These SLO County schools can teach in-person classes during COVID-19. How will that work?
The San Luis Obispo County Department of Public Health approved eight elementary school reopening plans on Wednesday, allowing those schools to teach preschool through sixth grade in person with strict guidelines in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Although San Luis Obispo County remains on the state’s “watch-list” for those with elevated coronavirus transmission, increasing hospitalization and limited hospital capacity, Governor Gavin Newsom and the California Department of Public Health developed framework that permits schools to reopen if granted a waiver by local health jurisdictions.
The eight schools in San Luis Obispo County granted waivers by the San Luis Obispo County Public Health Department are small private schools, ranging from 20 to 150 elementary students.
The schools that have been approved to hold in-person classes are:
- Children’s House Montessori School in Atascadero,
- Coastal Christian School in Pismo Beach,
- Montessori Children’s School in San Luis Obispo,
- North County Christian School in Atascadero,
- Templeton Hills Adventist School in Templeton,
- Trinity Lutheran School in Paso Robles,
- Valley View Adventist Academy in Arroyo Grande, and
- Wishing Well School in Los Osos.
While each school’s plan varies in terms of where students will be taught — inside classrooms or outside — each must follow the same health screening protocols, mask mandates and physical distancing guidelines. All of the schools had to follow both state and local health guidance to create their plans.
The plans were reviewed and approved by San Luis Obispo County Public Health Director Dr. Penny Borenstein and her staff.
“COVID-related risks in schools serving elementary age students are different from the risks to staff and students in schools serving older students,” Borenstein said. “There appears to be a lower risk of child-to-child or child-to-adult transmission in children under 12 years old, and the risk of infection and serious illness in elementary school children is considered low.”
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said that children, including very young children, can get sick with COVID-19, though their cases tend to be much less severe than those in adults and they often do not exhibit symptoms. The CDC is also investigating cases of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) associated with COVID-19.
What will in-person classes look like for SLO County students?
According to one local school administrator, in-person classes are crucial for the learning experience.
“We care about our students,” said Tom Olmstead, who heads Coastal Christian School. “I think the most effective way for students to learn is face to face. A teacher can see if a kid is confused, or they’re distracted, or they’re tired by looking at them eye to eye.”
Olmstead said that most of the Pismo Beach school’s parents were “unreservedly favorable” of sending their kids back for in-person classes, while others were wary of the safety issues. For those concerned parents, Olmstead said they can opt for an independent study that is fully online.
Prior to entering the school or going to their outdoor classrooms, students at all schools that received permission to offer in-person classes will have to pass temperature checks and health screenings to ensure they are not exhibiting any signs of the virus.
All students above second grade will be required to wear face masks, as will teachers and other staff on site, health guidelines state.
Coastal Christian will hold classes inside, with the desks spread apart and plexiglass dividing spaces where physical distancing is more challenging, Olmstead said.
Other schools, such as Wishing Well School in Los Osos, opted to hold most classes outdoors. The only exception at Wishing Well School is a symphony music class, which will be held indoors.
None of the schools with waivers will have lunch services on campus; instead, they will require students to bring their own lunches.
Students must also be driven to school, as the schools that had bus services will not be offering them due to safety concerns.
The schools have split students into cohorts, usually by their specific grade, in which they will only have contact with those kids. Students will remain with their class during the entire school day, with separate recess and lunch times.
Each school has contingency plans in place if a student shows symptoms of the new coronavirus — like transitioning that student to online learning for 14 days while they isolate and recover.
And some, such as Coastal Christian School, have built up a more robust substitute list in the event that a teacher gets sick.
“We have made a massive investment in personnel, we’ve hired some additional staff and we’re training our staff to make sure they know how to cultivate a healthier environment,” Olmstead said.
Why must other local schools do distanced learning?
Borenstein said that the number of students who will be receiving in-person instruction — about 1,000 — is incredibly small in comparison to the total number of students in San Luis Obispo County. There are about 35,000 students in the county as a whole.
All public schools in the county are starting the school year with distance learning.
“I’m hopeful that we can use that as a tool to understand how to introduce in-person instruction and see how well the smaller schools do it,” Borenstein said at a COVID-19 press briefing on Wednesday. “And then use that to expand in other elementary schools and eventually be able to get all the kids back in school.”
Before all students in the county can go back to in-person learning, however, Borenstein said that the community transmission in San Luis Obispo County must fall. The county has to be off the county monitoring list for at least 14 days before wider in-person instruction — that is, at middle and high schools — would be allowed to reopen.
The county saw low daily COVID-19 case numbers on Tuesday and Wednesday but added one death due to coronavirus, and Borenstein said the rate of unknown community transmission is still high. The county has had 2,579 positive COVID-19 cases since March.
This story was originally published August 20, 2020 at 1:07 PM.
CORRECTION: This story previously stated the incorrect location of Coastal Christian School. The story has been updated to reflect the correct location of the school in Pismo Beach, California.
