Hundreds of Sacramento-area students and teachers have COVID. Will schools remain open?
Hundreds of public school students in Sacramento County have tested positive for COVID-19 in recent days. But so far, district officials say they have no plans to close campuses or return classes to distance learning.
In addition to the students, hundreds of staff at local school districts have also returned positive COVID-19 test results as the omicron variant continues its surge through the region.
The San Juan Unified School District reported 561 student cases and 223 staff cases in an update at noon Wednesday. That included 48 cases at Bella Vista High School and 35 at Rio Americano High School.
Raj Rai, a district spokeswoman, said officials “don’t have any schools being considered for closure/distance learning at this time.”
“We work closely with local health officials to monitor conditions within individual school communities,” Rai said. “If advised by local health officials, we would consider temporary closure or move to distance learning for an individual school community. We do not anticipate a return to distance learning for all schools unless required to do so by local or state health officials.”
The Sacramento City Unified School District, which on Monday reported hundreds of students and staff had tested positive for the virus during the winter break, has no plans to implement remote learning or close campuses because of COVID-19, said district spokesman Al Goldberg.
During the winter break, the district sent students and staff home with rapid at-home test kits in preparation for a safe return to schools in January. Of the roughly 20,000 test results submitted by families and staff to the district from those kits, about 500 were positive for COVID-19 as of Sunday.
That may have contributed to a slightly lower school attendance rate Monday, the first day back for the district. School attendance was 84.07%, compared to 86.41% the last Monday schools were open on Dec. 13, Goldberg said. Some families may have kept sick or exposed kids at home, or delayed sending their kids in because of the rapidly spreading variant.
The district’s COVID-19 dashboard only includes positive cases of people who were also physically present on campus, Goldberg said, which is why the results of the roughly 500 people who tested positive over the break are not included. When the district updates the database on Friday, more cases will likely crop up from those who attended or worked on campus this week, he added.
Many teachers were also absent to begin the new year. The Sacramento City Teachers Association said 490 certificated teachers were absent on Wednesday; 345 of those spots were filled by substitutes. David Fisher, president of the teachers union, said the number of substitutes and vacancies is “astronomical.”
“It means that students in many cases are being corralled into auditoriums with substitutes, teachers and other educators working outside their normal jobs to take over classes they’re not credentialed for and elementary school classes are being rounded up (into one location), which is problematic because of the pandemic,” he said.
Folsom Cordova Unified School District’s COVID dashboard showed there were 243 students and 21 staff members with active COVID-19 infections. District spokeswoman Angela Griffin Ankhelyi said “FCUSD is continuing with in-person instruction.” Folsom High School has the most cases, with 67 students infected.
Other districts in the county have so far reported more modest virus caseloads.
Elk Grove Unified, the largest district in the region, reported 90 active cases on its district dashboard. A district spokeswoman could not be reached for comment to discuss whether officials have considered closing any campuses to in-person instruction.
The Natomas Unified School District has 28 staff and 24 students with active infections, according to its dashboard. The district has had no discussions about a return to remote learning.
The Twin Rivers Unified School District listed 48 “recent confirmed cases,” including 42 student infections. The district dashboard said those cases cover infections “reported for 14 days.”
Schools in Sacramento County have begun to shorten the required quarantine period for students who test positive for COVID-19, coming into line with new CDC guidance that says isolation periods could go from 10 to five days.
This story was originally published January 6, 2022 at 5:00 AM.