POWAY, Calif. — With San Diego County moving into California's purple COVID-19 tier, reopening timelines could change for some schools. Schools that have not reopened at all will have to stay closed until San Diego County climbs back into the red tier and stays there for two weeks. This applies for individual schools, not districts.
"Poway Unified has reopened all its 39 campuses to in-person instruction whether small groups, hybrid model, etc. So we are considered open and we can continue with our reopening," said Poway Unified School District's Chief Communications Officer, Christine Paik.
The County’s Office of Education’s website shows the schools that remain closed. Fallbrook Union High District is online instruction only and La Mesa -Spring Valley was planning to reopen for in person instruction later this month. San Dieguito Union High School is planning for a January reopening but does have some special education students meeting for in-person learning and that means it's already open. This is where parents get confused.
“So even if you’re only open for part of the population now, eventually if you want to reopen for all of the students who want to come back in-person, you can and that’s our plan,” said Paik.
Poway Unified said its secondary schools have customized reopening plans and timelines. One way to look at it is schools that did not reopen at all will have to stay closed until the county climbs back into the red tier and stays there for two weeks.
“I think this entire process has been really confusing and I totally understand that there’s confusion out there for us as a school district trying to navigate this, interpret all the different guidelines and health restrictions," said Paik.