SLO County’s largest school districts plan to bring students back to classrooms. Here’s when
Two of San Luis Obispo County’s largest school districts — encompassing a total of about 18,000 students — have made plans to bring elementary students back into classrooms before the new year.
Lucia Mar Unified School District plans to bring all elementary students back on Nov. 30, and San Luis Coastal Unified School District wants to bring preschool and transitional kindergarten students back Nov. 2.
Both districts were waiting to reopen campuses until COVID-19 cases in the county were no longer considered “widespread” for a period of time. San Luis Obispo County has stayed in the red tier, meaning that coronavirus spread is “substantial,” for several weeks.
Neither of the districts have received the go-ahead from the San Luis Obispo County Public Health Department yet, and will await their approval on the district’s respective plans.
Lucia Mar school district’s plan for reopening after COVID-19 closure
Lucia Mar Unified School District held a special board meeting on Oct. 16 to review its reopening plan and open it up to public comments.
The reopening plan can be found on the district’s website at its District Updates page.
In a 6-1 vote, the board approved bringing all elementary students — kindergarten through sixth grade — back to classrooms Nov. 30, and all middle and high school students back Jan. 11.
Students who attend in-person school will have a split-day hybrid model for learning: spending half the day in classrooms and the other half at home doing online classwork. There will be a morning in-person group and a afternoon in-person group.
Parents have until Oct. 30 to choose whether to keep their student in distance learning or switch to the district’s online independent student program if they do not feel comfortable sending their kid to school, according to Paul Fawcett, Lucia Mar’s superintendent.
Bus transportation services will be provided only for students with “home-to-school” built into their individualized education plans (IEP) or to those identified as homeless through the Families-in-Transition Program, according to the district’s reopening plan.
Getting kids to school may prove difficult for many parents to provide, especially at schools such as Judkins Middle School in Pismo Beach that have far-reaching boundaries and is not within walking distance for many families.
Lucia Mar cannot guarantee that students — regardless of if they stay in distance learning or choose to go in person — will stay with the same teacher they have now, Fawcett said at the board meeting.
Students can receive grab-and-go meals that will be eaten off campus, according to the reopening plan.
All students and employees will be required to wear face masks at all times and remain six feet away from each other whenever possible. Desks will be spread apart to ensure physical distancing, according to the reopening plan.
Between the morning and afternoon in-person sessions and at the end of the day, school custodians will thoroughly disinfect and clean all surfaces in the school, according to the reopening plan.
The plan may change if the county Public Health Department sees necessary modifications, Fawcett said at the board meeting.
Parents who spoke at the Oct. 16 board meeting were largely split on whether they thought Lucia Mar’s plan was safe enough.
Teachers, however, who spoke during the public comment period were in favor of delaying reopening the district’s elementary schools until January — which is when the middle and high schools are scheduled to reopen. Some teachers expressed worry at how they were going to juggle two different groups of students while also providing distance learning services.
One high school student, Olivia Mulder, said she is concerned that distance learning is detrimentally affecting student mental health.
“Students and parents are paying the price in so many ways that are more than financial,” said Mulder, a student at Central Coast New Tech High School. “You’re hearing from stressed, frustrated parents, but behind every parent there are students who are struggling as well.”
Mulder said the current hybrid learning plan has little to no provisions for mental health support for students, and that it only takes into account the physical health of students and employees.
“It was said last meeting and this meeting that if one person died, it would be one too many,” Mulder said. “I fully agree, but there are other risks of dying here other than COVID.”
In the end, board members approved the plan, which is pending approval and any revisions by the county Public Health Department.
How will San Luis Coastal bring students back to classrooms?
San Luis Coastal Unified School District’s reopening plan is a bit different from Lucia Mar’s.
San Luis Coastal only plans to bring back preschool and transitional kindergarten students for in-person learning, pending approval from the county Public Health Department.
Those students, which account for roughly seven classrooms, will return to campuses for a half day of instruction on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, according to Kim McGrath, the district’s assistant superintendent of education services.
On Wednesdays, students will have class fully virtually, McGrath said.
Parents can choose whether to send their kids to in-person classes in the morning or afternoon.
Face coverings will be required for all students and the district will sanitize each classroom after a class is done. Desks will be spaced six feet apart to ensure physical distancing throughout class.
Transportation will be provided to students in special circumstances, McGrath said.
Parents will have the option to keep their students in distance learning if they do not feel comfortable with in-person learning, McGrath said, and teachers will teach in-person classes only on a volunteer basis.
For San Luis Coastal, this is just the next small step in getting all the kids back into classrooms, McGrath said.
“Since September, we’ve been bringing back small groups of students,” McGrath said, referencing special education students and children participating in some extracurricular activities and sports who have returned to campus.
“This is essentially our next step in that process,” she said.
What happens if SLO County returns to COVID-19 purple tier?
If San Luis Obsipo County’s COVID-19 case rates rise, it may fall back into the state’s purple tier of coronavirus restrictions.
This would mean many businesses would have to discontinue indoor operations or reduce the number of people inside.
Schools, on the other hand, would not be required to close. However, they would be required to increase how often they are testing staff.
Public schools may be forced to close at the county Public Health Department’s discretion. Schools may also close individual campuses if a coronavirus outbreak occurs involving students and staff at that school.
