One year ago today, schools were closed due to the pandemic. Tonight, there’s good news for students and parents waiting to go back to campus for in-person instruction. Students in at least two districts in north county will go back next week.
With the county likely to move into the state’s new expanded red tier Tuesday, middle and high schools in Carlsbad Unified School District will re-open for hybrid in-person instruction Thursday, two days a week for those who choose to go back.
Students in the San Dieguito Union High School district will go back one day a week beginning Wednesday until spring break, and then the district will try to expand its in person-instruction for those who choose it.
Allison Stratton from the Parent Association North County, a group advocating for schools to re-open said at a rally Saturday, “We cannot rest until schools are open five days a week.”
On the other side, parent Daniel Stewart from the group San Diego Parents for Science Based Reopening, a group that advocating for a more measured re-opening, believes the state should not have updated its tier system to make it easier for schools to reopen.
“Changing it doesn’t make sense,” she wrote in a text to NBC7. “Vaccinations should drive case rates down making the previous goal easier to achieve, instead they are moving the goal posts.”
Carlsbad Superintendent Ben Churchill said a limited group of 7th, 9th and 10th graders will be able to come back to campus Tuesday even in the purple tier. Churchill said the state approved its request after denying the district’s initial waiver to open if the county remained in the purple tier.
Earlier, the Poway Unified School District had approved plans to go back to in-person instruction for its secondary schools if the county moved to the red tier.
NBC 7 was not able to get a specific return date from the district.