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A group of Pleasanton parents urging the Pleasanton Unified School District to reopen local middle and high schools for in-person learning plans to hold a rally at the corner of Valley Avenue and Hopyard Road this weekend.
Event organizers, who say it will be socially distanced and require participants to wear face coverings, told the Weekly that they are seeking to reopen all PUSD sites — not just kindergarten through fifth grade — once Alameda County returns to the red tier of the state’s color-coded COVID-19 restrictions, and want to be prepared when the time comes.
“We understand we’re in the purple tier and can’t legally open schools right now, but one of the most important things right now is getting a plan specifically for secondary grades,” said parent Jennifer Oxe, who is also one of the rally organizers and members of the group called Open Pleasanton Schools.
“Teachers are working so hard, we appreciate them and know it’s not easy to teach via Zoom. They’re doing a great job, but we think the best learning comes from in-person learning,” Oxe added.
PUSD was originally slated to reopen for K-5 students on Jan. 4 until the county recently slipped back into the red tier and Gov. Gavin Newsom announced statewide shelter-in-place orders.
Two days after the Alameda County Public Health Department announced secondary schools could proceed with reopening plans, the county slid back into the purple tier.
Referring to a recent statement the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director made that “for kids K-12, one of the safest places they can be, from our perspective, is to remain in school,” Oxe said she and other parents are “trying to figure out what the roadblock is” to reopening, and want the district to use the CDC’s latest data and recommendations to come up with a tentative start date in January as well as a reopening plan.
“Our district is really operating from a place of fear,” she said. “COVID is not getting spread in schools; it’s coming from people going to parties and having gatherings at home.”
Oxe said she appreciates the hard work being put forth by teachers during remote learning, and called the district’s PPE plan “extensive” and “great,” but said many parents want accountability “in terms of getting a date, getting a plan,” and wonder why PUSD isn’t copying other districts in California where secondary students have already returned to classrooms.
Additionally, the group wants PUSD to survey parents and teachers of secondary students, in order to gauge their readiness for reopening or desire to continue learning remotely so that the district can plan more effectively.
District spokesman Patrick Gannon said, “We have been working to negotiate with our associations on reopening; however, most of our efforts have been focused on our youngest learners.”
Gannon also said that PUSD is “looking at what other districts are doing across the state and country.”
“As for safety, we start with guidelines from public health, which we’re currently going above for our elementary school reopening plans,” he added.
“Once conditions improve in our community, we hope to begin these conversations as soon as we can. We know many students are struggling and hope our community can continue to work with us in practicing safety and health guidelines that will allow us to enhance the in person opportunities for the students who so desperately need them,” Gannon said.
The rally will take place at the corner of Hopyard and Valley by the gas station on Saturday from 3-4:30 p.m.
According to organizers, attendees are reminded to not stand in the center islands and can receive a citation for doing so; face masks and six feet social distancing is required and will be enforced, and the Pleasanton Police Department has been notified about the rally.
School reopenings is also expected to be a lead topic of conversation, either agendized or via public comment turnout, at Tuesday’s PUSD Board of Trustees meeting.
“Let them play.”…Bad News Bears 2.
Let them Learn, Let them Learn.
Enough with this shutdown for…how long? Until uneducated politicians decide the time is right.