Two small schoolhouses nestled in the pastoral valleys of Marin are well-positioned to bring students back to campus, but they will have to wait until public health officials grant them permission to do so.
Laguna School and Lincoln School are seeking a waiver to allow for in-person learning this fall. Because of their size—Laguna serves six families and 11 students, and Lincoln serves four families and about five students—the schools can more easily meet public health guidelines than larger schools.
“We are very motivated. We feel that both of the locations would be ideal settings for having a controlled, safe return to in-person instruction,” said Luke McCann, who serves as the superintendent of both schools for the Marin County Office of Education.
Last week, the California Department of Public Health detailed the waiver process for reopening elementary schools, and Marin’s public health official, Dr. Matt Willis, is adapting the templates to local conditions this week. The earliest that elementary schools could be allowed to bring students back is Sept. 8, and schools must complete significant legwork and submit a waiver application two weeks before they hope to reopen.
Before applying for a waiver, a superintendent must complete a site-specific protection plan, describe how the school will meet 30 guidelines, and consult with staff, parents and community organizations. Superintendents also must write an overview of the school’s unique situation and their experience operating student programs during the pandemic, and describe how they will meet the needs of the school community.
Priority will be given to schools that serve low-income families, schools that primarily teach outdoors and schools that have already served students successfully in pilot programs. Laguna School, in Chileno Valley, and Lincoln School, in Hicks Valley, both serve working-class families and have plenty of outdoor space.
Cindy Demchuck and Cynthia Walsh, the teacher-principals for Laguna and Lincoln, respectively, have leapt into new roles as they prepare their schools to operate safely. Their expertise is in teaching kids, but this summer the focus was on keeping up with changing edicts, planning for many different scenarios, reorganizing the campus layout and consulting with parents.
“It has not been a restful summer,” Ms. Walsh said.
She is preparing Lincoln School for either distance learning, in-person learning or a mix of both. The families that attend her school have mixed feelings about returning to campus: They know kids learn best with direct instruction, but feel the health risks are paramount.
Ms. Demchuck originally thought Laguna would be granted a waiver before the school’s start date on Aug. 19, but plans were halted when she got word from the county that more time was needed to process a waiver. Staff from the county education office are visiting Laguna and Lincoln this week to review protocols, help teachers with technical information and deliver personal protective equipment.
After the office deems a waiver application complete, Dr. Willis will evaluate the plans. If he approves them, he will tell state health officials, and the school can reopen if officials don’t respond within three days.
The six families that attend Laguna School mostly work on ranches, so the low population density and the nature of the work make Ms. Demchuck feel good about a waiver.
“They’re not going to get Covid from the cows,” she joked.
But just because students can return doesn’t mean they will. Christa Jimenez, who has three students at Laguna, said she and her husband are apprehensive.
“I’m battling as a parent, because them going to school would be good for their mental health, being around their friends like they’re supposed to be. But it feels like the right thing to do is hold off,” she said.
Dr. Willis has pushed to have kids in classrooms, as long as it is safe. He said that approach has been informed by educators who have said that distance learning in the spring was not optimal, and that it further exacerbated racial and economic inequities.
“There was a disproportionate number of children of low income who fell even further behind in that model,” he said in a presentation to superintendents last week. “We need to be innovative and creative in how we solve that problem, particularly in Marin County, which is a remarkable laboratory, if you will, of affluence as well as poverty.”
By the time waivers can be approved, six months will have passed since students were first sent home. After the school year ended, districts engaged in robust planning to reopen for classroom instruction following county requirements for mandatory face coverings, daily health screenings and at least four feet of physical distance between students. The guidelines are still being revised; symptom checks may be done by parents at home and face coverings could be required starting in third grade, for example.
When cases rose in early July, Marin was placed on the state’s monitoring list, and on July 15, Dr. Willis changed tunes and recommended delaying in-person instruction. Two days later, Governor Gavin Newsom mandated it, while offering the waiver, which applies only to kindergarten through sixth grade.
The state health department is recommending that waivers be limited to counties with case rates lower than 200 cases per 100,000 residents for two weeks, and Marin is reportedly just below that threshold, with around 170 cases per 100,000 residents.
To be allowed to reopen without a waiver, the county must have a case rate below 100 cases per 100,000 residents, which would require fewer than 19 new cases per day on average for two weeks. Marin has seen only two days with fewer than 19 new cases in the past month.
Ken Lippi, the assistant superintendent of Marin schools, said it is too early to know how many elementary schools will apply for a waiver, but his sense is that more private schools will try, because their populations are generally smaller and collective bargaining with staff is easier.
Schools that have offered in-person learning during the pandemic also have an easier path. The Bolinas-Stinson Union School District has been offering outdoor, in-person summer school to a handful of students, and the board is meeting this week to discuss pursuing a waiver.