More sports as 7-12 schools stay shut? State update frustrates Stanislaus officials
A state announcement Friday allowing more sports to resume while tougher COVID-19 restrictions still keep seventh- through 12th-grade schools largely shut has frustrated Stanislaus County health and education officials.
Updated guidance from the state Department of Public Health and the governor’s office says that beginning Feb. 26, high-contact outdoor sports —formerly permitted only in the orange tier — now may be played in purple or red tier areas with an adjusted case rate of less than 14 cases per 100,000.
Those sports include football, basketball, soccer and water polo, among others. But purple-tier Stanislaus has yet to reach the required case rate. On Friday, its case rate was 25.9 cases per 100,000 per day, according to a news release from the county Office of Education.
“While we are happy that our youth will return to outdoor high-contact sports in the near future, we are disheartened with the misalignment, as junior high and high school campuses remain unable to open in the purple tier,” Stanislaus County Superintendent of Schools Scott Kuykendall said in the release.
The county Office of Education and Health Services Agency don’t have the authority to override the guidance from the state Department of Public Health, which says schools can’t reopen to the general student population until Stanislaus is in the red tier, which is seven cases per 100,000 people, he said. “We support schools opening, and if given flexibility from the CDPH, will act immediately to bring students back to campuses as quickly as possible.”
In the news release, Kuykendall and Dr. Julie Vaishampayan, the county’s public health officer, said there is a disconnect in the state public health guidelines. The county leaders said they believe schools should be “the first to open and the last to close.”
“The path to opening our schools to in-person learning is clear,” Vaishampayan said in the release. “We must take all actions to slow spread so that we can meet the criteria set forward in the state guidance and open our schools.
“The path for school opening advocacy is also clear. The only people with the power to change this are at the state level. Local agencies do not have the authority to be less restrictive.”
The issue of school reopening is on the agenda of two Modesto district boards this week.
At a special meeting Monday afternoon, the Modesto City Schools Board of Education will hear an overview of the district’s 7-12 COVID Safety Plan. The presentation will include a review of the health and safety measures, monitoring for COVID-19 cases, proposed/draft learning model and reopening time line.
Trustees will be asked to approve the plan to reopen 7-12 schools for in-person instruction.
Another agenda item is discussion of expanding in-person instruction at elementary schools. Trustees will hear a presentation on potentially combining cohorts and increasing in-person learning options for PreK-6 students to four or five days a week.
Tuesday night, Sylvan Union School District Superintendent Eric Fredrickson will present at the Board of Trustees regular meeting an update on reopening schools.
So far, the north Modesto district has offered the dual learning platform of in-person and at-home study to only transitional kindergartners through third-graders.
In a written update to district families on Thursday, Fredrickson said fourth- and fifth-graders will be able to have in-person education on a hybrid schedule starting with the school year’s third trimester, which starts March 1.
The students will be divided into two cohorts, with one group on campuses Mondays and Tuesdays and the other on Thursdays and Fridays. They will do distance learning on their days not on campus, which include Wednesdays for all students.
The new state guidance applies to all organized youth sports and recreation — including school- and community-sponsored programs, and privately organized clubs and leagues — and adult recreational sports. It can be found on the Department of Public Health website, www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/COVID-19/outdoor-indoor-recreational-sports.aspx.
This story was originally published February 21, 2021 at 11:24 AM.
