Newhall School District board members voted unanimously Tuesday to ask the California Department of Public Health to provide new face-covering guidance to give the district discretion over whether to make masks optional.
The motion comes on the heels of a number of districts that have had to answer questions from families and staff about the mask policies that will be in place for the coming year.
As of Thursday, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health and California Department of Public Health did not specifically request distancing between students while in the classroom, but did require masks indoors.
The motion approved by the Newhall district’s governing board formally requests that the district be given discretion to decide its own optional mask-wearing policies, saying that it would give “voice to the desires expressed by many district teachers, families and students.”
Many Santa Clarita Valley school districts plan to reject Centers for Disease Control (CDC) funding to provide comprehensive COVID-19-screening programs at SCV schools.
The Los Angeles County Office of Education allocated $7.5 million – out of $300 million for the county’s 80 public school districts and many private schools – for SCV’s six districts last month.
“We’re not going to be using those funds,” said Jeff Pelzel, superintendent of the Newhall School District, which did not conduct COVID-19 testing on its campuses. “We’ve never had a transmission from adult to adult, adult to student or student to student, resulting from a transmission on campus. That has never happened all year.”
Controlling and limiting the groups you’re with.
Students are doing a great job following these rules, Hawkins said.
“They will tell you themselves that they would rather be in school with their friends even though they have to be socially distant, even though they have to wear masks, than be home by themselves,” Hawkins said.
Upon the start of the fall semester in August of 2021, with these protocols expected to remain in place, intervention teachers are set to be incorporated into school administration to aid in the transition back to in-person learning, according to Hawkins.
Expanding the school day by 30 minutes is also being considered by the Saugus Union School District to provide enrichment for students, according to District officials.
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