All students at this SLO County school district may return to classrooms before year’s end
Templeton Unified School District will be the first district in San Luis Obispo County to apply for all of its students — from transitional kindergarten through 12th grade — to return to in-person instruction before the new year despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The North County district’s board of trustees unanimously approved the move in Thursday night’s meeting, praising the hard work of the administration for building a reopening plan.
“I expect it to be difficult to figure out. I expect it to not make sense at times. I expect it to be frustrating at times,” board member Jan Nimick said of the reopening plan. “But I recognize, and I’ve heard pretty unequivocally from the community, that distance learning is not working. It’s not serving our children, and we need to get back into the classrooms.”
The move comes just a few days after the San Luis Obispo County Public Health Department announced that schools could safely reopen due to the county remaining in the state’s COVID-19 red tier for two consecutive weeks. This means that the county has substantial, but not widespread, coronavirus cases.
According to the California Department of Public Health, schools and school districts within counties in the red tier may open at any time. Before they do so, however, schools must submit to the county Public Health Department a plan showing how in-person instruction will be modified to adhere to strict COVID-19 health and safety measures.
The Templeton school district’s plan is roughly detailed in a 128-page document on its website. During the Thursday board meeting, district Superintendent Aaron Asplund said students will be returning in a hybrid learning format.
The first day of in-person classes for the majority of the students would be Nov. 30, giving students three weeks on campus before winter break. Each student would be on campus a total of seven or eight days, as the hybrid plan calls for the students to be split into two groups and return on alternating days.
Some students — those with an individualized education program, or IEP, that requires in-person learning — have already returned to in-person instruction at the Templeton school district and more, including homeless students and English language learners, will return by Oct. 19. All local school districts have been allowed to bring these students back on campus to learn since the county gave the go-ahead on Aug. 7.
If San Luis Obispo County’s COVID-19 case numbers rise and the county returns to the state’s purple tier, signifying coronavirus is widespread, schools will not be required to shut down again. Dr. Penny Borenstein, the county’s public health officer, however, encouraged schools in that situation to increase sanitation and testing measures.
In-person learning at the Templeton school district would be optional, meaning parents can choose to keep their kids in distance learning or send them back into classrooms.
Teachers, community members speak about reopening plan
At Templeton Unified’s Thursday meeting, several community members wrote in public comments or called in regarding the school district’s reopening plan. Many were confused about the plan.
“Families can’t make informed decisions until we have that clear and detailed picture,” community member Matt Allison said during public comment.
Some who participated in the public comment portion of the meeting for the reopening plan asked the board questions about what the school schedule would look like, if their kids would have to switch teachers and whether students will be required to wear masks.
Aside from being confused and frustrated by the lack of communication from the district, community members who spoke at the board meeting were generally gracious for how much work the district put into the reopening plan and were excited to get their kids back into classrooms.
Kelley Meece, the Templeton Teachers Association president, said at the board meeting that teachers are also unclear on many aspects of the district’s reopening plan, and issued concerns about student schedules with the hybrid model.
Middle and high school “students are already in a schedule. Their schedules were developed so that they could remain in distance learning for the entire semester,” Meece said, noting that the district plans to bring all students back into a trimester schedule, reverting some from the semester schedule.
“We’re creating an insurmountable task for our staff and for our schools,” she added.
During her public comment, Meece noted that, in a survey sent to teachers in the district, 65% said they were not in favor of starting hybrid school for middle and high schools in November, but 55% were in favor of applying for an in-person instruction waiver for elementary schools.
What’s next for Templeton Unified School District?
After public comment, Templeton Unified board members voted unanimously to approve the district’s move to hybrid learning. The district now must submit their plan to the county Public Health Department for review and consultation to ensure all health and safety measures will be followed.
Parents with students in the district will have between Friday and Nov. 13 to decide whether they will send their children to in-person classes or keep them in distance learning.
The district plans to have staffing assignment — either teaching in-person or online classes — by Nov. 13.
If all goes to plan, the district plans to have students in transitional kindergarten through 12th grade back on campus on Nov. 30.
