Lincoln school campuses stay open, despite neighboring district's pause

Placer Union High School District's announcement to temporarily pause in-person instruction has not influenced other districts in Placer County to do the same. On Nov. 12, Placer Union High School District Superintendent George Sziraki informed staff and families that the district would take a precautionary two-week pause on in-person instruction to help slow the spread of rising COVID-19 cases. In Lincoln, Western Placer Unified School District plans to continue its in-person learning at all 13 of its campuses. On Nov. 10, the state moved Placer County back to the red "substantial risk" tier from the orange "moderate risk" tier of California's Blueprint for a Safer Economy. Monday, it reached the purple "widespread risk" tier. "At this time, only Placer Union High School District has decided to pause in-person learning for two weeks as a precautionary measure only," said Michelle Eklund, the Placer County Office Of Education's chief communications officer. "Placer County Public Health has told us that COVID-19 cases in schools have remained relatively contained and in-person instruction is not currently considered a driving factor in recent case increases. Household transmission and social gatherings have been key drivers of transmission." Eklund noted that all school districts within the county have reopened in some capacity for in-person instruction and can remain open. "Decisions to operate school for in-person instruction are made at the local level, and I haven't heard of any changes to local school district plans as of yet," Eklund said. "We have been working for months to navigate challenging conditions and changing guidelines. And, we continue to monitor the recent changes." Officials in some districts involving kindergarten to eighth-grade levels said that districts with solely high school students might be better equipped to handle a temporary pause of in-person learning. The theory is that high school students might have a better understanding or access to technology for distance learning and there would be less of a need for parents to step away from work to be at home with younger children. "When you close or pause, it really has a huge effect on families," said Western Placer Unified School District Superintendent Scott Leaman. Western Placer Unified School District's 13 schools have been on campus five days a week since Oct. 6. Nearly 60 percent of its students have returned to in-person instruction. Leaman said Western Placer Unified School District has "held steady" with about six COVID cases per week among students and staff throughout the district. "While it appears that the data around us is getting worse, the data for our district seems to be getting better," Leaman said. "We would need our data to really go in the other direction to even contemplate closing at this time." Roseville City School District, which returned to in-person instruction Nov. 4, and Loomis Union School District, which returned to campus in late September, both plan to continue with their current on-campus model. Roseville Joint Union High School District also plans to stay on campus, and Rocklin Unified School District's Board of Trustees plans to meet on Dec. 14 to determine if the district will stay on its current hybrid model or move to a five-day-a-week model with modifications. Leaman said Western Placer Unified School District is prepared to remain in person while in the purple tier. "We realize that our community is probably going to go into the purple," Leaman said last Friday. "We really monitor our cases very closely, and we're really using that as our measuring stick. I've just been really proud of a lot of our families. We're really fortunate that our schools are not a transmission point. Everyone is being as cautious as they can because they want to keep kids in school."