Nearly a year after school campuses across Sonoma County were closed in the wake of the growing coronavirus pandemic, doors to classrooms at a small number of schools are already being opened on Monday.
That’s when the Sonoma Charter School will open its doors to kindergartens and first and second grade. On Wednesday, Liberty School in northern Petaluma plans to bring back students and staff.
They are likely to be followed by four more schools and districts that have received approval from the Department of Health Services in Sonoma County to bring students and staff back to campus in modified schedules and in completely different routines.
“It’s like the opening day of the school, but on a different planet,” said Marc Elin, director of the 215-student Sonoma Charter School. “I’m excited. This is just good news. ”
The Sonoma County Department of Health Services has COVID safety plans for 24 schools and districts in Sonoma County. Six schools’ plans, including those of the Sonoma Charter and Liberty School, have been approved, paving the way for schools to reopen to personalized tutoring.
The schools and districts join the ten schools – nine of which are private – that have been approved to reopen from October, provided the state has approved their safety protocols. The waiver program was halted in late November when virus cases began to increase across the state, but schools that have already been cleaned up may continue.
At an information session of the community on Wednesday, dr. Sundari Mase, provincial health official, described the safety plans of the six schools and districts that were approved to open as ‘star’.
“We will soon announce that more schools will reopen,” she said.
Sonoma County’s largest school district, Santa Rosa City Schools, also approved plans on Wednesday to bring back its approximately 5,000 elementary school students on April 1 and 2, and its nearly 11,000 secondary students from April 26 and 29.
Santa Rosa’s plan is based in part on the province’s expected move from the press level, the most limited stage of the state’s color-coded coronavirus reopening plan, and to the red, which indicates a significant but not widespread , transmission of the virus.
Once red, the rules for returning staff and students to campuses change, and schools and districts no longer have to reopen the Department of Health’s approval. By making a red move, you can also bring the middle and high school students back into the classroom – something that was not allowed in the press level.
Meanwhile, Santa Rosa’s COVID safety plan remains in the province’s review process. The province has received reviews. 23 February. There will be a response from the country on Thursday to these changes.
Windsor Unified School District has submitted a plan and must also respond to the review of the land by Thursday. The province’s response to the changes submitted by Wilmar Union School District, west of Petaluma, is due to take place on Tuesday, and Two Rock Elementary, also west of Petaluma, will hear about the review by Wednesday.
If a school opens at least one full degree in personal education, the school may remain open and continue its reopening strategy, even if Sonoma County falls back into the press level.
“Once that happens and schools open, even if we were to jump into the press level again, the schools will stay open,” Mase said.
Like many proposed plans for returning to school that are being considered by the province, Sonoma Charter School will open Monday with personalized instruction for kindergarten, first and second grade only. After the spring break, on March 29, seniors will begin returning to a part-time distance education, part-time personal, Elin said.
But on Monday, campus doors will be opened for a class of kindergarten students who have never seen the inside of their classroom, as well as first- and second-graders for whom campus life may be just a vague memory.
Since each of the three returning grades has only one class of students, school officials could split them into two stable groups that attend a full school day four days a week, Elin said.
“The kids were exposed to so much screen time,” Elin said. ‘What we would like to have them on campus again is that they are a more traditional model, a more physical model. They no longer look at screens, but look at an adult. ‘
You can contact staff writer Kerry Benefield at 707-526-8671 or [email protected]. On Twitter @benefield.