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Breaking Developments On Possible Initial School Reopenings: CDC, Sac'to, LA County; LBUSD Sup't Plans Feb. 17 School Board Briefing; What Will Elected School Board Members Allow/Support/Oppose?


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(Feb,. 16, 2021, 8:25 a.m.) -- The Biden and Newsom administrations are citing declines in recent COVID-19 cases to invite/encourage/pressure local school districts to begin to reopen, initially for elementary school children

At late afternoon Feb. 15, the L.A. County Department of Public Health issued the following statement:

The state permits elementary schools to reopen as soon as we reach an adjusted case rate of 25 per 100,000. We are informing Los Angeles County schools tonight via an emailed letter that we expect to announce we have reached this threshold effective Tuesday, February 16. This encouraging news means that dozens of elementary schools will be permitted to reopen for in-class instruction for students grades TK-6 as early as this week. All schools wishing to reopen must submit plans to the County Department of Public Health and the California Department of Public Health certifying that they have implemented a full range of safety measures to permit a safe reopening. Dr. Barbara Ferrer will release additional information Tuesday afternoon at a media briefing at 2:00 p.m. This is an encouraging milestone and we look forward to continuing to work with all stakeholders to ensure safety for students, teachers and staff returning to schools.

LBUSD Superintendent Dr. Jill Baker plans an informational update on LBUSD management's reopening plans at the Board's Feb. 17 meeting (5 p.m.). Thus far, LB's elected Board members have deferred to LBUSD management on its annunced reopening plans which include a desire to begin reopening for K-2 students on March 1 if COVID-19 figures drop to levels that Sacramento considers sufficient.

The Newsom administration's CA Dept. of Public Health says it coordinates its actions with CDC. A previous CDC advisory has taken the position that teachers/frontline staff don't have to be vaccinated before returning to classroom instruction with multiple other protective measures in effect (including possible "screening testing" (LBREPORT.com coverage here.)

To LBREPORT.com's knowledge, as of dawn Feb. 16, LB's teachers union (TALB) hasn't weighed in on the latest developments. LA's teachers union has previously indicated it wants all teachers vaccinated before reopening. (The two vaccinations take over a month to reach full immunity effectiveness.)

So who speaks for LB parents and students in this? It's supposed to LB's elected School Board members.

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A Feb. 12 updated advisory from the Centers for Disease Control (source: here) indicates the current level of COVID-19 in Long Beach is within a category CDC describes as "Moderate" to "Higher" risk of transmission


Below is the most recent publicly provided Long Beach data (source: City of LB COVID-19 dashboard linked on LBREPORT>com front page ) indicating a seven day positivity rate (percent of tests performed showing COVID-19 positive) of 6.5% and a daily new 7 day case rate of 27.1 per 100k.


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CDC's accompanying text (most recently updated Feb. 12) here/a>) states in pertinent part:

As communities plan safe delivery of in-person instruction in K-12 schools, it is essential to decide when and under what conditions to help protect students, teachers, and staff and slow the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. It is critical for schools to open as safely and as soon as possible, and remain open, to achieve the benefits of in-person learning and key support services. To enable schools to open and remain open, it is important to adopt and consistently implement actions to slow the spread of SARS-CoV-2 both in schools and in the community. If community transmission is high, students and staff are more likely to come to school while infectious, and COVID-19 can spread more easily in schools. The association between COVID-19 incidence and transmission in school settings and levels of community transmission underscores the importance of controlling disease spread in the community to protect teachers, staff, and students in schools. This means that all community members, students, families, teachers, and school staff should take actions to protect themselves and others where they live, work, learn, and play. In short, success in preventing the introduction and subsequent transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in schools is connected to and facilitated by preventing transmission in communities.

K-12 schools should be the last settings to close after all other mitigation measures in the community have been employed, and the first to reopen when they can do so safely. This implies that schools should be prioritized for reopening and remaining open for in-person instruction over nonessential businesses and activities.

Given the likely association between levels of community transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and risk of SARS-CoV-2 exposure in schools, a first step in determining when and how to reopen safely involves assessing the level of community transmission. School administrators, working with local public health officials, should assess the level of risk in the community and the likelihood of a case in a school facility, the likelihood that a case would lead to an outbreak, and the consequences of in-school transmission...

Schools that are open for in-person instruction (either fully open or hybrid) may decide to remain open even at high (red) levels of community transmission. These decisions should be guided by information on school-specific factors such as mitigation strategies implemented, local needs, stakeholder input, the number of cases among students, teachers, and staff, and school experience. A decision to remain open should involve considerations for further strengthening mitigation strategies and continuing to monitor cases to reassess decisions. This should be driven by a "classroom-first" approach; in-person instruction should be prioritized over extracurricular activities including sports and school events, a common source of school transmission, to minimize risk of transmission in schools and protect in-person learning.

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Support really independent news in Long Beach. No one in LBREPORT.com's ownership, reporting or editorial decision-making has ties to development interests, advocacy groups or other special interests; or is seeking or receiving benefits of City development-related decisions; or holds a City Hall appointive position; or has contributed sums to political campaigns for Long Beach incumbents or challengers. LBREPORT.com isn't part of an out of town corporate cluster and no one its ownership, editorial or publishing decisionmaking has been part of the governing board of any City government body or other entity on whose policies we report. LBREPORT.com is reader and advertiser supported. You can help keep really independent news in LB similar to the way people support NPR and PBS stations. We're not non-profit so it's not tax deductible but $49.95 (less than an annual dollar a week) helps keep us online.

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