Schools in SLO County can reopen as COVID numbers improve. Here’s your district’s plan
It has been almost a year since some students in San Luis Obispo County have seen the inside of a classroom.
In March 2020, schools announced plans to close campuses and transition to an online-only learning format due to the burgeoning COVID-19 pandemic. It was, as one local school official put it, “an unprecedented moment in our district’s history.”
In recent days, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new guidelines for schools to reopen safely, saying that schools should be prioritized to reopen “over nonessential businesses and activities.”
Even though San Luis Obispo County has yet to return to the red tier of coronavirus restrictions under California’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy, it has seen its COVID-19 case rate dip below 25 cases per 100,000 residents, according to the county Public Health Department. That means local elementary schools can reopen to in-person instruction.
Some local school districts obtained waivers from the county in the fall and have brought back all of their elementary school students attending hybrid, in-person classes, while other districts are primarily virtual. No public school districts in the county have been allowed to reopen middle or high schools.
All school public districts have reopened campuses to in-person instruction for small groups of students with disabilities or those with failing grades.
New state guidance allows schools to open sooner
The California Department of Public Health on Jan. 14 released new guidelines for schools to reopen. This update allowed elementary schools in San Luis Obispo County to open to in-person instruction starting Feb. 1.
The state now allows districts in counties where the COVID-19 case rate is below 25 positive cases per 100,000 residents to reopen campuses to students in kindergarten through sixth grade after those counties have had lower case rates for five days.
San Luis Obispo County’s case rate has been under the standard of 25 cases per 100,000 people since Jan. 25, according to the county public health department.
Most districts in the county are waiting for the county to transition from the purple tier to the less restrictive red tier. San Luis Obispo County has been in the toughest tier of coronavirus restrictions since November 2020.
The CDPH guidance “strongly recommends” that all school employees receive COVID-19 vaccines “at the first opportunity,” but does not require them as a prerequisite for opening schools.
Districts still await news from the state legislature on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s $2 billion Safe Schools for All funding proposal.
The proposal, if approved, would give schools between $450 to $700 per student if they reopen elementary schools for in-person instruction by March 15 if they had updated their reopening plans, arranged for routine COVID-19 testing and developed collective bargaining agreements with their labor unions by Feb. 1.
CDC says schools must be prioritized to reopen over nonessential businesses
A little less than a month after the CDPH released its updated school reopening guidelines, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released an “operational strategy” for schools serving students in kindergarten through 12th grade on Feb. 12.
The release of the new guidance comes as more studies show that the risk of in-school transmission is low in schools, and the risk among elementary age students is lower than those in middle and high school.
“K–12 schools should be the last settings to close after all other mitigation measures in the community have been employed, and the first to reopen when they can do so safely,” the CDC said in its guidance. “Schools should be prioritized for reopening and remaining open for in-person instruction over nonessential businesses and activities.”
When schools reopen, they should expect COVID-19 cases to happen, the CDC said.
In order to decrease the likelihood of coronavirus cases, the agency said it will require the use of key mitigation measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19: wearing masks at all times possible, physical distancing, increased hand washing, proper cleaning and contact tracing in combination with quarantine and isolation.
The CDC’s guidance also suggested that if a student or employee shows symptoms of the virus, or is exposed to someone who was symptomatic, a school should refer that person to get tested for COVID-19.
Schools may elect to use screening testing — in which a certain amount of students or teachers are tested over an amount of time — and that they can prioritize teachers and older students for this due to their inherently higher risk of getting COVID-19, according to multiple studies cited by the CDC in its guidance.
Like the CDPH, the CDC suggested teachers should get coronavirus vaccines as soon as possible, but that’s not a requirement before reopening schools.
“Teachers and school staff hold jobs critical to the continued functioning of society and are at potential occupational risk of exposure to SARS-CoV-2,” the CDC said. “State, territorial, local and tribal officials should consider giving high priority to teachers in early phases of vaccine distribution.”
Unlike the state’s guidance, the CDC said that even if there is high transmission — more than 10 cases per 100,000 residents in the county — then schools can reopen.
