Name: ‘Truly complicated’: Reopening California schools will be a logistical nightmare
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‘Truly complicated’: Reopening California schools will be a logistical nightmare

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The wall in Clark Burke’s school district office has turned into a war room, with flow charts and diagrams covered with directional arrows and white boards with potential plans of attack.The career Army officer, now schools superintendent in the San Joaquin County town of Manteca, is mapping out how to reopen schools for the upcoming academic year after a coronavirus closure.For school officials like Burke across California, getting teachers and students back into classrooms with the virus still circulating in communities is a high-stakes challenge and a logistical nightmare.How do you keep 2,000 high school students 6 feet apart when classes are already overcrowded? Who will ensure kindergartners keep their hands out of their mouths? Where will the money come from to buy masks and gloves and cleaning supplies? What happens when a student or staff member tests positive for the coronavirus? Can families find child care if students are at school part time?The questions — which currently lack clear answers — keep school leaders up at night.Burke’s walls in Manteca offer several options. They could adopt a hybrid model, with some classes online and some in person, with perhaps staggered schedules so not all students are on campus at once, he said. Or maybe they could use gyms and cafeterias as large study halls, with students cycling in and out of teacher classrooms in small groups of 10 or 12.In San Francisco, district officials are just starting to look at what a return to campuses would look like. The district is planning to hire a manager to oversee the process, a position funded by philanthropy, said Superintendent Vincent Matthews.“If you say half the students are coming 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and the other half 12 p.m. to 3 p.m., and stay 4 feet from each other, and teachers will all have masks and students will wash their hands once every hour, you have to be able to put all that in place,” he said.That means soap, masks and handwashing stations must be in place, as well as ample disinfectant. An alternate-school day schedule will also require negotiations with unions over work hours. That’s just a partial list.“It’s a huge barrier to overcome in order to bring students back in a safe matter,” he said. “Parents and students have to have confidence if they return to school that they’re safe.”State guidance on reopening has lacked specifics so far, and massive look to be coming in a few months, even though reopening with heightened safety protocols in place will cost more, superintendents told The Chronicle.Making matters worse, Gov. Gavin Newsom shocked and angered district leaders last week by suggesting schools could reopen byor early August to help address learning loss during the closure.He offered no specifics on how that would happen or whether the state would help pay for the labor and other costs associated with opening early. The offhand comment triggered an avalanche of emails and calls from concerned parents, school officials said.“That was a little challenging,” Hayward Superintendent Matt Wayne said of the confusion over the governor’s off-the-cuff comment.There’s still such a long to-do list before that educators said.“There’s so much uncertainty it’s hard to imagine what those classrooms will look like,” said Claudia Briggs, spokeswoman for the California Teachers Association. “It’s monumental and truly complicated.”Whatever schools looks like, Manteca Unified plans to offer families and staff a distance-only alternative for those who don’t want to risk exposure. That option is critical, Burke said. Many other districts are considering this as well, although they are waiting for state guidance on whether the state will revert to funding schools based on attendance — a policy waived during the closures.“We can make every effort to mitigate exposure or risk,” Clarke said. But in a school setting with hundreds or thousands of individuals, “you can’t guarantee they don’t transmit communicable diseases.”When and how schools reopen will look different in each district, depending on specific circumstances, according to the American Federation of Teachers, which urged basic standardized safety protocols.“There won’t be a one-size-fits-all process, or a hard open where every school in every district immediately turns the lights on,” the national union said in its reopening guidelines published last week. “We may be opening and closing for a number of months while we secure these measures and develop ways to keep everyone safe.”In Hayward, Wayne is less concerned about scheduling at the moment and more concerned about how to address learning loss and the trauma of a national pandemic on the district’s 20,000 students when they return.More for you“We could see kids with masks or washing hands built into the schedule,” Wayne he said, adding staggered schedules are possible as well as cleaning surfaces multiple times a day.Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Area’s largest water districts.“We’ve thought of these things, but we haven’t made any decisions,” he said. “We don't want to plan out every detail of every option.”He’s looking for the state guidance to identify the best way to reopen in terms of schedules or safety practices to guide the ongoing planning.State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond has created a task force to sort through all the issues related to reopening schools. It’s unclear when that guidance will come.Yet the obstacles seem to mount on a daily basis as well. District leaders question whether they can fully staff schools if many teachers with health concerns fear returning. A third of public school teachers across the country are over 50 — and 92% of coronavirus deaths are among those over 55 years of age, according to federal data.The state’s largest teachers union is saying schools must require physical distancing in classrooms and shared spaces; provide deep and continuous cleaning of schools and buses; have a plan for students and staff with underlying medical conditions; and ensure nurses and counselors are available.“This is not a list of luxury items,” Briggs, from the teachers union, said. “This is an opportunity for everyone collectively to reimagine what our new normal will look like.”Districts are hoping the state guidance will detail what’s needed to reopen within the next few months — something officials say will be one of the biggest challenges ever to face public schools.“We don’t have (personal protective equipment) to the extent needed,” said Troy Flint, spokesman for the California School Boards Association. “In many cases, schools will not have the space to reduce class sizes to the desired level or enough staff to stagger classes.”“The No. 1 concern,” he added, “is whether we can reopen school safely in the indicated time frame and with the available resources.”That’s the primary concern for San Francisco 16-year-old Megan Law as well.The junior at Phillip and Sala Burton Academic High School fears contracting the disease at school if she’s back in crowded classrooms in the fall.“I live with my grandparents. I don’t want to put them in danger at all,” Megan said. “I don't think a lot of my friends’ parents would let them go back to school either.”Jill Tucker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: Twitter:Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Area’s largest water districts.

The wall in Clark Burke’s school district office has turned into a war room, with flow charts and diagrams covered with directional arrows and white boards with potential plans of attack.The career Army officer, now schools superintendent in the San Joaquin County town of Manteca, is mapping out how to reopen schools for the upcoming academic year after a coronavirus closure.For school officials like Burke across California, getting teachers and students back into classrooms with the virus still circulating in communities is a high-stakes challenge and a logistical nightmare.How do you keep...

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Jill Tucker knows the rules of tether ball and sort of gets why one might need to solve for X and so she is the k-12 education writer at the SF Chronicle.

Jill Tucker

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‘Truly complicated’: Reopening California schools will be a logistical nightmare

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