Sacramento schools won’t reopen until at least May 1, county superintendent says

With the support of the Sacramento County Department of Public Health, all 13 local school districts in Sacramento are extending their school closures to May 1.

The announcement by the Sacramento County Office of Education came on Friday, weeks after county officials announced they would close until April 13 in a coordinated attempt to slow the spread of coronavirus.

“On the advice of the Department of Public Health, we feel that is necessary to continue our fight against the COVID-19 outbreak, and this will make our students and our families hopefully as safe as possible as we battle this virus,” Sacramento County Superintendent of Schools David Gordon said.

Nearly 500,000 students in the four-county capital region — Sacramento, El Dorado, Placer and Yolo counties — are currently out of school. Gordon said he had never seen closures on this scale.

Gordon — accompanied by Scott Loehr, superintendent of the Center Joint Unified School District, and Jorge Aguilar, who leads the Sacramento City Unified district — said districts throughout the region have scheduled their own distance learning back-to-school dates, many of them using online platforms such as Zoom and Google Classroom.

“I just want to call out the dedication of our school people who for the most part are being extremely, extremely diligent and extremely creative in making sure that students have an opportunity to learn at home,” Gordon said.

The soonest in-person class instruction would resume under this new plan would be May 4.

Gordon said some large districts are more prepared than others, including Elk Grove Unified, Natomas Unified, Folsom Cordova Unified, and Twin Rivers Unified.

Elk Grove Unified announced they would officially move to online distance learning for the remainder of the school year. The plan to start distance learning classes on April 16 for secondary students and April 20 for elementary students are still in place.

Sacramento City’s online learning proposal

Sacramento City Unified officials said they are proposing to have online learning in place by April 13. Aguilar said the district said it was working with its labor partners to begin a distance learning program. On Thursday, the district said it is working to ensure all students have access to internet and technology to take classes online.

But Gov. Gavin Newsom told parents and students last week in a news conference they should expect schools to stay closed through summer break as efforts continue to contain the coronavirus.

It’s unlikely that schools will operate into summer months, officials say, as that would require massive financial support from the state and revised contracts to employ teachers for additional weeks or months.

School districts across the region are providing meals to students as the closures remain in place. Superintendent Aguilar said Sacramento City Unified distributed about 29,000 meals to students on Thursday, and today the district will provide family meals for the weekend. The district also plans to provide meals to needy families through its spring break.

Gordon said school officials have been in communication with local universities to ensure that seniors have a smooth transition into college as their K-12 education comes to an end during this stay-at-home period.

This story was originally published March 27, 2020 at 1:20 PM.