KHTS Radio Santa Clarita Radio – Santa Clarita News
During an emergency meeting Thursday evening, the Castaic Union School District (CUSD) board voted to return to school online until further notice.
Following the June 25 CUSD meeting, the board directed staff to move forward with planning for a blended learning model for the fall 2020 semester. However, district staff said that the necessary PPE for such a model has not been received.
“Dr. Ferrer soberlingly told us over 10,000 kids have tested positive,” said Superintendent Steve Doyle, referencing a Zoom meeting he participated in Monday. “When we talk about kids, we have to talk about staff. We have significant staff members at risk for exposure.”
Weeks prior, staff had been polled on their level of comfort to returning to schools, where 67 percent were comfortable. The same poll with the same staff was released Monday with 24 percent comfortable returning.
Board member John Richard questioned the reason for the no-limit online learning, asking what would be necessary for a blended model to be introduced, and eventually returning to full classrooms.
“We would look at the infection rates flatlining or declining,” Doyle responded. “Do we have enough PPE for our staff?”
“It’s up to every district, but Dr. Ferrer has said she wouldn’t open schools,” Board Member Laura Pearson added.
See Related: Hart District Votes To Begin Fall Semester Online, Work Towards ‘Blended’ System
When asked how special needs students may be accommodated, staff recommended learning hubs, as seen in Northern Californian schools, that would allow low-occupancy but face to face learning if the parent felt it necessary.
“The safety of our students, staff and community is paramount and if it’s not safe to do so, the CUSD governing board, in consensus with neighboring school districts of the Santa Clarita Valley, believes that schools shouldn’t reopen in a way that would put students or staff in harm’s way,” the agenda for Thursday’s emergency meeting reads..
During the special meeting, it was voted unanimously that schools would be fully online until further notice. Doyle recommended that the board meets more frequently than every two weeks to discuss infection rates and PPE on hand with the goal of working towards reopening with safety in mind.
Similarly, the Hart District voted Wednesday night to resume classes online starting August 11, for five weeks through the first progress report period until September 11, and will work toward moving into a blended model- with training for teachers to begin as early as July 16 an end goal of full classroom settings.
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Hello Mr. Melnarik,
My child attends Valencia High and I do not agree with in person school this fall. There are too many questions. One question deals with the flu. Do these schools ever discuss how they will deal with the upcoming flu season (October to Jan/February) and how will this be handled? Initial symptoms can be very similar for flu and covid-19 (for example, fatigue, body aches, loss of taste and smell, chills, sore throat, etc). What type of test would be required to determine if they have the flu vs. covid-19, and how quickly can those results be found out? I could see initially the flu and covid-19 could be easily confused. I also know they have been having problems with false negatives with the Covid-19 test. Meaning one could have Covid-19, but results come back negative.
I would expect initially, until tests results were back, that the whole school would have to be shut down. Do the schools have a specific plans for that as of yet? If a Covid-19 test were to be positive (student or faculty) that individual would have to be contact traced. What kind of procedures would the school follow i.e. time period of a shut down, cleaning for the facility, etc?
I do not think schools should be in person for the entire fall semester. Too many unknowns exist and testing is not at all where it needs to be, numbers keep going up and are out of control. Thank you for reading my remarks.
I agree, for planning purposes and most importantly for health and safety school needs to be on-line until Jan 2021.
Hopefully after that it will be much safer for your community- students/ teachers and the rest of us to see if school can resume with some face to face learning activities. Wait for the numbers to stabilize, the vaccine and some indication of herd immunity. That all any of can look towards before resuming life as usual.
Keep the schools closed until we find a cure. Yes. Sounds like the logical thing to do. SMH