Lompoc Unified approves plan to reopen in January
LOMPOC, Calif. - Lompoc Unified School District board members voted 3-1, with one absent, to push reopening to January 2021 on Tuesday night. The reopening will only take place if local, county, and state leaders all say it is safe to do so.
The discussion started as the board went through a powerpoint outlining different procedures for when schools reopen.
The plan for the district included procedure if a student or staff comes to the school sick, which students and staff would be required to wear masks, and how often staff will be tested.
More discussions will continue about the reopening procedure when Santa Barbara County moves into the higher, orange tier, in the state.
The school board will decide which approach to take for reopening: cohort model, blended-learning, or full in-person learning. In a cohort model, it will be a combination of in-person and virtual learning. Blended-learning would mean the students come into class for two days and spend three completing virtual-learning. Full in-person learning means students will be in classrooms for all five days of the week.
Lompoc Unified has distributed 7,000 chromebooks to students across the district. They have also purchased 250 hotspots for distance-learning. Board members did acknowledge while this is a start, some households are still experiencing connection issues with online learning.
Lompoc Unified School District Reopening Plan
Sanitation
Custodians will be doing more sanitation throughout the Lompoc Unified School District, specifically in high-touched areas for students and staff. This includes bathrooms, classrooms, and hallways.
Outside of classrooms, hand-washing stations will be set up using antimicrobial soap, as recommended by CDC.
Buses will be cleaned after each group leaves the bus. They will be limited in students to allow for physical distancing inside the bus. If a student tries to enter the bus while showing symptoms, the driver will wait, while wearing personal protective equipment (PPE), until a parent or guardian can come and pick the student up.
Families are asked to self-attest their children. If students show any indication they may be sick, parents are to keep them at home.
Inside the classroom, students will sit six-feet apart. Classrooms will have one open window to allow for air flow in the room.
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
All students, third grade and above, and staff will be required to wear face masks, face coverings, or face shields while on campus and in school district buses. Students and staff will be provided masks by the district or can wear their own mask if they feel more comfortable.
Each individual school will collect masks daily for washing on campus. They will be redistributed every morning, either before entering the campus or before boarding the bus.
Dealing with Positive Cases
If a student or staff member tests positive for COVID-19, the classroom they are in will be closed off for 24 hours for deep cleaning. All students and staff that could have been in contact with the student will be sent home to isolate for 14 days.
If 3 people test positive, it's considered an outbreak, and the entire school must close for 14 days.
The district will pass along the positive cases to Santa Barbara County Public Health and contact tracing will begin. All Lompoc Unified School District staff in contact with the infected person will be notified.
