K-6 schools are now allowed to reopen, according to the Contra Costa County Health Dept.
Contra Costa County is currently in the Purple Tier. Schools may not reopen for grades 7-12 while in the Purple Tier.
K-6 schools may reopen for in-person instruction in the Purple Tier if the adjusted case rate has been less than 25 per 100,000 population (currently 21.1) per day for at least 5 consecutive days (schools can now reopen) and the school has an approved COVID Safety Plan.
Local school officials will decide whether and when to reopen.
Instead of wasting time impeaching Trump again, maybe the Dems should focus on rolling out their “vaccines” they claimed they weren’t taking if Trump had anything to do with it. Talk about a waste of time.
Still bitter about the election I take it? One must get over it
With 42 executive orders, there is clearly zero interest in working together. And a blessed day will never happen in a dictatorship wrought with censorship. With the first amendment on the ropes, the second amendment will follow. As such many people plan to spend their stimulus money on firearms while it’s still possible.
From a local perspective invest in a better future: Spend stimulus money on the Newsom recall effort.
@KingOfC
It’s kind of hard to get over it when it’s everywhere on the news. I agree, move on with trump and his impeachment. Biden is in office now. What a waste of time and our money.
Dems are still not over 2016. Hence all the hate and impeachment.
Republicans will get over 2020, Dems will never get over 2016. Biden already breaking campaign promises and a liar. 2022 Republicans will take House.
Trump has been ginning up his supporters with baseless election fraud claims for months. Trump swore an oath to protect the constitution yet he violated it. Trump clearly encouraged the people to attack congress. Watch the video of his speech and his supporters reactions. This was nothing less than an attempted coup.
You all are digressing from the subject. The article is about school reopening, not politics, votes, elections, etc.
@KingOfC, Yeah right. There are still people in the bay area driving around with Hillary for President bumper stickers, still crying over that one, and still claiming that election was stolen. So, no more lecturing on people getting over it.
Schools can open according to the health people, but they can’t really.
Don’t have school aged kids, are private schools open ?
If so how long have they been open ?
Many K-6 private schools have been open all school year. Several private high schools have been open since mid-October. There have been no outbreaks at any schools in our area
Before you complain about local public teachers who have been working hard to deliver for students during COVID-19 pandemic, maybe you should consider that you took away their pay increase that you had agreed to before it started.
Every school that has opened has had cases. They just are not mandated to report
Private School Parent …..you are correct.
Have there been people connected with private schools (staff, students) who have had COVID? Yes. They could have gotten it anywhere. They stay home from the school until cleared to return. Have there been any OUTBREAKS (e.g., multiple people) traced to transmission at a private school? No. Private schools are under OSHA safety standards and are required to selectively report to others if there was a case (but under HIPAA privacy laws that apply to all employers cannot disclose a particular person’s COVID status to any other person, can only report that there was exposure at the workplace)
There are ways to do this safely, people, with daily screenings, good safety protocols, etc. It is being done all over the world.
No one has yet to post a link to a story about an “outbreak” traced to a school or day care center, anywhere. It is all just speculative fear that it “could” happen, but the real data that we now have from all over the world says “highly unlikely” in school settings with reasonable precautions in place. There is no such thing as zero risk in any endeavor in life so you can’t say it is impossible, just like it is not impossible for you to catch COVID from the grocery store.
Walnut Creek elementary schools go back the 22nd of this month from what I understand.
Get kids back in school. What’s the point of wearing face masks?
Aren’t MDUSD schools K-5?
Okay so if the K-5 in MDUSD aren’t back next week we can fire Adam Clark, remove the board of supervisors, and dissolve the contract with the MDEA right? Because it’s complete negligence creating direct harm to children. I’m sure there is a law against professionals in charge of the care of children doing such things. Do we all need to call CPS on them or something? I’m not joking.
The right to a state-provided decent education is also in the state constitution. So there’s that…
this has got to be the most telling of all!
young children are germ factories, so opening up their school but not older children is just plan proof that this is all nonsense aka non-science.
patoohuee!
Open ALL schools!!!!
The schools should not open yet. I don’t see the youngest wearing masks properly.
My school has been open since September. I am a preschool teacher. I was hesitant at first, but I can honestly say my 3-4 yr old students wear there masks. They are more responsible with their masks then many adults.
