Deal Reached To Get California Children Back In Classrooms

Speaker 1: 00:00 I new state school reopening plan sets April 1st as the target for school districts across the state to get their full share of special reopening funds. The deal struck by governor Newsome and state legislators would allocate more than $6 billion for school safety measures and to address pandemic learning loss. Several school districts in San Diego have already announced reopening plans for this month. And even though the County has the largest districts at April 12th as its reopening date, San Diego unified still expects to get most of its fair share. Joining me as KPBS education reporter Joe hung. Joe. Welcome. Thanks for having me, Joe, can you explain what school districts need to do to get the full amount of the proposed reopening funds? Speaker 2: 00:45 Right. So first off there's $2 billion in incentives available where districts need to reopen transitional kindergarten through second grade classrooms by April 1st to get their share of that money. Now, the districts County needs to be below 25 daily cases per a hundred thousand residents, but most counties will meet that Mark. Speaker 1: 01:06 And what can the additional $4 billion of these funds be used? Speaker 2: 01:10 Districts will sort of have flexibility in how they spend that money. It can be used on everything from a more personal protective equipment to investing in, in an extended school year. So, uh, school districts can provide summer school for all students and they can also invest in things like mental health services, really, uh, anything that they feel like their students need. Speaker 1: 01:34 This plan is offering what it calls incentives for schools to reopen, not mandates. How does governor Newsome describe it? Speaker 2: 01:43 Yeah, so, uh, governor Newsome is hoping that as, as more districts start to reopen for in-person, um, the public education system across the state will sort of develop a rhythm and get more comfortable with being back in the classroom. And here's what he said yesterday. Speaker 3: 01:59 Once you dip your toe in, once you build a cohort confidently, once you build trust, then we will start to see a cadence of reopening across the spectrum. But again, on the basis of building confidence and trust Speaker 1: 02:14 San Diego unified, it has already announced its reopening target in April. So is our largest district gonna lose out? Speaker 2: 02:22 I don't think so. Um, I spoke with school board, president Richard Barrar yesterday and he told me the district is going to make the case that the district should get the full amount it's entitled to. Right now, the district is planning on welcoming students back on April 12th with teachers coming back a week earlier on April 5th. But because the week before that is spring break, um, Barrar says the district is essentially meeting the state's timeline. Here's what he told me yesterday. Speaker 4: 02:48 It allows us, uh, right after spring break, uh, to have a week where the staff is on campus preparing and getting trained in all the mitigation that are necessary Speaker 2: 03:00 To keep everybody safe. And San Diego unified is the second largest district in the state. And so it could get a significant amount from these incentives, uh, from the $2 billion the district could get between 25 and $30 million. And on top of that, uh, from the additional $4.6 billion, uh, San Diego unified to get a total of up to a hundred million dollars of additional funding. Total. Speaker 1: 03:25 What about some of the other districts around the County? Speaker 2: 03:28 Yeah, so we, we kind of have a mixed bag in San Diego County. We have South Bay union, uh, which announced that it will remain close for the rest of the school year. While we have, uh, districts in the, in the North County, like San Dieguito union high, which plans to reopen on March 8th and, uh, Poway unified plans to reopen middle and high schools on March 15th. Speaker 1: 03:49 And, uh, when it comes to San Diego unified, there's a further complication in the re-opening plans. Isn't there. What about the commitment to get teachers and staff vaccinated? Speaker 2: 03:59 Right. So in the agreement between the union and the school district, um, like you said, it does require that teachers are vaccinated before they return. But, um, after talking to teacher union leaders and district officials, it seems like April 12th is a very realistic date. As long as vaccinations sort of continue to go smoothly. Speaker 1: 04:20 Now this state fund incentive only targets transitional kindergarten through second grade. When are the higher grades in high schools expected to reopen Speaker 2: 04:30 That is still unclear. There's no real sort of blanket guidelines from the state. As of now. Um, there are some caveats in the, uh, $2 billion of funds where districts that are already sort of in the red tier have to reopen at least one grade in middle and high school to get that funding. But besides that, there's, there's nothing statewide yet. Speaker 1: 04:53 Okay. Then I've been speaking with KPBS education reporter Joe Hong, Joe. Thank you. Thank you, Maureen.