Clovis schools want to bring back all students next fall. Will parents let them return?

Clovis school officials on Thursday said they want to return to daily in-person instruction of all students in the fall.

“Our team is currently looking into what is needed to make this happen and is studying the various scenarios as to what different distance requirements might mean in terms of staffing, space and scheduling needs,” the district said in a statement.

While it remains unclear whether a return to full-time in-person learning in the fall will be a return to normal, district officials said they hope to provide parents with detailed plans soon.

At Wednesday night’s regular board meeting, trustees and district staff discussed sending a proposal to the county health department to request changing its social distancing guidelines from six feet to four to accommodate more students on campus.

CUSD officials said they expected announcements this week from local and national health officials that “may provide clarity on what future social distancing requirements will be.”

Plans are already under development, and the district said the community would see those details as soon as early April, with finalized plans coming later that same month. CUSD said that would give parents enough time to determine whether their children will return to classrooms or continue learning from home through the district’s online-only instruction option.

Thursday’s announcement comes less than a month after CUSD middle and high school students began returning to campuses part-time. The so-called hybrid model — a mix of in-person instruction and distance learning — has been the only way back to campuses for most public school students in the United States since the coronavirus pandemic took over the world a year ago.

Clovis parents have been divided nearly in half on the issue of returning to classrooms. Many vocal parents have spoken out against school closures. Citing academic losses and mental health concerns, some parents have urged the board of trustees to be even more aggressive about reopening campuses.

In January, parent Sarah Cornelison told trustees she feared the emotional toll not being in school has taken on her children and was frustrated with the district’s back-to-school plans.

“Our children are depressed, they’re sad and emotionally unwell, and they are not getting what they developmentally need to succeed in life,” she said. “They can’t run on the playground, pass the ball to the team, or live the Clovis way of life.”

Other parents remain concerned about exposure to the virus and have kept their kids online from their homes.

“Even with the safety measures in place, I’m going to wait to send my kids back to school in person. I think my concerns will be alleviated once there is an approved vaccine available for kids,” a Clovis parent said in a message to The Bee’s Education Lab.

That split has played out in enrollment this spring as more students began taking their seats in classrooms.

As of last week, about half of the district’s roughly 43,000 students had returned to classrooms part-time, with a slim majority of students remaining at home full-time.

About 21,010 students are on the CUSD hybrid program, and about 21,645 remain exclusively online, district officials have told The Bee’s Education Lab.

That same divide also exists among teachers, creating another planning challenge this year and next. A recent report by The Sacramento Bee noted that California teachers are retiring a record clip due to the difficulties created by COVID-19.

While CUSD has said most of the district’s teachers are eager to return to classrooms, others have told The Bee they remain concerned about exposure and prefer to work from home, at least for the current spring semester.

“There are a lot of teachers out there that feel it is not safe, and there are teachers that are OK with it,” one Clovis teacher told The Bee in a recent interview. The teacher asked not to be identified out of concerns over possible retaliation from the district.

This story was originally published March 18, 2021 at 1:52 PM.