Stanislaus schools well-positioned as Newsom reaches reopening deal with grant funding
California schools will be pressured to reopen this spring under a deal Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders announced Monday morning.
The deal aims to dole out $2 billion in grant funding to schools that have reopened by the end of March for kindergarten through second grades and high-needs students of all ages, regardless of the level of coronavirus transmission in their county, according to legislation that would put the agreement into effect.
High-needs students include homeless and foster youth, kids who don’t have internet access, English learners and those with disabilities.
For every day schools miss the April 1 deadline, they will lose 1% of the funding.
“So many of our kids and caregivers are celebrating this day because we all are united around coming back safely into the schools and helping with the social-emotional supports our kids so desperately need,” Newsom said.
For counties in the red tier – where there are fewer than seven new cases per 100,000 residents and test positivity is below 8% – schools must reopen elementary grades and at least one middle or high school grade to get the money.
Stanislaus County officials remain hopeful that the county will move from the purple tier, the most restrictive in the state’s grading system, to red when its weekly numbers are updated on Tuesday.
Monday morning, ahead of Newsom’s news conference, Stanislaus County Superintendent of Schools Scott Kuykendall told The Modesto Bee in an email that the deal appears beneficial to local schools. “Our districts are largely open at the elementary level and have been expanding to higher grade levels as COVID numbers allow. Many of our districts have board-approved March opening plans in place for grades 7-12. In terms of in-person instruction and students on campus, Stanislaus is further along than the majority of other counties throughout the state.”
District superintendents from across the county were to meet Monday afternoon to discuss the announcement.
The largest district in the county, Modesto City Schools, has had transitional-kindergarten through sixth-grade students getting in-person instruction a couple of days a week since November, using a hybrid model that has them doing distance learning the other days.
The district now is working to offer four or five days a week of in-person instruction at elementary schools by merging class cohorts. It will hold an online forum Tuesday afternoon to update parents and the community on that plan as well as the path to reopen junior high and high schools.
“For our 7-12 schools, we are actively planning on moving forward to reopen in a 2-day per week hybrid model once Stanislaus County moves into the red tier,” district spokeswoman Krista Noonan said in an email. “The board approved the 7-12 reopening plans at the Feb. 22 meeting. ...
“It’s important to note that with any of our TK-12 schools, we continue to offer parents the option to keep their student home in 100% distance learning if they choose to do so.”
The deal — contained in a newly amended version of Senate Bill 86/Assembly Bill 86 — concludes months of tense negotiations between legislative leaders, school districts and teachers unions. But over the last several weeks, a bipartisan coalition of parent groups and lawmakers have demanded a more aggressive school reopening plan.
Teachers unions, however, have pushed back against the pressure, saying that vaccines for educators and lower infection rates were needed to earn their approval of any blueprint to getting kids back into classrooms.
Kevin Gordon, president of Capitol Advisors Group, a lobbying firm representing school districts, said Monday’s announcement represents a path that “really will reopen schools.”
“Up to this point, there were an awful lot of hurdles and requirements that were getting in the way,” Gordon said. “This bill basically clears a very, very broad path for school districts to reopen as soon as they can. It’s very encouraging.”
Gordon said even though this initial step will affect mostly younger students, the legislation is designed to eventually apply to upper grades.
“We want to see this happen all across the state of California, and that’s what this package provides,” Newsom said.
The deal won’t force schools to reopen, but Newsom said he also “expects” the $2 billion will be enough of an incentive for districts to bring students back into classrooms.
The money is intended to help pay for new personal protective equipment, ventilation and other safety measures to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in classrooms.
“We incentivize opening up our schools by providing real resources to do it,” Newsom said.
The deal does not guarantee that teachers will have been offered vaccines by the time they return to classrooms, although the Newsom administration is setting aside doses for educators to get them vaccinated quickly.
Schools that have already reopened or whose school boards set a reopening date before the end of March will not face a testing requirement. Schools that set a reopening date after the end-of-March deadline will need to conduct regular testing if they are in the purple tier – meaning their county is reporting more than seven new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents and a test positivity rate over 8%.
The deal will also allocate $4.6 billion in funding for all schools to help them make up for lost learning time during the pandemic. That money can be used to extend the school year into the summer, reduce class sizes and hire additional staff to support students academically and emotionally. It will also force schools to report data on viral transmission to the state.
“As far as these latest developments with SB/AB 86, we are continuing to move forward with our plans and conversations with our labor partners so we can safely welcome back our 7-12 students and provide additional in-person opportunities for our elementary students,” MCS spokeswoman Noonan said. “We are also providing our staff with information on vaccination clinics and vaccine options that are available to them, if they are interested. We’ve also been offering weekly COVID testing for any staff interested in getting a saliva test.”
To join Modesto City Schools’ forum Tuesday evening, go to bit.ly/MCS-Community-March2. To listen by phone, call 805-324-7680. The passcode for English is 599 517 037#, and for Spanish is 626 372 228#.
