As COVID surges, meet the Placer County students rallying against more time on campus

Dozens of Roseville parents took turns to speak at a school board meeting last week, calling for the district to increase the number of days their students will attend class on campus. Students in the Roseville Joint Union High School District are currently on a hybrid schedule, where they attend in-person classes twice a week or can choose to take classes virtually.

But between the rallying cries to reopen Placer County schools, hundreds of teenagers from the district are pushing to stay home.

Students in Roseville, several of them competitive debaters and social and outgoing by nature, are calling for the district to continue a hybrid schedule and delay its five-day, nearly full-day reopening plan. They want to protect their teachers and the community during the region’s worst coronavirus surge since the start of the pandemic.

One by one, Woodcreek High School student Alexander Houston’s friends spoke at the board meeting. They collected more than 3,200 signatures in a petition calling the new schedule dangerous and inequitable. It was a rare show of force for students, who are often not given the same platform as parents, district officials and teachers unions in the contentious debate over reopening school campuses.

But the district voted 5-0 to allow its 11,000 students back on campus five days a week. Students will receive 280 minutes of instruction on campus each day in classrooms with minimal social distancing. Some teachers and students say classes will reach anywhere between 30 and 40 students per room.

The vote came as the greater Sacramento region is seeing a shrinking number of ICU beds. Placer County briefly ran out of available ICU beds last week, according to state data. As of Sunday, there were 29 COVID-19 patients in Placer ICU beds – the highest number since the pandemic started – and a total of 181 were hospitalized.

The Roseville district serves students in both Placer and Sacramento counties, forcing it to maneuver an interesting variance in county guidelines and expectations, as well as two boards of supervisors and county health directors.

Nearly 10,000 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in Placer County and 57,000 in Sacramento County. Just over 1,100 of those have been children under the age of 18 in Placer County; about 7,000 in the age group have tested positive in Sacramento County. None of the children were among the 97 deaths in Placer County.

Since October, 23 staff members and 73 students tested positive across the Roseville district. Parents who advocated for open schools largely argued two points: They said the virus doesn’t severely harm kids and children are suffering mental health issues due to isolation.

Nearly 3,000 students were surveyed by the district about their options and students were largely split between preferring the hybrid model or larger class sizes with very limited social distancing. Many parents raised concerns that the survey was not clearly written.

In contrast, 85% of parents surveyed by the district said they wanted their children to return to in-person instruction.

“There is definitely widespread concern for student and staff alike,” Houston said. “Nobody has a voice on campus besides the board.”

Within days, Houston, along with Kaneesha Goyal, founded Students for Safety Coalition, a diverse group of Roseville Joint Union High students who are not giving up their push to convince the district to return to a hybrid model for all nine campuses.

Their goal, Houston said, is also to prevent the school board from voting to increase in-person instruction to 80 minutes per class and include an on-campus lunch, where students would be able to remove their masks to eat meals.

Houston takes all of his classes online and has a rare genetic disability that makes him at risk for catching the virus. He said students’ primary concerns include the safety of their teachers and community members.

“I think a lot of us are taking this pandemic very seriously,” he said. “We are acting out of compassion for our staff.”

Students and staff are concerned the plan to return to a nearly traditional schedule means that class sizes will return to pre-pandemic sizes as well.

“Returning to a five-day system where there are 36 students in a classroom is not taking COVID seriously,” Houston said.

The district confirmed that maintaining six feet of distance between people on campus “will not be practicable.”

“It is true there are concerns that our classes will not be able to implement the recommended guidelines put forth by the California Department of Public Health and reiterated by both Sacramento County and Placer County,” said Interim Superintendent Jess Borjon.

Students in the coalition say with the majority of students back on campus, it will be difficult to maintain any distancing in classrooms and hallways.

“It’s really not possible to maintain social distancing when we have five days a week, because there are going to be 36 students in the classroom,” said Goyal, who attends Oakmont High School. “Forget six feet apart. It’s going to be hard to keep us even three feet apart considering there are people who are immunocompromised, and especially teachers who are older and are at increased risk.”

Classroom, learning inequity

Houston said many students felt comfortable taking classes in-person two days a week, but are now trying to register for the Roseville Student Virtual Learning Academy because they don’ t feel safe being on campus five days a week.

But many students and teachers are concerned they won’t be able to make the transfer. The virtual academy has more than 1,700 students registered and more than 100 on a wait list. There are currently no plans to add staff to the academy.

