.
Noguchi said Vaishampayan and her staff are working to create an outline of the criteria under which schools will reopen. The doctor’s recommendation is that when schools open, it’s done in phases, the superintendent said.
“The numbers are way too high now to have all those adults come together in a school setting,” Noguchi said, noting that Vaishampayan’s primary concern is the spread among teachers and staff.
A report by the American Academy of Pediatrics says the best evidence indicates children are less likely than adults to be symptomatic and less likely to have severe disease resulting from SARS-CoV-2, the infection that results in COVID-19. Kids also may be less likely to become infected and to spread infection, the report says.
In addition to starting the school year with remote learning, MCS also is canceling all sports conditioning and putting the brakes on any other extracurricular activities, such as band practices, that may have been planned.
The district’s early childhood education services remain open, Noguchi said. The child care center at Muir Elementary, which served front-line workers, closed June 30 but is expected to reopen, she said Already established practices, like no more than 10 kids to a class, will continue. Also continuing are the district’s 22 in-home child care centers and the full-day preschools offered at three campuses.
The decision to delay the reopening of schools was compounded by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s order Monday that counties on the coronavirus watch list, including Stanislaus, again close indoor operations including gyms, salons, churches and malls, said Scott Kuykendall, Stanislaus County superintendent of schools.
“Our numbers are getting worse,” Kuykendall said, “and the governor came out with this announcement about what is expected of counties on the watch list. It’s basically closing everything that’s indoors, so you can’t have schools opening with everything else shutting.”
This story was originally published July 13, 2020 at 4:02 PM.