Oh please 🙄
Let’s see, we could make this decision based on data and studies done by competent researchers around the world … or on your judgment about the standard of mask-wearing among local small kids … Tough choice.
@Doh- based on your comments here and elsewhere I am going to assume you are trying to troll and incite chaos. Because I can’t imagine a person actually thinks the things you are saying.
Wonder what the Teachers Union thinks about this…?
I’m so tired of the bickering. Go ahead and open all the school and let’s just see what happens. Any any suggestions how a 2,200 student school with average class size of 33 students can conduct classes with the new 6’ distancing? How will air be purified? How to feed brunch and lunch in less than 1/2 hour? There are so many logistics involved many of you don’t realize. Good luck.
@Mika
We don’t need luck we just need actual leadership in the District to figure it out! It has been almost a year there should have been some type of plan on how can this work.
We simply can’t keep everything shut down like this forever.
Get over yourself 🙄
You have a point: the logistics are challenging. But they have made basically no progress in a year. Meanwhile other states, other countries, private schools, daycares, have figured out ways to adjust. To say nothing of businesses, which have had to pivot many times by now.
If you can only have half the students on campus at a given time, ok. If you need to change the schedule, ok. Need to purchase purifiers for rooms with no ventilation? Ok. Outdoor classroom spaces where possible, ok. Bottom line is, by this point a whole lot of adjustments and modifications could have been made. But here we are. Zero. Nothing.
A competent institution would find a way to serve its purpose. It would have been ready to open when cases were low in fall. At the very least, it would have been ready to open now, when numbers are dropping dramatically. But they aren’t ready. It seems really obvious most of publc school kids won’t be back in school until the fall. That’s a travesty. A failure by any standard at all.
The risk to the kids is trivial, teachers are not at more risk than other occupations (yes, there is data on this), and schools aren’t super spreading sites. The only reason they aren’t open is that the unions are holding out for a zero-risk deal for their members. Zero risk for teachers, demonstrated harm for kids. That’s outrageous, and in hindsight it is going to look really, really bad. Give it two years for the studies on impacts to kids to start leaking into the pressing a big way. Every politician is going to pretend they were for reopening all along. You can see this happening already to some extent. Newsom and Breed have been striking that pose recently.
@PeteV YES 🙌 Well said !
You may not think this is political, but these school shut downs are 100% political.
The teachers union owns the California dems lock stock and barrel. The teachers union is the biggest obstacle to opening our schools. In essence you voted for this. Thank God I am blessed with the ability to pay for my children to attend private schools. Everyone, regardless of income, should have that same opportunity. If it wasn’t for the all powerful teachers union and their Democrat servants school choice would be a reality, and our schools would be open. If you vote D down the ballot this is your doing.
The unions are playing a risky game here. If Biden gets the child tax credit expansion he wants, a whole lot of people are going to all of a sudden have a big chunk of money to put towards private schooling. If public schools are still balking at actually providing schooling, people will grab that cash and vote with their feet.
Prediction: if that tax credit change gets passed quickly, the teacher’s unions will move to reopen really fast! Either that or they will move to decouple funding from enrollments…
So is the main difference between private and public schools,
on the public side an adversarial relationship between a union and a large semi political bureaucracy ? ? ?
The big difference between private school and public school is in private schools the parents have a say and some control over their childs education . In public schools parents have no say or responsibilities in their childs education . Politicians and unions control your childs future .
OG and Pep. You both bring up big differences between the two systems. I think Pep hit the nail on the head with parental involvement. It all starts with the freedom to choose.
When making any decision you weigh the pro’s and con’s. Is it worth it? Can you afford to pay for your child’s education twice (tuition and taxes)? How will this benefit my child? What do we have to sacrifice? This deliberative process takes place before the student steps one foot on campus. The action ” to choose” produced by active deliberation automatically makes the parent invested in the education of their child.
Due to the teachers union the freedom to choose, and thus the benefit of that choice, is only available to the rich.
#1) Who believes anything unions or politicians spout? Paid liars.
#2) Any virus that’s mowed down almost half a million Americans, despite a country practicing mask wearing & the rest of it, is highly contagious. Stacking kids atop one another is absolute lunacy.
