High school, junior high students in Fresno County can start heading back to schools soon

High school and junior high students in Clovis Unified schools will return to classrooms beginning Feb. 22, district officials said in a news conference Friday.

Clovis Superintendent Eimear O’Farrell said the district received the green light from the Fresno County Health Department to restart phasing in students in the seventh grade and above to a part-time hybrid model that blends in-person instruction a few hours a day, four days a week, with online learning from home.

The district initially hoped to begin phasing in secondary students in early February, but those ideas were thwarted after the health department told Fresno-area school districts to delay those plans until COVID-19 cases were at a rate of 25 per 100,000.

As of Friday, cases in Fresno were at a rate of 27 per 100,000 and falling, according to Dr. Rais Vohra, Fresno County’s interim health director.

Also on Friday, Fresno Unified Superintendent Bob Nelson said the district would begin renewing some small student cohorts on campus to assist with distance learning. He said some of those small group pods would reopen on campuses Feb. 22. He also said some teachers could choose to return to classrooms beginning March 8

Nelson has said FUSD would hold off in-person learning until Fresno County reaches the orange tier on California’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy, which would be about four cases per 100,000.

CUSD is one of the few local schools moving forward with phasing in middle and high school students. According to estimates from the district, they expect roughly half of the district’s 43,000 students to remain at home while the other half returns part-time for hybrid learning.

Speaking to reporters Friday at an online news conference, O’Farrell said she was excited about the return and called it a “happy day.”

Some Clovis teachers upset with student’s return

But while many were excited, Friday’s announcement wasn’t viewed as good news by everyone.

While Clovis officials have stressed that most of the district’s teachers want to bring back more students, a significant number of teachers disagree. Many were upset with Friday’s announcement.

Two high school teachers in Clovis spoke with The Bee’s Education Lab on condition of anonymity because they feared retaliation.

Both said they were frustrated with the district’s decision to bring middle and high school students back to campuses.

One of the teachers said the idea of students returning filled her with dread, especially since most Clovis teachers have yet to receive vaccinations.

“It’s not that we aren’t prepared with our lessons. It’s just another mental shift or another, as they like to say, ‘pivot’ when things are already a high-stress situation just on a day-to-day basis,” a high school teacher told The Bee. “The lack of information and manipulation of information has really taken its toll on teachers’ physical and emotional mental health, yet they just seem to keep pushing.”

In-person school is also going to look very different, she said. The students in classrooms are still going to be on Zoom lessons while the teachers are also teaching students who remain at home. Although the number of students coming to campus varies by school, she said the overwhelming majority of her students plan to stay home.

She said she has one class that will only have three students and another with just five. The rest of the students will watch her teach remotely. She said she worries that her face mask will make it even more difficult for students at home to understand the lessons.

“I think it’s going to hinder our ability to teach with expression and emotion.”

“It’s just silly,” she said. “We’re bending over backward for just the kids that day. It’s crazy.”

Another high school teacher who spoke with the Ed Lab said the district has prioritized returning students over those choosing to remain at home.

“I’m also a parent and don’t get any communication about our kid staying online,” he said. “Honestly, everything we talk about, every meeting, every email is all about students coming back in person, and we never had a conversation about being a better online teacher for those staying online.”

He said he struggles to figure out how to be a good teacher when he can only see some of his students once a week and said there are no group activities or sharing of materials.

“It’s going to be an interesting learning experience, and we’re not having that sort of conversation,” he said.

Both high school teachers said they would feel safer returning to campuses if they were vaccinated. Fresno County is working on vaccinating educators, but health officials have prioritized health care workers and the elderly due to a short supply of vaccines.

On Friday, O’Farrell said Clovis Unified is working on becoming a vaccination center and hopes to finalize plans by next week.

The teachers also told the Ed Lab the real worry they have is for their colleagues who have diabetes, cancer, and other serious health issues that put them at higher risk of a bad outcome from a coronavirus infection.

Anger has been building for some Clovis teachers in recent months. Many have quietly criticized the district’s handling of the pandemic from the beginning.

Less than an hour before Friday’s announcement, a group of Clovis teachers sent out an open letter to the community, saying they were “disappointed” with what they described as the administration’s failure to be “more responsive to concerns raised by our colleagues.”

“Rather than working with Clovis educators to collaboratively navigate these troubling times, we have witnessed the unilateral revocation of remote work agreements, denials of accommodations for educators “who are at higher risk for severe illness or who cannot safely distance from household contacts at higher risk” (January 14 State Guidance 29), and abrupt changes of return dates for elementary in-person teaching,” the teachers said in the letter.

CDC’s guidelines for reopening schools amid COVID-19

The Clovis announcement came just hours after the Centers for Disease Control released new guidelines to reopen schools.

The CDC recommended all teachers receive vaccinations, which O’Farrell said could begin in early March in Fresno County.

However, the CDC also said there was evidence that schools could reopen safely before all teachers have been immunized.

The CDC’s guidance didn’t actually provide much in the way of new primary strategies. They encouraged face masks, social distancing, frequent hand-washing, cleaning and disinfecting surfaces regularly, and contact tracing.

“If we want to safely bring students to school, we must ensure teachers and staff are protected,” CDC director Rochelle Walensky said during a news conference.

In conjunction with the CDC’s operational recommendations, the Department of Education also released a handbook to help guide schools on reopening safely.

But while the CDC and other state and local health leaders expressed optimism that schools could safely reopen, many parents and teachers across California remained skeptical.

COVID-19 hitting Black and Latinx students harder

On Friday, the California Teachers Association held a virtual news conference with parents and teachers expressing their concern over the state’s desire to phase more students on campus.

Cases of COVID-19 have hit harder in poor Latinx and Black communities.

Fresno parent Maricela Velasquez said she was “scared” for her family and teachers.

“I’ve participated in schools as a volunteer. Expecting them to keep their masks and their hands washed all day long, that’s just not realistic,” Velazquez said.

Another problem plaguing low-income communities is learning loss.

In Clovis, O’Farrell said many teachers have been forced to help returning students relearn some basic classroom skills, like listening, organization, and how to complete schoolwork on time.

“I worry about the achievement gap and our students who are at home,” O’Farrell said.

The Education Lab is a local journalism initiative that highlights education issues critical to the advancement of the San Joaquin Valley. It is funded by donors. Read more from The Bee’s Education Lab here.

This story was originally published February 12, 2021 at 1:05 PM.