School district plans for distance learning through end of 2020

San Jose Unified School District announced Wednesday that all students will continue distance learning through at least the end of 2020.

Santa Clara County was recently de-escalated from the purple tier to the red tier in the state’s Covid-19 color-coded restriction system, allowing K-12 schools to reopen for in-person learning at full capacity if the county remains in the red tier for two weeks.

SJUSD Superintendent Nancy Albarran said:

“We believe our schools should be a reflection of our community.”

She added:

“While we believe in-person instruction is the best option for our students, we cannot ignore the data on viral transmission in Santa Clara County and potentially compromise the health and safety of our students, families, and staff by bringing students back at this time.”

The current Covid-19 new case count in Santa Clara County continues to increase and exceeds the new case count in March, when schools were initially ordered to close.

SJUSD recently completed a survey of parents, students and employees and discovered these groups tended to strongly prefer a commitment to a plan that would remain consistent through at least the end of the semester.

Jodi Lax, associate superintendent of instruction, said:

“We know that consistency is critical to our families. We absolutely recognize that in-person learning is the ideal experience for students and teachers and want to welcome students back to campuses when it is safe to do so.”

SJUSD said it will continue to monitor the health information and guidance from local and state officials, and will announce next steps and plans for the 2020-2021 school year in early December.

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