Elementary students return to schools in SLO County’s largest district: ‘This makes us happy’
Many students across San Luis Obispo County haven’t been inside classrooms since the COVID-19 pandemic closed local schools to in-person instruction in March 2020.
And some have never experienced in-person instruction, even though the 2020-2021 school year is more than halfway through.
Transitional kindergarten and kindergarten students at Lucia Mar Unified School District elementary schools finally got their chance to experience in-person learning this week as San Luis Obispo County’s largest district began its first phase of reopening.
On Feb. 16, the Lucia Mar board of trustees voted unanimously to begin bringing elementary-age students back to in-person schooling after new state and federal guidelines for reopening schools during the COVID-19 pandemic were released.
Those guidelines stressed the importance of reopening schools and spelled out necessary measures to take for mitigating the spread of coronavirus. They also noted that vaccines should be prioritized, but not used as prerequisites, for reopening classrooms.
“It’s so exciting,” Shell Beach Elementary School Principal James Snyder said Wednesday as he welcomed students to the Pismo Beach school. “It’s not back to normal. This is not what we remember a year ago. But, it’s closer, and it just feels so good to have kids back here. This is why educators get into education — it’s to be around kids; this makes us happy.”
On Wednesday morning, students dutifully lined up outside of Shell Beach Elementary — spaced six feet apart at all times possible — before being led into their classrooms. There was an air of excitement as teachers and students met each other in person for the first time.
“I had one kid say to me, ‘Oh so you are real,’ ” said Shelby West, a transitional kindergarten teacher at Shell Beach Elementary.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, West said, she’s been pleasantly surprised with the adaptability of the young kids she teaches. Though distance learning was challenging at first, she said that most of the students continued to be enthusiastic about learning.
Now, West has a split class.
Six of her students attend class in person in the mornings, while nine remain online. Both groups are taught simultaneously by West — from about 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. — and then they have online homework in the afternoons.
A second in-person group attends school from 12:50 p.m. to 3:20 p.m.
Across all 11 Lucia Mar elementary schools, about 55% of students are transitioning to learn in person, while the rest chose to stay with fully online instruction. All students attend class virtually on Fridays.
Each school in the South County district follows strict health and safety guidelines enforced by the San Luis Obispo County Public Health Department.
When students arrive on campus, their teachers or another school administrators check to ensure the students’ parents have filled out an online form that confirms the kids do not have symptoms of COVID-19 and have not come into contact with anyone who has had those symptoms.
All students and staff are required to wear masks and face coverings at all times when on campus. And increased hand washing is encouraged.
While in class, students are spaced about six feet apart while sitting on the floor or in desks — depending on how their teachers have set up their classrooms.
Lucia Mar, which includes schools in Arroyo Grande, Grover Beach, Nipomo, Oceano and Pismo Beach, had not previously reopened any of its grades to in-person learning — although about 900 kids have been going to campuses for small-group instruction if they needed extra help.
As of Feb. 19, 117 students and 85 staff in the school district had reported testing positive for COVID-19 since Aug. 4, 2020, according to the district. Two cases involved staff-to-staff transmission while those people were on campus, district Superintendent Paul Fawcett said in a February school board meeting.
That’s the highest number of cases at any district in the San Luis Obispo County.
Lucia Mar was the only district in the county to not bring full grade levels back for in-person instruction before Wednesday.
Paso Robles Joint Unified and Atascadero Unified districts allowed students in all elementary grades to return to campus in November 2020. And San Luis Coastal Unified School district reopened its elementary school campuses to students in preschool and transitional kindergarten that November.
At Oceano Elementary School on Wednesday, transitional kindergarten and kindergarten students walked through an archway of balloons to get to their classrooms. The school’s principal, Michelle Johnson, said that the kids were just as excited as she was to be back in person.
“I’m proud of our preparation. I’m proud of the work that our parents clearly did before our students arrived — the spacing, the masking,” she said. “They were ready.”
“It’s pretty emotional, actually,” Johnson said. “We’ve gone through ebbs and flows of ‘We’re getting to start, and then we don’t get to start,’ and it’s been hard on everybody. But it was a total celebration today.”
Lucia Mar students in first through third grades will return to campus March 1, and students in fourth through sixth grades will return March 8.
Secondary school students will be brought back to in-person learning within one week after San Luis Obispo County enters in the red tier of coronavirus restrictions under California’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy for five consecutive days, according to the district.
This story was originally published February 24, 2021 at 3:51 PM.