#3) What happened to all those millions sent to prep the schools with new air filters & etc.? Did it go to the fat pensions & lifetime benefits of teachers?
Your #1 and #3 are on the right track. But #2 is stupidity on parade…first off, the “half million Americans” is so bogus, anyone with half a brain and shred of common sense has seen how those numbers have been manipulated, that whole “with/of” thing, not to mention financial incentive.
As for kids, especially those up to age ~18 aren’t significant vectors for the China virus as they don’t tend to get it in the first place, and if they do, they (relatively speaking) do not tend to transmit it, and they have a survivability rate in the neighborhood of 99.999%. Kids in many places around the world and right here in the US (in sane states that actually “follow the science”) have been going to school in person for months with little to no problems…why, in 30-something states they even played Fall, Winter, and now Spring sports, OH THE HUMANITY!
Pete
You are correct in that schools in Europe stayed open and showed little spread. However, they have shut down again because of the new variants. Which is now here and spreading. So it is not a black and white answer.
Also, your numbers are incorrect about the death rate, but people like you ignore the long term issues. Approximately 10% of all infected will have long term health issues. Does that not matter? If America has 27.2 million cases and 2.7 million people will have long term issues that require constant medical attention, does that not make a difference?
We’ve been in full time private since Sept. There have been a handful of cases that didn’t effect our “pod” after thanksgiving and Christmas. The effected classes went home and school was deep cleaned. Private schools obviously have the resources to prepare classrooms and teachers and keep kids safe in small groups. How are public schools going to space out classes of 25-35 kids with less teachers, classrooms and funding? Hmm.
The bottom line is If they can’t get a plan together after almost a year they do not have the right team for the job.
@SAAVY…well parents should step up and ask what ya’ll can do to help open up versus crying and complaining 😉
Many have been actually.
Luckily you do not need to worry about it since you have children in private school.
“Deep cleaning” is just hygiene theater. Dr Ashish Jha, head of public health at Brown:
“Make sure everyone wears masks. There are some experts who think you can stop there. I’m more cautious. I think you also need to make sure you have schedules so you avoid really crowded hallways. Maybe stagger classes a little. The focus on cleaning surfaces is completely misplaced. It’s expensive and it does nothing. Get some Lysol wipes, make sure you have hand sanitizer around. I’m not saying don’t have people wash their hands. Use basic hygiene. But I’ve had districts say, “We can’t reopen because we can’t get touchless sanitizer dispensers.” This is insane. Taking days off to do deep cleaning? I don’t even know what “deep cleaning” is. Temperature taking is useless and I wouldn’t do it. It’s hygiene theater.”
The virus isn’t spreading via surfaces, but via droplets and aerosol. So ventilation, masking, spacing are what matters, not this nonsense about deep cleaning with expensive surface treaents. We know by this point that it is largely pointless. And I don’t know what you are talking about with “less funding.” How so? Enrollment based funding is being calculated based on 2019 numbers. And there is some aid to the state from federal packages too.
Other districts, states, countries, institutions have figured out a way to offer something more than full time Zoom. It’s been a year now, basically. It’s just ridiculous to talk about this like an unsolvable problem, a Mars mission. We are talking about an adjusted schedule, opening windows and adding some air purifiers, mask wearing, physical distancing. It’s a logistical challenge, not a moon shot.
@Lolz, ok, so blame it on the parents?? That’s disconnected from reality. If the district is ready to reopen and needs some support from parents, they should ask for it. What is happening on planet earth, as opposed to your imagination, is that parents get no say in this. The unions can basically dig their heels in forever, and it is only now that they feel enough pressure to at least give lip service to reopening. But here that is all it is: lip service.
Can we start a list of nearby districts that are open and functioning to shame MDUSD into some kind of action? Because there sure are a lot of back to school pics on social media this week and we don’t even have a target date.
I agree.
The San Ramon school district may be one to start with. They have approx 32,000 students.
Wednesday, February 10: Preschools and grades TK-2 return
Wednesday, February 17: Grades 3-5 and Special Day Classes district-wide can return for in-person instruction; 6th grade “core” classes.
Grades 7-12 pending “Red Tier” (we are currently in purple)
Does anyone know whether parochial and private schools have been open?
If so, what has their experience been with COVID?