Lucia Mar, SLO County’s largest school district, will not reopen campuses in fall
San Luis Obispo County’s largest K-12 school district, Lucia Mar Unified, will require distance learning for the start of the 2020-21 school year, the district announced Tuesday.
The unanimous decision by the Lucia Mar Board of Education came just a day after the county was placed on the California Department of Public Health’s “watch list” for a recent spike COVID-19 cases.
The school district will begin its online-only school year on Aug. 13. After the board’s meeting, parents with children in the school district were sent an email outlining basic information about the decision.
Lucia Mar schools, which educate about 10,200 students, previously implemented fully online schooling during the first coronavirus-related closures in the spring. But with more time to prepare and create an online curriculum, the coursework will be far more rigorous, Amy Jacobs, the district’s communications director, said in a statement.
Daily attendance will be required for all students, and the school schedule will look similar to regular, pre-coronavirus hours, Jacobs said.
Though an audible sigh of relief could be heard from board members after the motion passed Tuesday evening, the decision did not come without disappointment and anguish.
“We are painfully aware of how detriment to their future education this pandemic is,” board member Chad Robertson said, speaking about the students. “Make no mistake, there is no replacement for a teacher and a child in a classroom.”
Lucia Mar Unified Teachers Association’s President Cody King said the union strongly supports the board’s action to move classes online, and he hopes that by keeping kids safe now, schools can reopen soon.
The school district will provide students with Chromebooks and food services if needed and is preparing administrative teams to hand out school supplies and instructional materials for use at home, Jacobs said. The district also is pursuing options for those who do not have internet access, Jacobs added.
Unlike in the spring, Lucia Mar Unified will not offer pass or fail options to students in place of grades.
Board received hundreds of comments
The board and administration received more than 1,500 comments about the reopening plan from the public prior to Tuesday’s meeting, which several board members said was surprising and far more than usual. Though some said they had not been able to read all of the comments, others noted they provided a range of the public’s perspective — from wanting schools to be fully open to asking for completely online courses.
Members of the public who commented at the meeting said they were glad for the safety precautions but, in general, hope for in-person classes when COVID-19 cases fall. Board members expressed similar sentiments.
The board maintains that “the safety of our staff and our students is our first priority,” board Vice President Colleen Martin said. “I know as a school district employee myself, there is no way that our employees feel safe coming back to school right now.”
Online-only learning was not the sole option considered before the board’s meeting. Instead, up until the announcement at the meeting, Plan B, an alternating half-day schedule, seemed to be the district’s reopening plan.
“It is our firm belief, based on evidence about the impact of COVID-19 in children and adolescents, that our children are best served by a return to as much in-person instruction as possible,” the plan stated.
However, health and safety concerns over the recent spike in cases outweighed the benefits of reopening schools even partially, board members said. Lucia Mar Superintendent Andy Stenson also noted that schools do not have insurance for COVID-19 lawsuits regarding students, putting them at a great financial liability.
When asked at the meeting how the board will know when to move from distanced learning to in-person learning, Stenson said he did not know.
“When you can’t dine in a restaurant and then we say that we can have 16 kids in a classroom, that’s a tough answer for us,” he said.
The board aims to hold another special session to further discuss the reopening plan within the next week to 10 days, Stenson said. Though they’re running against the clock as school is set to begin in just over four weeks, board members expressed their confidence that distance learning is the safest option right now.
“As a teacher, I want to be back with my kids. I want to be in the classroom,” board member Dawn Meek said. “And then I put myself as a parent, and if one student ... or someone in our community fell ill and died because of a decision that we made, that maybe just the pause button could have been pushed, I’d vote on the side of caution.”
This story was originally published July 15, 2020 at 10:57 AM.
