School reopening waivers halted in Sonoma County

Waiver applications to reopen local school campuses have been put on hold as of Monday, according to Sonoma County officials who said they are working within changing guidelines being crafted by the state.

The halt comes as COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations surge in California, leading Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration to return most counties to the most restrictive reopening tier. Sonoma County has not left that purple tier and its bid to do so was dealt a significant setback last week.

Save for the nine local private schools already given clearance to return to in-person instruction, and a public school in Bodega Bay with an application pending, most campuses that want to reopen are now in a similar holding pattern.

“We are notifying the remaining applicants that due to the increase in cases…that we are putting any further applications on hold,” Adam Radtke, a deputy county counsel, said in a media briefing Monday.

The move comes amid evolving guidance from Sacramento, Radtke said. Sonoma County Health Officer Sundari Mase learned last week of the pending change and her office made the decision to freeze local applications.

“Dr. Mase consulted with the state and the state let us know that they may be changing their recommendation in the waiver application rules as part of the governor’s broader strategy of using an emergency brake to try to rein in, as much as possible, this surge,” Radtke said.

The state Department of Health and Human Services reported more than 15,000 new cases statewide on Saturday and an additional 14,000 on Sunday — the largest spike by far since the pandemic struck in March.

The surge has placed 41 of the 58 counties in the most restrictive of the state’s four tiers guiding pandemic rules. The purple tier has the most limits on business, activities and gatherings. No schools in purple-tier counties can reopen campuses for their general student population without a state-issued waiver.

Since the first approval was granted in early October, nine schools in Sonoma County have been given clearance to reopen campuses to elementary-aged students in dramatically modified formats. A pending application for Bodega Bay Elementary School — located in Sonoma County but part of the Shoreline Unified School District in Marin County — was forwarded Friday to the state for consideration. Bodega Bay, with approximately 20 students, according to state records, is the first public school in Sonoma County to make the local cut.

If Bodega Bay earns state clearance, it will join St. Eugene’s Cathedral School and Redwood Adventist Academy, both in Santa Rosa, St. Francis Solano School in Sonoma, and Harvest Christian School in Petaluma, in the latest batch of applications given approval to open in a highly modified setting.

Reopening is allowed to serve only to transitional kindergarten through sixth grades, per state rules. At St. Eugene’s, that means approximately 150 students have the option of returning; at Redwood Adventist about 58; at St. Francis Solano about 130 students; and at Harvest Christian about 100 students.

Schools that earn approval to open must have submitted an application that outlines plans for adherence to stringent health and safety protocols, including the use of facial coverings, social distancing, mandated staff coronavirus testing and a plan for contact tracing should someone fall ill.

The first campus in Sonoma County given permission to return students to the classroom was The Presentation School in Sonoma, whose waiver was granted Oct. 7. It was followed by Sonoma Country Day School and Summerfield Waldorf, both in Santa Rosa, The Healdsburg School, and St. John the Baptist School, both in Healdsburg.

Even with the changing pandemic conditions, schools given permission to reopen are unlikely to be told to close, barring an outbreak within the school community. The state guidance is meant to avert a ricochet scenario where students, staff and parents deal with repeated closings and openings, county health and education officials said.

For a school to open without a waiver, Sonoma County must be in the less restrictive red tier for two weeks and then stay there for an additional two weeks.

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