Some Stanislaus County students will be returning to campus after waiver approvals
Eight private schools received approval Monday from Stanislaus County Public Health Services Agency to reopen in-person education for children in transitional kindergarten through sixth grade.
Two other private schools and two public districts — the nearly 2,600-student (in TK-6) Oakdale Joint Unified and the 140-student Knights Ferry Elementary — have submitted waiver applications still under consideration.
The private schools given the green light to reopen in-person instruction for small, stable cohorts of students are Big Valley Christian Elementary, Brethren Heritage School, Modesto Christian, Our Lady of Fatima and St. Stanislaus Elementary, all in Modesto; Central Valley Christian Academy in Ceres; Sacred Heart Catholic School in Patterson; and Sacred Heart School in Turlock.
The private schools with applications pending as of Tuesday morning are Turlock Christian Elementary and Modesto’s Central West Ballet Academy. All the applications can be read at stancoe.org/division/administrative-services/school-waivers-charter-private.
Tiny Brethren Heritage, on North Dakota Avenue in northwest Modesto, already had its 20 kindergarten through sixth-grade students back on campus Tuesday, principal John Fall said.
Among the provisions of its COVID-19 reopening and prevention plan are that teachers will screen students for symptoms each morning, a distance of 6 feet will be maintained among student desks and among individuals when possible, and students in a classroom will be kept separate from other students as much as possible during recess.
Brethren’s plan also says “surveillance testing” of teachers and other staff will be done at the nearby county testing site at the Salida Library. One eighth of the staff will be tested weekly so that all staff and teachers are tested every two months, it says.
Several schools to start classes Monday
Big Valley Christian, too, will keep students in fixed-membership groups. They will be of 14 children or fewer, who stay together for all activities, Superintendent Michelle Mott said in an email. BVCS, which will begin in-person instruction Sept. 14, is providing face coverings for all staff and students. They are required for children in third grade and up, and “strongly recommended” for the younger students, Mott said.
Among other protocols, all students and staff will be screened using a series of questions and a temperature check upon arrival each morning.
A few other schools that responded to The Bee’s request for information also are starting in-person instruction Sept. 14, including Sacred Heart in Turlock, Our Lady of Fatima and St. Stanislaus.
“We have one class per grade level in kindergarten through sixth grade,” Sacred Heart principal Sara Michelena said via email. “Class sizes are based on the square footage of the classroom (and) we max our classes depending on the physical distancing we can achieve between desks.”
Because some space remains available under the guidelines, the Turlock school is accepting admittance applications, she said.
St. Stanislaus principal Mercedes Hollcraft added that their reopening plans have been the “result of much time and collaboration among the Catholic schools of the Stockton Diocese.” Her school has 138 kindergarten through sixth-grade students, and she said she’s greatly looking forward to having them on campus.
Guidance from the state and county means the reopening plans aren’t dramatically different. They all address personal protective equipment, social distancing, plans for cleaning and disinfecting surfaces, health screenings, triggers for reverting to distance learning, and more.
A few notable points in Modesto Christian School’s reopening plan:
- Outdoor activities are prioritized, and singing is restricted to outdoor chapel only.
Students must bring their own labeled water bottles as all drinking fountains will be closed until further notice.
Classroom doors will be kept open as much as possible.
Teachers will be responsible for cleaning and disinfecting their classrooms each day after the students leave.
When appropriate, students will be responsible for cleaning and disinfecting their own desks each day before leaving.
The news came as the state announced Tuesday that Stanislaus County remained in the lowest purple tier, part of Gov. Newsom’s new grading system that will go toward measuring the ability to begin fully reopening businesses and schools.
Stanislaus, along with the majority of the 58 California counties, is in the “purple tier,” with 14.1 positive cases per 100,000 residents and a positivity rate of 10.3%. Those were slightly better from the previous week.
To move up into the “red tier,” which enables a softening of restrictions, the county needs to be at seven positive cases per 100,000 or below and a positivity rate of 8% or below.
This story was originally published September 8, 2020 at 2:13 PM.