However, it suggested schools residing in that high-case transmission area only reopen in a hybrid mode with strict mitigation efforts imposed, and that students should be tested for COVID-19 once per week while transmission remains high.
How are SLO County school districts planning to reopen?
Lucia Mar Unified School District
The South County district, which includes schools in Arroyo Grande, Pismo Beach, Nipomo and Grover Beach, had not reopened any grade levels to in-person instruction as of Tuesday.
The district has brought back nearly 900 students for in-person instruction in small groups.
On Tuesday evening, the district’s board of trustees voted unanimously to bring transitional kindergarten and kindergarten students back to in-person classes Feb. 24. Students in first through third grades will return to campus March 1, and students in fourth through sixth grade will return March 8.
Secondary students will be brought back to in-person learning within one week after San Luis Obispo County is in the red tier for five consecutive days, according to the district.
San Luis Coastal Unified School District
San Luis Coastal, which covers Los Osos, Morro Bay and San Luis Obispo, has brought preschool and transitional kindergarten students back to campuses for in-person classes. Additionally, some kindergarten and first grade classes were opened to pilot in-person learning earlier this year.
About 1,000 students are going to campuses for some form of in-person, small group instruction or in-person services, according to Assistant Superintendent Kim McGrath.
Its board voted unanimously on Tuesday to reopen to in-person instruction for students in kindergarten through second grade by March 4 and third through sixth grades on March 8. Secondary schools will reopen on March 15 if local and state public health departments allow.
The schools will reopen in a hybrid format, where students spend half the day in class and half at home working online. Wednesdays will be a distance learning-only day for all students.
Paso Robles Joint Unified School District
By the end of November 2020, the North County district had fully reopened all of its elementary schools to in-person learning in a hybrid format.
The Paso Robles Joint Unified school board voted on Jan. 4 to continue distance learning for secondary schools until the county public health department allows the district to fully return to in-person instruction.
Atascadero Unified School District
Another North County district, Atascadero Unified also opened all of its elementary schools to in-person classes by the end of November.
Its school board decided at a Feb. 2 meeting tat the district will wait until San Luis Obispo County is in the red tier for five consecutive days until it will reopen its secondary schools.
Templeton Unified School District
Templeton Unified, which reopened its elementary schools fully to in-person instruction in November, also plans to reopen its secondary schools once the county is in the red tier for five consecutive days.
Coast Unified and Cayucos Elementary school districts
Both of these North Coast school districts have been offering in-person learning pods to help students who are struggling with distance learning.
However, Cayucos officials did a quick turnaround Thursday, based on the county’s “rapidly falling COVID-19 numbers,” according to notifications sent to parents by district Superintendent Scott Smith.
The district is asking parents to fill out commitment surveys that will allow them to choose whether to send their children to school for in-person instruction or continue distance learning. Those surveys are due back to the district by Wednesday.
Based on those responses and final staffing decisions, Smith said, the district plans to resume in-person classes for students in transitional kindergarten through fifth grade on March 15. Then, if the county has moved into the coronavirus red tier by a week later, in person would begin for students in sixth through eighth grades on March 22.
That’s a switch from what Smith had told The Tribune on Tuesday.
At that point, he said Cayucos schools would remain closed to full in-person instruction for the remainder of the school year, with on-campus, distance learning available four hours a day, five days a week in “small group cohorts supervised by specially trained staff in a safe and appropriate manner.”
Coast Unified School District board members reconfirmed at their Feb. 11 meeting that district schools would remain closed to full in-person instruction for the remainder of the 2020-2021 school year, a practice Smith had confirmed on Tuesday.
It was unclear Thursday whether Coast Unified’s plan would continue as stated, given the lower COVID-19 case numbers.
Shandon Joint Unified School District
The rural, North County school district is beginning to reopen its kindergarten through fifth grade elementary schools to in-person instruction in the hybrid, half-day model.
Once the elementary schools are open, the district will move to reopen its secondary schools when COVID-19 numbers in the county allow, according to district Superintendent Kristina Benson.
This story was originally published February 17, 2021 at 10:33 AM.
