The Learning Curve: What We Know About San Diego Unified's Reopening Plans

By Will Huntsberry, the Voice of San Diego

March 25, 2021

After more than a year out of the classroom, San Diego Unified students now have just 18 days before they return. Principals and district administrators are scrambling to tally survey results from parents and figure out exactly how much schooling they will be able to provide to how many students and for how many days per week.

One of the biggest questions yet to be answered: Which schools will offer in-person learning four days per week and which schools will only offer two? It’s an insanely difficult question for families and principals to plan around with less than three weeks before in-person learning resumes.

District officials reached an agreement with the local teachers union for students to receive a minimum of two days of in-person instruction per week. Many schools, however, are going to attempt to offer four days.

The two biggest variables in that equation are physical space and the number of children.

Returning to physical school is optional for families. And so district officials sent out a survey that would help them understand how many children will return to campus on April 12. Those survey results were due back to the district on Wednesday, but the results weren’t immediately available.

Each principal has to know how much space she has and how many students are coming back. If there are too many students and not enough space, that will dictate that schools likely stick to a two-days-per-week schedule.

I spoke to parents and workers at four different elementary schools in the district, and all said their school plans to offer four days of in-person instruction per week. But plans were firm at only one of those schools. At the others, parents don’t yet know what time school will start and end. And they don’t know for certain how many days of instruction their children will get.

It surely makes for fun planning in households strapped for time and knowledge.

There’s another complicating factor. And even though it is literally smaller than an average-sized adult, its towering influence in the great logistical scramble cannot be overstated.

When school resumes, students will be required to be at least five feet apart from one another at all times, according to the agreement reached by teachers and the district. But just days after that deal came together, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new guidance that students could maintain just three feet of distance and still safely attend school.

San Diego Unified, though, is sticking with the larger number. And the number five is 66 percent larger than the number three – which means you could fit 66 percent more students into classrooms safely under the CDC guidelines. And that would mean far more schools would be able to more easily accommodate four days per week of in-person learning for all students.

A classroom that accommodates 12 students under the five-foot rule could accommodate 20 under the three-foot rule.

Many schools seem to be arranging classrooms and other spaces based on the five-foot rule. But Kisha Borden, president of the local teachers union, told me that students should actually be spaced out by six feet when inside a classroom, according to the negotiated agreement.

A worker I spoke to at one school did not seem to be aware that was the case.

Another question that could be answered differently from school to school: What spaces other than traditional classrooms will be used to hold class? Some teachers may choose to go outside. In other cases, cafeterias or gyms might be utilized for academic lessons. I heard about one teacher who is moving their classroom into a science lab to accommodate more students.

Modifications like that could mean more days of learning for more students.

We know students are heading back to school on April 12. But the distance between that knowledge and a detailed picture of how it will work is enough to fill an entire school semester.

What We’re Writing

• San Diego Unified Superintendent Cindy Marten was interviewed by a U.S. Senate committee as part of her nomination process to become deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Education. Here are five big moments from the hearing.
• Voice of San Diego’s lawyer Felix Tinkov talked about where our public records lawsuit against San Diego Unified currently stands.
• The cost of some on-campus housing at UC San Diego is set to go up by hundreds of dollars and in some cases nearly double this summer. Students and faculty are pushing back hard.
• San Diego school districts suddenly have access to boatloads of cash. Between the first federal stimulus and new money set to become available, districts will get more than $1.5 billion in aid.
• Sweetwater Union is a district with a troubled budget history. And now it’s defending its use of COVID-relief funds for teacher salaries.

Voice of San Diego is a nonprofit news organization supported by our members. We reveal why things are the way they are and expose facts that people in power might not want out there and explain complex local public policy issues so you can be engaged and make good decisions. Sign up for our newsletters at voiceofsandiego.org/newsletters/.