S.F. private schools close to bringing students back
The students’ desk chairs were precisely 6 feet apart, the windows were open and the new air filtration systems hummed as San Francisco public health officials jotted down observations while inspecting every corner of a private school campus on Thursday.
If The San Francisco School, which serves 285 preschoolers through eighthgraders in the Portola district, passes the inspection, it will be one of the first schools in the city to bring children in grades K5 back to classrooms. The process could offer some insight into what it will take to reopen sites safely and whether coronavirus outbreaks will happen despite the protocols put in place.
Six months after schools shut down, many families and students are desperate for classrooms to open, saying distance learning is a poor substitute for live learning. But
as private schools gear up for inperson classes, all eyes are on San Francisco’s public school district, which serves 53,000 students and is far from bringing back any children to the classroom.
“This is what we live to do,” said Steve Morris, head of school at The San Francisco School, which charges up to $34,250 in tuition, depending on grade level. “This is what teachers are supposed to do — be in person with kids.”
So far, 75 private and public charter schools have submitted letters of intent to reopen, with 33 of them submitting full applications. Each will be inspected to ensure a long list of requirements are met before the city allows inperson classes to resume.
Health officials started those site visits this week, tape measure in hand to estimate the distance between student seats, and schools could reopen as soon as they get approval in the coming days.
San Francisco Unified public schools have not submitted any applications and are unlikely to do so in the near future. The district is still working out facilities and transportation issues, testing protocols, as well as adequate supplies of soap, hand sanitizer and other resources while also negotiating labor agreements with teachers and other staff. The district is also navigating a budget shortfall while paying for the health and safety upgrades.
At Morris’ school, the three city inspectors asked about social distancing, signage, soap, mask policies and whether students would remain in small, stable groups, with no caps on size as long as they meet all other requirements in classrooms.
All adults will be required to use a scanner whenever they enter a classroom, Morris told the health officials, so the school will be able to track exposure if someone tests positive in a student group.
Water fountains were turned off and students will be required to bring their own water bottles to refill at special water stations. Lunch would be eaten in classrooms silently and with students 6 feet apart to prevent any viral spread when masks are off.
Staff would be tested before the school reopens and every two months after, per health department requirements, Morris said.
“This school has it down,” said Ana Validzic, a COVID19 command team leader at the Department of Public Health, her digital checklist in her hands. “They’re in compliance.”
That wasn’t an official decision, she said, but it was clear from inspecting the first few rooms that the school had put everything in place.
With the city’s blessing, the private school would likely be ready to start bringing students back in early October, which would give teachers time to prepare to switch from distance learning back to classrooms,
Morris said.
Kindergartners as well as first and secondgraders would likely start first, followed by fourth and fifth. City health officials said authorization for middle school and high school students would likely come later and require additional criteria to mitigate spread in the older students, who typically attend larger schools.
Morris was unable to identify the hardest requirement in terms of complying with health guidelines required to reopen. All of it was hard, he said.
It will be even harder for the city’s 118 traditional public schools, district officials said. Many buildings are old, with small classrooms and outdated ventilation systems or windows that don’t open. There are questions surrounding busing students as well as the need to negotiate agreements with the teachers union and other labor groups.
They are still working out how to test all staff at least every two months as required by health officials, how to ensure social distancing in small classrooms and whether students would attend their assigned school or another one closer to home with adequate supplies, staff and facilities, officials said.
“I would say January would probably be the earliest,” said school board President Mark Sanchez on when the city’s public schools might reopen. “That would be my educated guess at this point.”
The district and teachers union have just scheduled the first negotiations sessions — three, twohour meetings next week.
The teachers want to see more specific requirements beyond what the county requires — including how the individual aides to special needs students will do their jobs and more specific wording about social distancing. The county requires students to be 6 feet apart if feasible, said Susan Solomon, president of the United Educators of San Francisco.
“What we want is clear language,” she said.
When public schools do start to reopen, students with special needs, English learners, homeless students, foster children and those in preschool through second grade are likely to return first, district officials said.
And students would likely be on a hybrid schedule, at school part of the day or week and doing distance learning the rest of the time.
“We’re working on (testing) and other aspects of the infrastructure and logistics necessary to begin inperson hybrid learning,” said Gentle Blythe, district spokeswoman, declining to guess when that could happen.
Superintendent Vincent Matthews is expected to give a more comprehensive update on reopening plans Tuesday, including an estimate on how long it would take to reopen after public health officials give the goahead and an agreement with teachers is reached.
Back at The San Francisco School, Morris said he was eager to see students in classrooms, the reward after a long and arduous process. He hoped his school could help guide others across the city, offering an example of how kids could return to where they need to be.
“I want to do this in a safe, healthy way for our students,” he said. “It’s not easy, but I feel like we’re doing this on behalf of the teachers and schools across the city.”