By Emily Doan and Arden Nguyen
The Huntington Beach Union High School District (HBUHSD) announced this morning in an email that general school campus reopenings will begin on Nov. 3.
According to a state mandate signed by Governor Gavin Newsom, “Schools can reopen for in-person instruction once their county has been in the Red (Substantial) tier for at least two weeks.” Orange County will soon reach the 14-day mark.
Special education students, as well as their teachers and support staff, will return to school on Oct. 5. General education students that chose hybrid instruction will return to school in-person on Nov. 3, while those that chose the virtual instructional model will remain online.
The date, which marks the beginning of the second quarter, will allow the district to more smoothly implement its reopening plan.
“The decision to stagger the reopening dates will allow us to provide additional resources during each reopening week, ensuring a more successful transition from virtual to in-person learning,” the email reads.
Students who will return to campus in November under the hybrid model will physically attend classes two days a week, with only half of a class’s hybrid students physically present on any given day.
HBUHSD also said that support staff have been “sanitizing, cleaning, and beautifying our campuses and parking lots” in preparation for a physical return to schools, and that the their school reopening plan “incorporates schedules, recommendations, and guidance from our school nurses, national, state, and local agencies.”
Contrary to community expectations upon the initial release of the district’s School Opening and Safety Plan, all HBUHSD students have since been assigned to classes taught by instructors from their home school sites, regardless of whether they enrolled in the hybrid or virtual instructional model. As a result, many classes include a mix of both hybrid-enrolled students and virtual-enrolled students.
The district has yet to publicly specify how instruction will be conducted for these mixed classes, or for cases in which students enrolled in the hybrid model have an instructor who has elected to remain fully online or vice versa.
“The only way I see it working is if a teacher stays at their desk and teaches as an online teacher while students (who are supposed to stay at their desks anyway) take the class as an online student, just six feet (maybe) apart from other people,” said English teacher Amy Hollingsworth.
Some teachers have said their understanding is that hybrid-enrolled students who have a fully online teacher will engage in distance learning from the classroom while supervised by a substitute teacher, and that virtual-enrolled students who have a teacher in the classroom will watch live-streamed classes or participate in asynchronous learning activities.
There are mixed feelings among teachers regarding the reopening.
“I think the safest option is to stay online. This virus has not gone away and the students will transmit it to our vulnerable population. I think FVHS is doing what they can to be safe. But I don’t think it’s gonna stop the spread of covid,” social studies teacher Gina Carbone said.
Carbone added she felt the plan was “rushed and not well through out by the district.”
“It could have been much better had more teachers, classified staff and principals had input and took part in making a plan,” Carbone said of the reopening plan. She has chosen to teach fully virtually due to medical reasons.
English teacher Amy Hollingsworth said she has some concerns as well.
“I believe we have a very caring and thoughtful staff who is going to go out of their way to make returning to school as safe as possible, but I still have concerns. I’m grateful we have a month to figure things out, and I can only hope it’s enough,” Hollingsworth said.
Some students share the teachers’ worries about reopening.
“I think it is too early to go back, and extremely nerve wracking knowing that school is a hotspot for illnesses,” senior Iann Nguyen said. “I currently am feeling overwhelmed after the news of returning back to campus, but I am excited to see my peers and teachers.”
