Carlsbad School Closure Update - March 15, 2020

From the Carlsbad Unified School District:

March 15, 2020

All Carlsbad Unified schools will be closed beginning Monday, March 16, 2020. Schools will be closed for four weeks in order to curb the potential transmission of COVID-19.

We’ve modified the timing of our spring break in order to have a continuous school closure for the next four weeks. At this point, we are planning for students to return to school on Monday, April 13, 2020. The situation has been fluid and constantly changing, and we will continue to provide updates as necessary.

A number of north county school sites will be open for temporary meal service during the school closures; in Carlsbad, we’ll offer grab and go lunches at Jefferson Elementary from 11:30 am to 1:00 pm,, Monday through Friday, while our schools are closed. Please see our website for more information, including information about other school sites in Oceanside and Vista.

As we noted in our communication to families on Friday, March 13, Carlsbad Unified School District is in the process of determining what options we have for our students to continue learning while school is closed; before all else, we want our staff and families to make plans for their health and safety. Our team has been working over the past two weeks on plans for possible extended learning activities. We are awaiting additional guidance from the California Department of Education (CDE) in the coming days, and will provide additional information to students and families on Wednesday, March 18 regarding possible extended learning activities. We are also awaiting CDE guidance on state testing, AP testing, and SAT testing; as soon as we have information about this, we’ll share it with you.

Many of you have asked if our school year will be extended because of the closures. At this point, based on guidance in Governor Newsom’s Executive Order on March 13, the requirement for a minimum number of school days has been suspended. As of this moment, we do not anticipate having to make up any school days at the end of the school year.

We’ve created a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) document and posted it on our website; this will be updated regularly.

Carlsbad Unified School District would like to ask you to remind your students and friends about the importance of social distancing as a way to curb the potential transmission of COVID-19. Large gatherings undermine the public health benefits of school closures. We provide more info about this in our FAQ document.

Our top priority remains the health and safety of every one of our students. Thank you for your support, and we hope you are staying healthy.

You can find this and all other community messages on our district webpage: https://cusd-ca.schoolloop.com/covid-19.

This press release was produced by the Carlsbad Unified School District. The views expressed here are the author’s own.