“We have since altered our first three weeks of the new term for families who are not able to get into the academy to access their on campus classes via Zoom,” read a statement from the district. “The school board will re-evaluate the district’s approach on January 26th.”

Not all of the district’s AP and honors courses are available through the virtual academy, according to a list provided by the district. Teachers credited the district for its thorough efforts to survey students in October and plan which classes should be offered online.

District officials confirmed International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme courses, which are offered to Oakmont and Granite Bay high school students, will not be offered through the virtual academy.

“They are basically pressuring all students to return to in-person five days a week,” Houston said.

Rob Richards, a government teacher and a parent at Antelope High School, said his own daughter chose to return to in-person classes in January. She’s in a dual enrollment history class in conjunction with Sierra College.

“Her only choice was to return to campus,” Richards said. “She has severe asthma, and her doctor was not real big on her going back to school.”

Richards, a tennis coach who suffered a heart attack two years ago, will also be returning to campus, as all coaches are expected to return. His students wondered why.

“These teens have a lot more empathy than people would expect,” Richards said. “I haven’t seen teens like these in the 25 years I have been teaching.”

Goyal said many of her peers were concerned for their teachers. They’re also worried about passing COVID-19 on to their own family members.

“We want to keep our community safe, and going hybrid allows us to have that time with teachers for those who want it and have that one-on-one connection,” Goyal said. “It also allows us to keep our community safe, including those who are immunocompromised or disabled in anyway.”

Richards, along with other teachers at Antelope High, questioned why their district seemed to accept the fact that students could not socially distance in the classroom.

“As soon as the day ends, band, choir, drama, all of those are still required to be ten feet apart, with masks, with social distancing and contact tracing,” Richards said. The California Interscholastic Federation had previously put out similar guidelines. “It’s the same students, but it’s almost contradictory. You might as well throw that out if the five hours before, you are cramming these kids two feet apart. The first part of the day you follow one set of rules, and the second half of the day you follow another set of rules.”

Perspectives from teachers and parents

For many teachers, like Richards, a five-day full return doesn’t make sense.

When surveyed about a full five-day model that the board will debate in January, 78% of the teachers in the Roseville Secondary Educators Association said they disapproved of the plan.

When asked about the hybrid model, 15.8% of teachers said it was the best model, 21.6% said it was good, and 44% said it was okay.

Teachers want a phased-in approach, where students would return to campus with a hybrid model on Jan. 9 and the district would monitor the region’s coronavirus case numbers to determine how and when to move forward with a full reopening.

“We were seeking a more moderate approach,” Antelope teacher and Faculty Advocate Tyler Patten said. “And it was dismissed.”

Several teachers said the number of students in each classroom – and the lack of social distancing – is what was most concerning.

“These are full-sized adults in many ways,” said Rob Moreno, who teachers English to seniors. “Antelope High School classrooms tend to be bigger, but not every school has that luxury.”

Both teachers and families asked the district why students couldn’t Zoom into class if they were uncomfortable attending five days a week. The school board did not entertain that option.

Many parents want a return to campus

Some parents said their children and their schools were collateral damage when the state enforced stay-at-home orders. And many parents voiced to the school board just how adamant they were in returning some normalcy back into their children’s lives.

Jessica Jones Corrales said her son is losing motivation while at home.

“He is not himself,” she said. “I am terrified that he is going to give up. Sports were his everything ... We have stripped these kids of everything! For what? Something that they don’t really get and don’t give to others. If students want to stay home let them! But why do the healthy kids have to conform to what has nothing to do with them?”

Jonathan Zachreson, a parent in the district and founder of the popular Reopen California Schools Facebook group, said a two-day in-person hybrid model can’t compare to a five-day schedule. In the hybrid model, students were doing asynchronous learning, and oftentimes were online even on days when they were on campus.

“So many students have suffered for so long, that they need this,” Zachreson said.

Teachers made it clear they want to return to a traditional schedule for their students once they feel it’s safe to do so.

“I miss being on campus,” Moreno said. “We hear about people making comments online about our work ethic, about ‘lazy teachers.’ I’m very proud of our district and our school for having very active staff. I’ve seen hard working teachers and students, who work well into the hours of the night, and we try to maintain a sense of community. I just think we are not doing it safely, and we can do greater damage. I’m worried about that.”

This story was originally published December 22, 2020 at 5:00 AM.