High schools reopening Monday? One Stanislaus district says yes, and more could join in
The Turlock Unified School District announced on its Facebook page Thursday that because of a lawsuit, it is able to bring back junior high and high school students to campuses beginning Monday. And districts statewide appear to have the same opportunity.
As a result of a San Diego lawsuit that issued a temporary restraining order on the Jan. 14 guidelines issued by the California Department of Public Health, all secondary students may return to cohorted in-person instruction, the district says.
District spokeswoman Marie Russell did note that TUSD is awaiting word from the state on the matter. So is the Modesto City Schools district, whose spokeswoman Krista Noonan said in an email, “Modesto City Schools’ sites are closed for spring break the week of March 22-26; however, it is our priority to safely welcome our students back on campus while also doing our part to adhere to health and safety parameters.”
The temporary restraining order prohibits the CDPH framework from preventing seventh- through 12th-grade students from returning to campus, Stanislaus County Superintendent of Schools Scott Kuykendall said. “So that in and of itself is some of the best news Stanislaus County schools have heard in several months,” he said. “We’re still waiting to hear some official word from the state, either the CDPH or the governor’s office, expanding on exactly what that means.”
At the very least, it gives school districts a couple of days’ head start on reopening if Stanislaus County again meets the red tier requirements when numbers come out Tuesday. But, of course, qualifying for the less restrictive tier is far from certain.
“Regardless of whether Stanislaus County meets the red tier next week, schools will be able to open,” Kuykendall said. “The only decision that school districts are really going to have to make now is, are they going to go ahead and open with the plan that they already had in place? Many of those would then open next Wednesday or later in the week, which I think the majority will do. Or will they take advantage of this restraining order and open even earlier because they would have the flexibility to do that?”
Kuykendall said he shared the information on the court decision with local districts Wednesday night “just to give them a heads up.” His plan was to await official word from the state, but the news of the ruling became public quickly, he said.
Turlock Unified’s leaders have said that on the Tuesday that Stanislaus County qualified, it would be ready to bring students back two days later. With the court decision, its Facebook post says, “Unless we receive different information from the State, Cohort A students will return to campus on Monday, March 22, and cohort B on Tuesday, March 23.”
TUSD’s post also says distance learning will remain an option for families who don’t want their students to return to campuses.
An article on the California School Board Association blog says the judge in the A.A. v. Newsom case found that the CDPH requirement that students in grades seven through 12 remain in distance learning while school districts could offer in-person instruction to students in transitional kindergarten through grade six was unconstitutional. It denies the fundamental right to education to students in secondary schools, San Diego Superior Court Judge Cynthia A. Freeland found.
“Although Judge Freedland found that the State Defendants could demonstrate a compelling state interest in protecting the public against the spread of COVID-19, the CDPH Framework was not ‘narrowly drawn’ to serve the state’s interest,” the CSBA blog reads. “As a result, the CDPH Framework denial of in-person instruction to one group and not to the other violated the equal protection clause of the California Constitution.”
The blog says the ruling applies statewide, so unless Freedland’s restraining order is changed or overturned on appeal, the state may not require school districts to follow the CDPH framework. “The judge also ordered the district defendants to open their schools to the greatest extent possible at the earliest practicable time,” it says.
Several schools in Stanislaus County have been making preparations to return students to middle and high school campuses as soon as next week, anyway, if the county reaches the red tier of coronavirus restrictions. Turlock, Newman-Crows Landing and Riverbank Unified were among those planning to reopen on March 25. Modesto City Schools, which is on spring break next week, was planning to bring secondary students back on March 29.
Some smaller districts have already returned their junior high and high school students.
Denair Unified School District, with a total of about 1,300 students, opened in November, the last time the county was in the red tier. DUSD has maintained in-person classes with about 30 to 40% of their TK-12 students attending.
On March 1, DUSD began a broader, staged re-opening with welcoming back high school seniors, and superintendent Terry Metzger said about 73% of seniors are on campus.
Hughson Unified School District has also been open for all grades since last November with about 55% of upper grade students in attendance.
This story was originally published March 18, 2021 at 12:52 PM.
