San Mateo County high schools plan reopening when allowed

In the San Mateo Union High School District, officials are hoping for a best-case scenario of beginning a phased return for students Tuesday, Jan. 19, which would eventually ramp up to allowing all interested students back by Tuesday, Feb. 16.

Meanwhile Sequoia Union High School District officials grappled with the complex in-person scheduling challenges for students returning to a specialized learning environment requiring visits to multiple classrooms when mixed interactions are discouraged.

The discussions took place while San Mateo County sits with much of the rest of the state in the purple tier, which restricts high schools that have not already started in-person learning from bringing students back to the classroom.

‘We have to keep planning and trying’

But the difficult deliberations continued because officials recognized that in-person classes are preferable to online education, which hinders the learning of many students.

“We have to keep planning and trying. We know what distance learning will do and we know it will leave one-third of our students behind to some degree — some more than others. And we know we have to keep planning and trying as we work through the pandemic,” said Marc Friedman, president of the San Mateo Union High School District Board of Trustees, during a meeting Thursday, Dec. 10.

Early indications are that roughly 1,000 district students are failing and not engaged with their classes during the fall semester, said Friedman, who projected another 2,000 are likely also struggling — though perhaps not so severely.

In a district of approximately 9,000 students, Friedman questioned how to support that considerable segment, while also recognizing a majority of the students are either performing adequately or excelling during distance learning.

“Is the glass two-thirds full? Or one-third empty? It is the conundrum we are going to face as we go forward,” he said. “What are we going to do about that one-third?”

Summer school?

An alternative identified by officials is expanding the district’s summer school program, with hopes that additional sessions would offer students who struggled during distance learning a chance to catch up when health conditions allow a return to campus.

While some trustees agreed, Superintendent Kevin Skelly was skeptical that a school community exhausted by the sustained psychological and emotional drain of the pandemic would show much appetite for a ramped-up summer school session.

“It will be a struggle to get folks there,” said Skelly.

Teacher concerns

Beyond elected officials and administrators, a key group to consider are teachers who in both districts widely oppose a return to campus until health conditions improve significantly. During both meetings, educators raised significant reservations with plans to again launch in-person learning while simultaneously lauding the quality of online learning environments.

The comments in the Sequoia Union High School District follow a previous board discussion which addressed a 10% hike from the previous year in the amount of students that have two or more failing grades in the first quarter.

Yet despite the concerning trends, officials agreed continuing to focus on improving the online learning environment is preferable to trying to overcome the substantial hurdles associated with bringing students and teachers back while public health conditions are so poor.

“We’ve got to not sacrifice the quality of instruction that we have already built up for this incremental time on campus that will be very challenging,” said Alan Sarver, vice president of the Sequoia Union High School District Board of Trustees during a meeting Wednesday, Dec. 9.

Alternatives

And to offer supplemental support to those who are struggling academically, officials discussed potentially adding personnel who can visit students at home. Officials administering the home visit program have said it is one of the few ways proven to connect with students who have been absent or detached from the online classroom. As a result, officials agreed that it may be worth spending more to beef up the outreach initiative.

“We have reserves for a rainy day, and it is raining,” said Allen Weiner, president of the Sequoia Union High School District board. “It’s deluging.”

Furthering their interest in student engagement, Sequoia officials focused much of their conversation on attempting to allow select groups of students back on campus for social interactions.

Citing feedback from students who said the biggest challenge they face amid the pandemic is the psychological and emotional toll taken by months away from friends and classmates, trustees examined ways for schools to safely relaunch some extracurricular activities.

Whether for tutoring, athletics or clubs, interim Superintendent Crystal Leach said officials are dedicated to combating the isolation experienced by many students.

“We are committed to ... getting as many students as we can back on campus for social-emotional, academic supports — in any way that we can, in a safe manner, for both staff and our students,” she said.

Timing of reopening

Anticipating eventually improved health conditions, Leach added the district has already submitted its plan for reopening classrooms to the San Mateo County Office of Education, which certifies the approach before passing it onto health officials for approval.

In the San Mateo Union High School District, officials expressed comfort with their own reopening plan but stopped short of agreeing to submit it. Noting that San Mateo County would need to move out of the purple tier for two consecutive weeks before high schools are eligible to begin in-person learning again, officials agreed there is time to continue analyzing the plan before it can be implemented.

“We are ready to go whenever the numbers or the state says we can be bringing kids back on campus,” said Friedman.

Board changes

The meeting was the last for Friedman, who did not seek re-election this fall. He will be replaced by Ligia Andrade-Zuniga, who defeated Neal Kaufman in the election. Trustee Greg Land was also re-elected, and he begins his second term on the board.

In the Sequoia Union High School District, the meeting was the last for Weiner and fellow Trustee Georgia Jack. Weiner, who did not seek re-election, will be replaced by Shawneece Stevenson. And Jack will be replaced by Rich Ginn, who won the Area C election in November.