2 Central Coast school districts delay reopening as COVID-19 cases soar

A reopening date remains elusive for two Santa Maria Valley school districts, in part due to the high number of COVID-19 cases in the community and testing requirements for staff across the campuses.

Santa Maria-Bonita School District Superintendent Luke Ontiveros said he remains leery of announcing a return-to-campus date as Santa Maria, Santa Barbara County’s largest city, continues to struggle with an elevated coronavirus caseload — significantly higher than any other community.

“The first thing is really getting that testing protocol in place because that contributes to the bigger public health issue,” he said. “To me, it’s less about reopening schools and more about public health.

“That is the first hoop we have to jump through.”

Ontiveros and his education colleagues have gotten a crash course on public health matters in the past few months as they prepare to undertake various measures deemed vital for safely reopening schools for in-class instruction, including a staff testing program.

“That’s the piece we really want to get dialed in because the last thing I want to do is exacerbate the situation for the community,” he said.

Santa Maria cases make up slightly less than half the county’s 9,560 total cases, and more than half when including Orcutt and other unincorporated nearby areas, according to the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department.

While cases across Santa Barbara County had dropped low enough to allow a move from the top, most-restrictive level to the slightly less-restrictive second level under California’s reopening blueprint, Santa Maria’s tally remains alarmingly high.

Countywide, numbers have ranged from four to six per 100,000 residents for a two-week period ending Oct. 7, while Santa Maria’s rates ranged from nine to 12 over the same period. On the state scale, Santa Maria would be purple.

“When we’re making decisions on behalf of the students and staff, it’s incumbent upon us to consider data and information that directly pertains to our community,” Santa Maria Joint Union High School District Superintendent Antonio Garcia said during an Oct. 13 board meeting.

Unlike elementary schools where students can be in cohorts and remain in one classroom for the day, high schools pose different challenges since students mix every class period.

Adding to the challenge is the size of Santa Maria schools. Even reducing the number of students by half would still leave 1,500 students at two high school campuses using a hybrid model with some in-person and distance learning, Garcia said, creating a stronger likelihood of cross infection.

Liability remains a concern for the local districts and their counterparts throughout the state.

“We are being held accountable for factors that are truly beyond our control, and that’s problematic for school districts,” added Garcia, who started his job in January, two months before the coronavirus forced schools to distance learning.

The high school district’s plan called for distance learning to remain through the first semester, although administrators recently delivered a bleak report on progress reports showing a rising number of students failing classes.

That has prompted an array of responses, including conducting outreach, easing up on work deemed to be turned in late, establishing an instructional dead week to let students get caught up, and assessing homework loads.

Rather than choose a random date for reopening, Ontiveros said the elementary school district will use reduced Santa Maria case rates over a three-week period as the leading indicator for when students can return to campus.

Reopening requirements include surveillance testing to all staff plus testing of each staff member every two months.

That’s not a simple task for the Santa Maria-Bonita School District, which has 2,500 employees, a number that reportedly surprised some public health officials.

“That’s been a challenge to us to find somebody that could manage an organization of our size,” Ontiveros said.

He added that the district expects to sign a contract with a testing service this week.

Santa Maria-Bonita has 16,800 students enrolled in transitional kindergarten to eighth grade across 21 campuses.

The district will begin surveying parents to determine the number of special education students likely to return to campus amid a focus on getting some of higher needs students back to in-person learning first.

“It’s making sure that we’re moving forward at a measured pace that ensures public safety and public health doesn’t get compromised,” Ontiveros said.