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Important Information: New Guidance

New Guidance from Governor Newsom 7/17/2020

Important Information:New GuidanceNew Guidance from Governor Newsom 7/17/2020

Guidance from Governor Newsom on the Opening of Schools

Dear Parents and Educators,


These are my takeaways from the Governor Newsom’s News Conference today (see below). With current health data from our county, and if school was starting TODAY, we would be able to open our schools. Even with this being the case, there is a very high likelihood San Mateo County will be added to the County Monitoring List next week. As per this article in the San Francisco Chronicle: "San Mateo County’s cases increased by 70 on Friday to 4,403. San Mateo’s rise in cases is driving the decision to put it on the state watch list."


Our actual school opening date of Monday, August 24th, is still five weeks away; after a daily peak on Monday (July 13: 114 COVID-19 cases) the trend for the remainder of the week has been a decrease in new cases. We must remain off the County Monitoring List for 14 consecutive days in order for our schools to open (the same is true for all K-12 public and private schools in our county).


Once again, we are still five weeks away from the start of school and we will continue to monitor county-wide data, knowing that we may need to start the school year via Distance Learning. It is certainly possible that we may start school in-person if the health metrics move in the right direction per the Governor’s guidelines.


We have a Special Board Meeting on August 5th at 5:00 PM where we will further discuss the details of our Return to School for All Program and Remote School Program. Staff will present our recommendation and request for approval from the Board for our start to school plans. These plans are still being finalized and will be dependent on data from the county.


Please note that while our Return to School for All Program is designed as an in-person program, if we are on the County Monitoring List we will begin this program via Distance Learning.


Our Remote School Program will use Distance Learning as the foundation for the program as all instruction will be online.


Thank you for your continued support and patience as we prepare for the start of school.

Louann


Louann Carlomagno, Ed.D.

Superintendent


Governor Newsom's Reopening/Closing Guidance:

School districts and local county public health officials will be able to reopen schools when counties have been off the County Monitoring List for 14 days and follow strict health and safety requirements, including masks, symptoms checks, and switching back to distancing learning when required. San Mateo County is currently NOT on the County Monitoring List.



  • School Districts and Closures

    • A school site will close a classroom if they have a 5% positivity rate of COVID-19 of students and teachers, leading to 14 days of quarantine (with our current class configurations, this would be one student/staff member within a classroom).

    • A school site will close when it experiences a 5% positivity rate of COVID-19 of students and teachers, leading to 14 days of quarantine (depending on size this would be 12-20 students/staff members).

    • When 25% of school sites within a district test positive, the school district will shut down completely for a 14-day period (one school site in HCSD) .


  • Distance Learning

    • Students and families must have access to devices; schools can support this.

    • There must be daily, live interaction with teachers and other students.

    • Assignments must be equivalent to in-person assignments, should be engaging within the constraints of distance learning, and assignments should be challenging.

    • Students with additional needs (homeless, foster youth, English Learners, those receiving Special Education services) must receive additional and appropriate support.

    • Learning is a non-negotiable.


  • Testing

    • Staff will be recommended to get tested every 2 months, 50% of staff each month as practicable – use regional locations and the Governor just pushed that health care cover COVID-19 tests; caveat: as practicable and upon availability (30 minutes drive/ 60 miles).

    • The state is considering deploying contact tracing to schools.

    • No guidance or interval for student testing.


  • Masks

    • Adults required to wear and maintain 6 feet of distance with other adults, and distance as much as possible from kids.

    • Kids: Grade K-2 strongly encouraged masks; Grade 3-12 required masks.


Resource: New guidance for the safe re-opening of in-person learning at schools.