Fresno Unified students on track to return to campuses in April and in-person graduations
As positive COVID-19 cases in Fresno County continue to trend downward, Fresno Unified School District students get closer to returning to campuses and in-person graduations.
FUSD is planning for in-person graduations using new guidelines set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, officials announced Thursday in a news release.
“While this is an exciting time, there will be some bumps along the way as we reopen schools,” the statement says. “We look forward to our ongoing partnership with our families to help support changes and adjustments as new processes are put in place to meet the needs and safety of our students.”
The district also is moving forward with returning elementary students to a hybrid classroom model — a mixture of in-person and online learning — on April 6. FUSD officials have discussed bringing transitional kindergartners through second-grade students back first and phasing in other grades in subsequent weeks.
Fresno Unified officials worked with the Fresno Teachers Associations and its other labor unions to change its reopening plan.
FUSD originally planned not to reopen until the county reaches the orange Tier 3 in the state’s color-coded “Blueprint for a Safer Economy” of coronavirus safety measures and restrictions. The orange tier represents “moderate” risk levels for spreading COVID-19. To get to the orange tier, positive coronavirus cases would need to dip between 1 and 3.9 daily cases per 100,000.
Now, students are able to return to campuses part-time when the county reaches the red Tier 2, which, according to state guidelines, represents a “substantial” risk of coronavirus spread, and Fresno County’s positive case rate would be between 4 and 10 daily cases per 100,000.
The state Department of Public Health reported Tuesday morning that there was an average of 9.6 new cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 resident every day for the week ending March 13 in Fresno County. The county can officially be designated to the red tier as early as next week if the average number of cases stay the same or decrease. A county needs to have numbers in the red tier for two weeks until it’s officially in the red tier.
“Over the upcoming holiday break, please help continue this positive trajectory; this is not the time to back off from our safety practices, such as mask-wearing, handwashing and avoiding gatherings,” FUSD’s statement says.
Fresno Teachers Association President Manuel Bonilla said based on the numbers he is “confident” Fresno County will reach the red tier and FUSD will start bringing back elementary students on April 6.
“We haven’t seen anything that indicates we would have a spike (in COVID-19 cases),” he told The Bee’s Education Lab.
If Fresno County doesn’t reach the red tier by the reopening date, Bonilla said the teachers union would have to have a conversation with district officials “to talk about next steps.” However, he said, the number of COVID-19 cases seems to be on track with FUSD’s reopening plan.
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. Learn about The Bee’s Education Lab on our website.