Placer County school district approves full-time schedule if COVID infection rates improve

After hours of deliberation, the Rocklin Unified School District board voted early Tuesday morning to bring students back to campuses full-time five days a week if coronavirus infection rates improve in Placer County.

The 4 to 1 board vote will allow students in grades TK through 12 to transition to a full-time, full-day model if Placer County returns to the state’s orange tier of COVID-19 restrictions for two weeks. The vote also requires the district to return to the full-time schedule no later than April 6.

Regardless of where the coronavirus infection rate stands, schools will add some in-person instructional minutes and days beginning Jan. 19. The district is currently in a hybrid model with students coming to campus two or three days a week.

Board members deliberated until 1:30 a.m.

Some board members said they were uncomfortable tying the state’s color tier system to the district’s reopening plan.

Board member Tiffany Saathoff was the lone vote against the five-day return, stating she wanted students to return for full days sooner. She noted that six other school districts in the county have chosen to go to in-person instruction five days a week.

“I have a constitutional obligation to make sure we are making decisions that are in the best interest in our students,” Saathoff said. “What do we weigh more? Mental Health? Medical concerns? Instructional minutes?”

Board member Rick Miller pushed back on the notion that health expert support for a return to schools means campuses must offer five days a week of in-person instruction, particularly as cases rise in the district.

Travis Mougeotte, president of the Rocklin Teachers Professional Association, said the decision will likely force many students and staff into the district’s virtual campus or to leave the district.

“RTPA is disappointed and discouraged that community politics are making choices for our staff and students,” he said in a statement to The Sacramento Bee. “Our students, many parents, the teachers (with survey data) and even the district stated this is not a good plan and not best for kids given the current circumstances. Yet the board voted to put our schools in an unsafe situation.”

The district reported 38 new cases between Nov. 30 and Dec 6. Nine of those cases were staff members and 29 were students. The district reported six cases the week prior.

And more than 150 students were exposed to a positive case, most when five classes visited a school library where an employee later tested positive. The school quarantined students and teachers. The district struggled to find substitutes for the teachers’ other classes, so it quarantined both morning and afternoon cohorts.

“We always said our goal was to be back five days, but safety is a consideration,” Miller said. “We know distance learning did not work well, and that hybrid learning is having a better impact. My concern is if we go too far too quickly, we will actually put our kids back in distance learning. We are in the middle of a massive uptick, and it seems more likely than ever that we will be back in the one thing we know that does not work.”

Several parents shared their concerns with board members over their children being at home. Board member Julie Hupp said most of the parents who reached out to her directly were not worried about learning loss, but more about mental health.

“I spoke to so many parents whose children were suffering anxiety and depression on levels they’ve never seen before,” Hupp said. “It’s an agonizing situation for them. I look at the five-day schedule as an opportunity to have somewhere safe to go everyday, someone checking on them everyday, someone making sure they are eating and getting out of bed everyday, and getting dressed and brushing their teeth. Children need routine and structure.”

Some parents shared with board members that the spread of the COVID-19 cases informed them that a hybrid model needed to remain in place. Rocklin parent Rob Kram said he’s seen several recent outbreaks at his own job.

“Anyone can spread it, including school age children, and you’re asking for a world of hurt if you’re opening it up at one of the peaks of the surges,” he said.

This story was originally published December 15, 2020 at 11:47 AM.