Clovis schools set date to reopen campus classrooms. Here’s what parents need to know

A small number of Clovis elementary students returned to campuses Wednesday to test the experimental hybrid model that combines online and in-person learning each day.

Clovis Unified officials said small numbers of students would be phased back into classrooms slowly over the next three months, with a near full return of elementary students by Jan. 19.

The announcement came Wednesday night during a board meeting.

High school and middle school students will return Jan. 5 in a similar way.

The plan comes after a parent survey indicated a majority of elementary teachers and parents would like to return after winter break.

About 53% of elementary school parents and 76% of teachers wanted to return on Jan. 19 versus Nov. 3, according to the survey. The biggest reason cited for teachers was medical concerns.

District officials plan to survey middle school and high school teachers and parents to learn how many want to return to campuses. The survey, which will end Oct. 30, will help school leaders plan.

Each school principal will create a schedule for their site based on teacher and parent survey data, officials said. The online-only learning option will still be available.

When school begins, masks, social distancing, and proper hygiene will still be enforced, according to Superintendent Eimear O’Farrell.

“Even our little kindergartners are wearing their masks diligently,” she said. “Our students with disabilities have been doing a great job, too.”

O’Farrell said there are still many challenges ahead because each family’s needs are different. There may be some schools where fewer students elect to return, and there could be a problem if there are not enough teachers who return.

“I will be the first person to say this innovation is going to be messy,” she said, “and messy is not how we like to do business at Clovis Unified. But at this point in our chapter, it takes courage to be messy.”

Trustee Steven Fogg said he wanted Clovis Unified to show neighboring districts that “it could be done.”

“The other school districts, our neighbors are not going back (until) January,” he said. “We are pioneering in our community. We’re going to show them it can be done because no one else is brave, no one is willing to do what we’re doing.”

Cohorts of students have already been on the campus since summertime. More students returned Tuesday for a trial run of a hybrid model with students in classrooms for 2.5 hours a day, four days each week.

Clovis Unified spokesperson Kelly Avants said the district is piloting a small number of classes for the next two weeks to see how teachers can help students who are learning at home and others in the classroom at the same time. She said the trials were taking place at different schools with different grade levels.

Students would go to school either in the morning or afternoon under the proposed schedule, then return home and continue learning through Zoom.

“We have teachers who are passionately interested in making that work,” she said, “and feel like that’s going to be the best way that (they) can meet the needs of (their) kids.”

Chris Westergaard said his fourth grade daughter was among the students who returned to school Tuesday. He said his daughter was excited to go into the classroom and see her peers and teachers.

“Trying to go to school from home has had the most adverse effect on her,” Westergaard said of his fourth-grader, “so It was good to get her to school.”

Westergaard said he is taking the coronavirus seriously, but he feels safe sending his daughter back to school.

“I trust that it’s going to be clean and sanitary,” he said. “They’re being careful and cautious, and I actually think it’s been more detrimental to be kept locked away.”

He said the biggest problem is the scheduling. Many parents have expressed their concern with students only attending class for 2.5 hours a day in person.

“I feel like they’re losing a lot of instructional time, just from doing all these check-ins and drop-offs and pickups that have to be managed by school staff. So they’re doing that instead of spending extra time with kids.”

The district got its waiver approved on Oct. 14 to open elementary schools even if Fresno County slides back into the purple tier before schools open.

In October, the district confirmed a “small number of isolated” COVID-19 infections but could not say when they occurred. Contact tracing has been used in each case, officials said.

This story was originally published October 21, 2020 at 8:15 PM.