SMMUSD Aims To Reopen In The Fall

MALIBU, CA — The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District announced Monday that it is working to ensure that students can return on campus by the fall.

"We say this with the understanding that unforeseen events have altered our plans in the past," Superintendent Dr. Ben Drati wrote in an email. "However, we are committed to in-person instruction as our priority for the fall."

Drati wrote that he expects all staff to be vaccinated by the end of the summer, if not earlier. Despite a vaccine shortage, L.A. County Public Health Dr. Barbara Ferrer announced Wednesday that teachers, food workers, and first responders could begin receiving vaccines within two to three weeks as Phase 1B begins. Many of the district's nurses, health aides, and special education staff have already received their first doses, Drati reported.

The district also announced that it is finalizing plans with St. John's Medical Center in Santa Monica to offer vaccination clinics for staff once Phase 1B starts.

Still, it remains to be seen whether significant portions of the student body will be vaccinated by the fall. Currently, no vaccines are approved for children under 16, although different studies have shown that children have lower COVID-19 transmission rates, much lower rates of fatality if infected, and that schools with children have not become super-spreaders. A study out of Brown University analyzing school infection data from 47 states over the last two weeks of September showed that out of 200,000 students and 63,000 staff who returned to school, infection rates were 0.13 percent among students and 0.24 percent among staff.

Drati said that declining rates of new infections may place L.A. County into the red tier. After a county remains in the red tier - which currently requires four to seven new cases per 100,000 people and five to eight percent positive tests - for 14 days, it can reopen schools to in-person instruction. A new plan proposed by Gov. Newsom would allow TK-5 students to return to campus once the county case rate drops to 25,000 per 100,000. L.A. County's rate is currently 38,000 per 100,000.

The district is currently ramping up slowly to full on-campus instruction by developing different levels of in-person instruction, depending on unfolding circumstances. An elementary school may allow students back on campus for two full days a week. On the remaining three days, students would learn online in the mornings, and return to campus from 1-3 p.m., where they would be split up into different cohorts. These different scenarios vary by school and are being developed with the input of parent and staff representative councils.

"We are confident that the distance learning plus model will provide our students with in-person experiences both academic and social-emotional with the flexibility to adapt easily to the unpredictable health crisis we are all navigating right now," Drati wrote.

On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control recommended the reopening of K-12 schools as long as necessary safety protocols are in place. Elementary schools do not need to wait until teachers or students are vaccinated to reopen, even in communities like LA County that are experiencing surging cases of coronavirus.

"It is critical for schools to open as safely and as soon as possible, and remain open, to achieve the benefits of in-person learning and key support services," the federal agency wrote in the new guidelines.