Santa Rosa City Schools unveils updated return-to-school plan

The youngest elementary school students in Sonoma County’s largest school district could have the option of returning to campuses by late January if the county moves advances into the more permissive ed tier by the end of this month, according to a proposal being presented to the Santa Rosa City Schools board of trustees Monday night.

District officials are set to present an updated return-to-school plan that could pave the way for transitional kindergarten through third graders to return to campuses between late January and late February. That timeline is almost entirely contingent upon the county moving from the state’s purple, or most restrictive COVID-19 tier, to red, something school officials are being told could happen by the end of the month.

“I think the hard part is everything we write, everything we put out there, there is a little asterisk called ’subject to change,’“ Superintendent Diann Kitamura said. ”We don’t know what is going to happen with the spread of the virus.“

Infection rates and cases requiring hospitalizations are again on the upswing in California, though not at the skyrocketing pace seen in Midwest and Rocky Mountain states.

The school board voted in mid-September to continue with distance learning through December, but beyond that Kitamura has said she is reluctant to lock Sonoma County’s largest school district into distance learning without a blueprint for some return to classrooms.

“We are getting everybody geared up and ready,“ she said. ”As I told everybody who would listen to me, I can’t tell you exactly when we’ll go back but we can’t wait to open and then be ready. We have to be ready now.“

The document is slated for review and discussion by the full board Monday. A final draft is expected to go before the board on Dec. 14.

The plan includes two options for hybrid models for bringing back elementary-aged students, starting with transitional kindergartners through third graders and phasing in older grades after that. One schedule would have students on campus from 8 a.m. to 12:50 p.m. two days a week and doing distance learning for the remainder of their class time. The second, newer option, would have students on campus four days a week either in the mornings from 8 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. or afternoons from noon to 2:30 p.m.

Teachers, according to Kitamura, are largely split in their preference and elementary school parents are expected to be surveyed this week.

Any reopening plan necessitates buy-in from both classified staff and teachers. Both groups were active, along with parents and administrators, in crafting the original return to school document, which has guided the district’s protocols thus far.

The same 220-person committee behind that effort has reconvened in recent weeks to update the district’s distance learning plan as discuss how it will reopen campuses.

Santa Rosa City Schools has hired a COVID-19 coordinator who will lead staff-run contact tracing in the case of a positive case, according to the plan. The district is partnering with the Sonoma County Office of Education to meet testing requirements laid out by the state, Kitamura said.

In a survey sent to parents of both elementary and secondary students in early November, 36% of the approximately 7,000 respondents said they intend to keep their student off campus even if the district opens a hybrid option.

If that number holds, district officials would have to assign more teachers to remote instruction. Just 10% have medical accomodations that require the district to keep them on such duties if the district moves to a hybrid model.

"We think that more teachers will volunteer or want to go to distance learning,“ Kitamura said. ”Right now it isn’t a choice.“

Matching students to teachers, especially at the secondary level where teachers are linked with particular subjects, could prove another hurdle.

Middle and high school students also typically move between six classes per day, raising the risk of mixing with hundreds of classmates and the challenge for administrators tasked with maintaining a multi-subject schedule.

Early versions of hybrid schedules for middle and high school students called for students to juggle three classes per day. That number is not recommended under pandemic health guidelines, according to county officials.

On Friday, Dr. Sundari Mase, the county health officer, and Adam Radtke, deputy county counsel, confirmed that the county is working on recommendations for secondary schedules that would limit students to two cohorts, not three in any move to hybrid instruction.

“Not co-mingling more than two cohorts at any time,“ Radtke said

But that recommendation runs counter to how other counties in less restrictive tiers are operating schools. Kitamura said she is not asking for fewer restrictions than neighboring counties when Sonoma County reaches the red, and eventually orange tiers, but an explanation should there be variations in guidance.

“If two is the model why are so many doing three?” Kitamura said. “What is the distinction? What is the difference?”

“I want an answer for that question,” she said. “We are working on schedules with two periods and we are also working with three.”

You can reach Staff Writer Kerry Benefield at 707-526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @benefield.