By Elise Tran, Lauren Nguyen & Karen Phan
March 31 update
HBUHSD Board of Trustees extended school closures to May 1 in response to United States President Donald J. Trump’s national recommendation to extend social distancing guidelines on Sunday, March 29.
The original article begins here.
HBUHSD Board of Trustees voted on Wednesday, March 18 to extend the school closures through Friday, Apr. 17, according to an announcement from HBUHSD Superintendent Clint Harwick.
The Board voted on Friday, March 13 to close all schools beginning Monday, March 16 through Friday, March 27 to minimize potential transmission of the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19).
“We do not have any presumptive or confirmed cases of the new COVID-19 virus in our schools, but we are taking this step to protect public health,” said Harwick in the announcement posted on the district’s newsroom website.
The decision was made in response to President Donald Trump declaring a national emergency over COVID-19 earlier today.
“We are actively monitoring the situation and following guidelines from the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), Orange County Health Care Agency (OCHCA), and the Orange County Department of Education (OCDE),” Harwick wrote.
Harwick suggested students “stay home and minimize social contacts as much as possible to keep caregivers and adult family members safe.”
Teachers will not attend school from Monday, March 16 through Wednesday, March 18 for personal time, according to an email sent out by the teacher’s union, District Education Association (DEA). All-staff meetings at each site will be held on Thursday, March 19 in order to discuss updated distance learning plans and other new information.
DEA reminded teachers that the Board of Trustees and Harwick intend those three days “be used as personal time to adjust to the regional closures affecting [their] families.”
DEA also included expectations for classes during this next week.
The email stated that “the district does not expect teachers to use these three days to plan for classes or assign work to students.”
The district, along with state and local officials, has not determined whether the closure will affect the length of the school year, according to the email.
“I think that the Fountain Valley students’ education won’t be greatly impacted and once we know that we can absolutely provide a safe environment, we can bring everyone back,” Assistant Principal of Supervision and Athletics Elliot Skolnick said.
Orange County Superintendent Al Mijares suggested that all public schools be closed for a minimum of two weeks. This decision was made after a conference call with 27 school districts’ representatives earlier today.
Surrounding school districts also decided to close, including school districts in Los Angeles, Irvine, Orange, Garden Grove and more.
Many events and activities have been postponed or canceled, including all athletic events, Spring Fest, 8th Grade Parent Night and the SAT.
“The [Center for Disease Control and Prevention] predicts that the next eight weeks will be incredibly rough, so closing school and stopping events right now will help slow the spread,” junior Eric Pham said. “I didn’t think it would reach a point like this even at the beginning of the week.”
FVHS Principal Morgan Smith sent out a video message to students this evening to briefly inform students of the situation and give words of advice.
“A lot of you may be thinking about school and school work right now. I want you to take a pause on that as we regroup and also navigate this question,” Smith said. “I want you to think about yourself and your family… Please take care of yourself during this time.”
Katy Nguyen and Tracy Lam contributed to this story.
This is a developing story. Baron Banner will continue updating with more information.
March 13, 4:13 p.m.: updated to include information from DEA
March 13, 8 p.m.: updated to include information from Smith’s video message
March 18, 4:46 p.m.: updated to include information from Harwick on extended school closures
March 31, 1 p.m.: updated to include information from Harwick on extended school closures
