Schools chief: COVID-19 could mean an online-only 2020-21
Michele Willer-Allred, Staff Reporter
9:49 am PDT July 8, 2020
Even as the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District eyes a return to campus in the fall, Superintendent Ben Drati is warning that COVID-19 could upend such plans.
Before a town hall meeting for the Malibu community held Tuesday via Zoom, Drati and other superintendents participated in an emergency meeting with the Los Angeles County Office of Education.
“Based on what (LACOE) told us, it seems that things are not getting easier in L.A. County,” Drati said of the latest case count provided by the county Department of Public Health. “In fact, they’re almost getting out of hand.”
Based on data as of 8 p.m. Monday, public health officials on Tuesday reported a single-day record of 4,015 new positive COVID-19 cases, bringing the county total to 120,539 — including 57 in Malibu. There were 3,579 virus-related deaths countywide as of late Monday.
The grim report did not go unnoticed by county education officials, Drati told the nearly 300 meeting participants. “(They) just warned everyone that whatever you decide now, we have to be nimble and be ready at any moment to go exclusively distance learning if we choose something different.”
Tuesday’s meeting was a chance for the district to show three options under consideration for possible reopening schools in the fall. Two earlier presentations for the Santa Monica area drew more than 1,500 viewers.
The Board of Education will be meeting July 16 also via Zoom, and the public will be able to make comments at that time.
“Our interest … is to invite the community into the ideas we are currently considering and the complexities, and eventually gather enough input from stakeholders to make a final recommendation for all the schools to consider,” Drati said.
The options being considered are: Student choice of in-class or distance learning; a hybrid model, which includes both in-class and distance learning; or distance learning only.
Drati explained that what makes the decision challenging on how to reopen schools is because the California Department of Education and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provided recommendations, but districts were not given directives on how to reopen.
“Every district right now in the county and probably in the whole state is probably scrambling with their local communities to try to figure out the best approach to them, and we’re no different,” Drati said. “So, we are going through several steps in trying to acquire what the community wants.”
Drati emphasized that the safety of students and staff, as well as their physical and emotional health, will be priorities in making a decision on how school will return.
However, he noted that, because of state and local funding cuts, the district will not be getting more money to reopen with added safety protocols or additional technology.
During the meeting, the results of a survey given several weeks ago to parents, staff and others in the community were presented. About 6,000 people took part, answering questions about their experience with online learning during the spring, and what options they would consider in the fall.
If resuming school as normal in fall is not advised by state health officials, about 51 percent of parents said they were “extremely/very/moderately supportive” of full-time online learning similar to what currently exists, and 71 percent “extremely/very/moderately supportive” of either an in-person learning with social distancing measures or a hybrid model.
Results of the survey can be viewed here.
A new, more specific survey was sent out to both Santa Monica and Malibu parents and staff after Monday’s meeting, and Drati encouraged the community to watch video recaps of the town hall meetings before returning them this week.
Drati explained that a distance learning only option would be different from what was experienced in spring because the district has learned some lessons.
Regardless of what model the board chooses, the district will still have to be able to deliver an online option just in case, based on the warnings by LACOE, things are not looking good.
“In fact, our county is probably the worst in the whole state in terms of hospitalizations and people who have been identified as having COVID,” Drati said. “It was just a stern warning that we need to be ready even if we start with another option to go distance, because the county or state may shut us down as they did last time around.”
“None of this is good,” he added. “I mean, the best option is for COVID not to exist and for us to be back on campus, but that is not the case.”
“We’re not the only district going through this … and we’re going to try to find something that works for Santa Monica and Malibu and go from there.”