Updated: Tue, Jan 5, 2021, 11:29 am
It was a school year unlike any other for students and teachers on the Midpeninsula. Students were sent home to learn in March when schools were forced to close for in-person instruction as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Traditions were reinvented. The class of 2020 accepted their diplomas via car parades and drive-in graduation ceremonies. Proms were canceled, and so were sports seasons.
By the fall, some students in the Las Lomitas Elementary, Woodside Elementary, Portola Valley and Menlo Park City school districts, along with some private schools, returned to campuses for class. They faced social distancing measures, mask-wearing mandates, COVID-19 testing and quarantines when students or staff members in their cohorts tested positive. So far, few cases have been reported in these districts. Other students continued with online learning and may do so for the remainder of the school year.
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Las Lomitas Elementary School District trustee Cynthia Solis Yi. Courtesy Cynthia Solis Yi.
Las Lomitas Elementary School District board trustee Molly Finn. Courtesy Molly Finn.
The Las Lomitas Elementary School District has two new trustees after sudden departures left the K-8 district scrambling to fill board seats. Trustee-elect Jody Leng decided not to assume her seat and Jon Venverloh resigned his seat on Nov. 8 over his wife Mehredith s racist tweets about Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.
The board selected Molly Finn, who came in third for two open seats on the November ballot, and Cynthia Solis Yi, during a Friday, Dec. 18, meeting over Zoom. There were only three members on the five-member board: president Dana Nunn, Jason Morimoto who was elected last month and John Earnhardt. Trustees Diana Honda and Bill Steinmetz did not seek reelection and their terms ended this month.