Waivers to Partially Reopen Submitted by GUSD Staff to County

Though a complete reopening of schools is not planned for the near future, Glendale Unified School District hopes that its submission of waivers for certain students will, in part, reopen the campus for in-person learning.
Photo by Leonard COUTIN

By Mary O’KEEFE

When will kids go back to public schools? That is a question that is asked by parents, students and educators and the answer depends on how COVID-19 numbers rise and fall and what color tier Los Angeles County is in.     

The question was once again discussed at Tuesday’s Glendale Unified School District meeting as Superintendent Vivian Ekchian shared what the District has been doing and is continuing to do regarding the pandemic.

Contrary to what many think, the decision to open school campuses to in-person learning or to keep them closed is not a decision that is made by the GUSD board of education or superintendent. They must follow the guidelines of the LA County Dept. of Public Health. Public Health covers all 80 school districts within LA County.

“[Public Health] has to look at the data that is produced in LA County to [extend] additional opportunities to reopen and, as long as we are in the purple tier, [the District] would have to obtain waivers and special permission to bring students on campus, and [the number of students] cannot exceed 25%,” Ekchian said.

Horace Mann Elementary in Glendale is opening with specialized services for students, including those with special needs, and for English Language Learners who have been in the country for less than a year, as well as students who are at-risk, homeless or in the Foster Care Program.

The District must go to Public Health for approval of any waiver that is offered.

“For every opportunity that Public Health has given us we have taken advantage of it, and we will continue to do so,” Ekchian said.

Since the County is still in the purple tier it must adhere to tighter restrictions. There is no possibility of schools completely reopening until the County is in the red tier, which would mean fewer deaths and fewer positive cases of COVID-19.

At Tuesday’s school board meeting the board gave direction to submit a waiver to Public Health for all elementary schools to open learning pods for students, not to exceed 25% capacity. Ekchian said her staff on Wednesday had already filled out the waivers and submitted them.

During the school board meeting a parent asked if the District staff had looked at other school districts to compare what they were doing right and what they have done that didn’t work.

Ekchian has weekly meetings with superintendents from the other 80 LA County districts; in addition she has reached out to several districts within Southern California including Las Virgenes Unified School District, which recently was approved to open all nine of its elementary schools for on-campus learning from kindergarten through second grade. It is the first LA County district to get approval for in-person learning but there are still many restrictions to follow.

In addition to reaching out to California districts, Ekchian and her staff have contacted districts outside of the state, including Florida, Texas and New York, to get feedback.

Ekchian also has regular visits with health care partners that include specialists from local hospitals.

Another of the issues discussed at Tuesday’s meeting was COVID-19 testing. Ekchian said that research shows that more testing at schools does not prevent the spread of COVID-19 though it does give people peace of mind. The state has offered testing for districts.

“We are going to take advantage of every offer that is recommended from the state because we don’t want to miss the opportunity to increase the comfort level [of those on-campus] and put all measures of safety in place,” she said. “We will continue [working] with our vital medical partners for individuals who come forward to us, working at our school sites who are not feeling well or have been exposed.”

The District has made arrangements for teacher vaccinations.

“They were scheduled for Jan. 29 but due to distribution challenges they have been delayed to late February to early March,” she said.

According to a recent survey the majority of teachers have agreed to get the vaccination; however, Ekchian said the District would not keep teachers off campus who refuse to get vaccinated.

“I am now just concentrating on those teachers who want the vaccine,” she said.

As far as opening to the general student population, that is up to the COVID-19 numbers – and the LA County citizens who help to reduce the spread.