-
Department of Catholic Schools Superintendent Pamela Lyons. (File photo)
July 24, 2020
Nicholas Wolfram SmithCatholic schools in San Francisco and Marin counties will begin the academic year with remote instruction while those in San Mateo County will hold in-person classes, the archdiocesan schools department announced July 23.
In a letter to families, superintendent Pamela Lyons said recent guidance from the California Department of Public Health mandates that schools can open for in-person instruction only if their local county has not been on the state COVID-19 watch list for the previous 14 days. Both San Francisco County and Marin County are currently on that list. If San Mateo County is placed on the watch list before the first day of school, Catholic schools there will also have to adopt remote instruction.
“Although our teachers are well versed in using Distance Learning, for them it is a second-best approach," Lyons said. "They prefer to be in the classroom, interacting with your child or children. They want to run their classes in the traditional way, because they know that is best for your children. And as soon as this is an option for all our teachers, they will be in the classroom with your children.”
San Francisco and Marin schools are planning on offering remote learning through at least September 3, by which time Lyons hoped those counties would be off the state watch list. Each school in the archdiocese must have its plan for in-person instruction approved by Lyons before it can reopen its doors.
The California school reopening framework permits county health officials to issue waivers that would allow elementary schools to resume in-person classes. Lyons said counties in the archdiocese currently do not offer a way to apply for a waiver.
“Once a process is available, and if it is deemed appropriate to do so, I will be applying for this waiver option,” Lyons said.
The California framework recommends periodically testing staff for COVID-19 once schools hold in-person classes. The rate of testing would depend on the prevalence of COVID-19 in each county and lab capacity.
The framework also notes that if a school opens in a county that is later placed on the state’s COVID-19 watch list, it does not need to close immediately. Schools offering in-person classes will close based on the number of COVID-19 cases, the percentage of students and staff affected and the input of the local health officer.
The CDPH said closing a school “may be appropriate when there are multiple cases in multiple cohorts at a school or when at least 5 percent of the total number of teachers/student/staff are cases within a 14-day period, depending on the size and physical layout of the school.”
Any school that has been closed to in-person classes may reopen after 14 days once it has consulted with the local public health department, held a public health investigation and cleaned and disinfected the campus.
The Department of Catholic Schools letter is available here. For more information on state requirements for resuming in-person classes, read the California Department of Public Health framework here.