Fresno County schools can start bringing more students back to campuses next week

Schools in Fresno County that had plans to bring back students received the green light Wednesday from the health department to continue phasing in students next week.

Clovis Unified School District Superintendent Eimear O’Farrell announced the news during a board meeting Wednesday night.

“Based on current Fresno County case rates, testing positivity, and health care system capacity, if a school is implementing a phased reopening, the school sites may resume their phased reopening for grades K-6 only on Feb. 8,” O’Farrell said, reading the letter from the Fresno County Health Department that went out to all superintendents Wednesday evening.

Clovis Unified is observing a holiday on Monday, so reopening will resume on Tuesday, she said.

Although 11,000 students are already in face-to-face classes, about 2,300 elementary students were not able to return after COVID-19 cases spiked over the holidays. Some schools only have a small handful of students to return, and others 100, the administration said. All schools are in a hybrid model, with most students going to school for about 3 hours a day.

About 23,000 students (including middle and high school) have opted to stay in distance learning, O’Farrell said.

“That is encouraging,” said Trustee Steven Fogg about the health department. “They do hear us, and they are reacting and trying to do what we as a board and we as parents and the community want.”

The district has been fighting to get students to return to school, O’Farrell said.

“I want to say thank you to my entire team because I know that districts across the county have worked hard, but I don’t believe there’s a team that has worked any harder than the Clovis Unified administration,” she said. “And if you ask (Fresno County Superintendent of Schools) Jim Yovino, I think he’d probably agree that we have pushed the envelope at every step of the way. So I’m so proud and very happy to be able to make that announcement.”

Middle and high schools

O’Farrell said the administration has asked for clarification from the health department about whether seventh through 12th grades can also resume with reopening plans. She expects that answer in the coming days. About 9,000 secondary students have opted for in-person instruction.

Many students and parents spoke at the meeting, begging the district to open secondary schools immediately because of the mental health toll it has taken on their families.

“We’re not seeing these kids suffering,” Fogg said. “Whoever’s making decisions are not seeing these kids dying inside. They’re dying inside. Maybe not physically, and we’re not going to see the results of this death probably for years. And we’re gonna look back, and we’re gonna regret what we’ve done. I’ve convinced (of) that.”

At the last board meeting, trustees wondered if they could defy the health department’s orders and bring back students to campus.

COVID-19 dashboard

The district also debuted a COVID-19 dashboard showing how many people on a campus or district site each month tested positive. The dashboard breaks down cases by each school.

According to the dashboard, in December, there were 190 cases among students and staff. In January, there were 111.

A majority of teachers want to return to classrooms, according to the district, but some teachers have expressed fear about returning, saying the district is not giving them a choice.

O’Farrell said Wednesday night that other than employees who have a remote working agreement, all employees are back on site.

Nearby Fresno Unified decided not to welcome students back until the county drops down to the orange tier in the state’s color coded “Blueprint for a Safer Economy.” Fresno County is still in the purple tier.

Central Unified School District will keep students distance learning until the county is in the red tier.

This story was originally published February 3, 2021 at 7:16 PM.