Carmel Unified School District moves forward to start in-person learning.

In a unanimous decision on Wednesday, Dec. 16, the Carmel Unified School District Board of Trustees approved hybrid in-person learning for elementary schools. 

The model will let students attend school partially while the rest of the instruction will be online. Once parents choose a program, online or hybrid, students will be enrolled in it for the rest of the 2020-21 school year. (To accommodate classes, some students may have a new teacher.)

CUSD needs to know how many children will go back to school so they can staff accordingly. They sent a letter to parents on Dec. 17 to ask which program they prefer for their children. Parents will have to respond by Jan. 5. 

CUSD received a waiver from the Health Department allowing them to opt to reopen elementary schools, and administrators then followed up with a survey to see how families were leaning in the midst of Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations spiking before the board decided whether to proceed.

Captain Cooper School and River School parents said they strongly wanted to move forward with reopening, with 83 and 60 percent, respectively. Parents of Carmelo and Tularcitos students were less enthusiastic, with 48 and 37 percent in support. Parents also agreed to waiting until the conditions changed or staying in with online instruction.  

The data showed “parents want to see multiple (learning) models,” says Paul Behan, a CUSD spokesperson.

On the contrary, most staff leaned toward waiting until conditions changed, with 72 percent advocating to continue online-only learning for now. 

Several schools already have students on campus, including Captain Cooper and Carmelo. They are operating “cohorts,'' small groups of students, for students with no internet or bad internet connections at home, and children of school staff members. 

The difference between a cohort and in-person learning is the first one offers a space for students to get internet access to engage in online classes. The staff member supervising them is not a teacher. 

The implementation guideline says the district will have the new schedules by Jan. 15. On Jan. 19, teachers will be back on campus. Classes will start on Feb. 1 for preschool to second grade and on Feb. 8 for students from third to fifth grade.

CUSD also used a bolometer, a device that measures airflow distribution inside buildings, and found their system is operating well. Safety protocols will include two  checkpoints, one for taking temperatures and another one where students will be assessed by a health professional if they appear sick; if they have symptoms of Covid-19, they will be isolated and monitored by staff.

Hybrid learning will require the hiring of 15 additional workers, such as substitute teachers and health aides, at a total cost of $370,000.

Parents and teachers presented a range of points of view about reopening, as they spoke during the Dec. 16 board meeting. 

Krista Ostoich wanted the district to move forward. “I’m a parent of an elementary school student who distance learning has been this huge struggle for,” she said. Despite teachers' best efforts, she said her child cannot learn through a screen. 

Dawn Hatch, a teacher, said, “It’s not easy to feel motivated or engage in distance learning, and even more challenging to find a human connection.”

Others were opposed and voiced their concerns about the hybrid reopening plan. 

“I don’t like the three unscheduled days at home. I don't like the lack of teaching time,” Lauren Keaton, a parent, said during the meeting. She said the hybrid model won’t work for her family and she worries about adding more changes.  “I really hope things can stay the same.”

Jillian Tishio, a teacher and mother of two kids attending CUSD schools, raised safety concerns about moving into hybrid instruction. “Contracting Covid-19 was grueling physically and mentally for my family.” Tishio said Covid has to be taken seriously.

Before voting to return partially to in-person learning, board members raised concerns too.

“It’s a difficult decision and I struggle because life is at stake here,” said board member Tess Arthur. “We cannot say there is zero risk.”

“We have to get these schools open,” board member Karl Pallastrini said. He said it’s key teachers get high in the list, as first responders, to get vaccinated.

Board President Sara Hinds called on parents to help keep a Covid outbreak from coming to CUSD schools: “If you kid even has a slightest of a runny nose. You keep them home. You don’t know that it’s not Covid,” she said.

Prior to the board meeting, Interim Superintendent Trisha Dellis told Carmel High School’s newspaper, The Sand Piper, Carmel high school newspaper, she will recommend the board to delay in-person instruction because of the county's latest shelter-in-place order that took effect on Sunday, Dec.13.

Her comments to the student newspaper were cited at the meeting.

“Why does Ms. Dellis believe she knows better than the state and county public health experts?” Carmel resident Sara Miller said. (The state has guidelines for opening elementary schools regardless of current stay-at-home orders.)

Dellis said she changed her mind about her recommendation: “My recommendation for the board is to approve the elementary waiver, with that approval the district will move forward with the implementation of the timeline I outlined earlier.” 

Classes will not start until after the current SIP order in Monterey County is set to lift on Jan. 11.