Complexity Of Public School Reopenings Amid Coronavirus: RivCo
RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA — Complex planning, divided opinions, safety, student wellbeing, legal complaints, budget, education quality, labor negotiations. These are just some concerns — swirling for months — around public school reopenings in Riverside County (and the state) amid coronavirus.
Effective Tuesday, Riverside County schools were officially given a green light to fully reopen. The state pass followed the county's Sept. 22 move into California's "red tier" framework and the obligatory 14-day wait period.
This week, many Riverside County school districts were discussing reopening during public board meetings, yet the planning began months ago when local education leaders prepared safety guidelines to ready for possible in-person instruction at the start of the 2020-21 school year.
The wheels are moving, albeit at different paces.
For example, the Corona-Norco Unified School District plans to begin welcoming its intermediate, high school and year-round elementary students back into classrooms Oct. 26. Elementary students can return Nov. 9.
Those dates, however, are contingent on changes in the county's tier status. Riverside County is teetering on moving backward in the state's tiered system after the state announced Tuesday that the county's COVID-19 case rate has fallen below the criteria required for red-tier status. A step back into the "purple tier" would mean countywide school closures unless a state waiver were granted. (Several private schools in the county already obtained waivers; see the list here.)
In the Lake Elsinore Unified School District, safety protocols have been hammered out. On Thursday night LEUSD Superintendent Dr. Doug Kimberly and senior cabinet members were presenting an update on the district's reopening plan, but dates were not cemented.
"The draft plan for public review illustrates the complexity of reopening under COVID-19 pandemic conditions," Kimberly said in a released statement prior to the meeting.
In addition to student and parent concerns, the LEUSD is also negotiating with labor unions on safety issues for members.
The Temecula Valley Unified School District has tentatively decided to allow elementary schools to reopen after the Thanksgiving break, and secondary schools to begin welcoming students back with the start of the Jan. 5, 2o21 semester. The dates are contingent based on changes in the county's tier status and ongoing negotiations with labor groups.
A similar staggered plan is in place in the Coachella Valley's Desert Sands Unified School District.
The DSUSD proposes a return to in-person learning Oct. 19, with students "in most need of acute care and athletic conditioning." Elementary students participating in a hybrid learning model would potentially return Nov. 9, while middle and high school students in the hybrid model would follow on Jan. 04, 2021.
Some school districts outside of Riverside County have reopened in compliance with the state's tiered framework, and there is no indication that it's led to increased COVID-19 spread in the respective communities, according to California’s Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly.
“We have not seen a connection between increased transmission and schools reopening for in-person learning,” Ghaly said during a news briefing Tuesday.
He warned that it may be too early to see trends — good or bad. So far, however, he said "it’s encouraging to see the tremendous effort and planning that communities and their schools and their staff have done to make sure that it’s lower risk for students and staff alike and … I think that’s encouraging for all of California."
Updated Riverside County Coronavirus Figures
The number of coronavirus hospitalizations in Riverside County remained unchanged Thursday, while the case count increased by 283 and an additional death attributed to complications from the virus was reported.
The total number of COVID-19 infections recorded since the public health documentation period began in early March is 61,416, compared to 61,133 on Wednesday, according to the Riverside University Health System.
The number of deaths tied to COVID-19 stands at 1,248, RUHS reported.
COVID-19 hospitalizations are at 135 — the same as Wednesday. That figures includes 40 intensive care unit patients, two more than the day before.
This article originally appeared on the Temecula Patch
