Could the coronavirus ever shut down Fresno-area schools again? The answer isn’t ‘no’
As more Fresno-area students return to classrooms part-time more than a year after the coronavirus pandemic shuttered schools, questions linger about whether a new surge of infections and mutating variants could force our campuses to close again.
Parents have been clamoring for children to return to the daily routine of study as distance learning exacerbated longstanding inequities like the digital divide, caused grades to slump, and triggered concerns over the mental well-being of students.
And while nobody would ever completely rule out the possibility, another school shutdown appears highly unlikely, according to multiple health experts and local school leaders.
Hank Gutierrez, deputy superintendent of the Fresno County Superintendent of Schools, said, should cases spike again, school leaders “will always have to listen to the science,” but said he doesn’t see that happening, especially as infections continue to fall and vaccinations climb.
“Our county is doing a good job. We are beating the odds in terms of what we see in the country. Some kids have been in school for almost four weeks now, and this is a good opportunity to show we can fight this,” Gutierrez said.
Gutierrez said vaccinations play a “huge role” in reopening schools and in keeping them open.
But health officials have been concerned — and frustrated — with Fresno County’s slowing rate of vaccinations. Last week, about 28,000 vaccine doses were re-directed to other counties in the central San Joaquin Valley and around the state because of a significant drop in demand.
Dr. Rais Vohra, Fresno County’s interim health officer, has described the vaccine as “our light at the end of the tunnel.”
“It’s just ‘Groundhog Day,’” Vohra said recently, referring to a movie in which a man relives the same day over and over. “We’ll never end this pandemic unless people are protected, and the best way to get people protected is to get them vaccinated.”
Vohra said schools were closed a year ago because the county “knew so little about the virus.” Now, we know more about slowing the spread.
Another reason schools are unlikely to close again — at least on a large scale — is that health officials have designed a system with the goal of keeping kids in schools, according to Dr. John Zweifler, a family physician from the Fresno County Health Department.
“California Department of Public Health has structured the school reopening process so that once schools are open in a less restrictive tier, it is very unlikely that schools will have to reinstitute more restrictive policies,” Zweifler said in a statement to the Ed Lab. “We can all do our part to ensure that the reopening continues safely by getting vaccinated, and wearing masks, and maintaining social distances when in group settings.”
Most schools in Fresno and Clovis have reopened part-time and plan to resume traditional classroom schedules in the fall. Those plans fall in line with California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who said he believes all public schools can fully reopen for the next school year.
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This story was originally published April 20, 2021 at 5:00 AM.