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School chief says no rush to close for rest of the yearFree Access




If you’ve driven by any local schools lately, there is an eerie feeling.

Where there would normally be students moving to their next classes, or recesses being held, there is silence.

There is obviously no activity within the school system with school sites being shuttered due to the Covid-19 pandemic, other than the district office, where administrators continue to hash out how to best implement “distance learning.”

One question that has been thrown around the community is why the district hasn’t gone ahead and called off in-person classes for the remainder of the 2019-20 school year.

According to Mariposa County Unified School District Superintendent Jeff Aranguena, there is no rush or need to close for the remainder of the school year at the moment. (Schools remain closed through May 1.)

District officials are simply seeing what happens over the next few weeks before making a final decision on the fate of this school year.

“It’s prepare for the worst and hope for the best: that’s basically our standpoint right now,” Aranguena explained. “We are working on a plan for returning to school (if possible).”

Aranguena added: “We very much are focused on the health and safety of our kids and community, obviously. We feel like, within the next two weeks, if things do change, we want to make sure our kids and staff members know that ultimately, there might be an opportunity to return to normal classes for the remainder of the year. We’re in a unique situation up here. We don’t have any confirmed cases.”

Aranguena said much of this line of thinking has come in close consultation with both the state superintendent and with county partners.

“In speaking with the state superintendent, he has made it clear that the decision to close for the remainder of the year, although it is a local decision, it was his recommendation to close and focus on distance learning. In speaking with our county partners … we very much felt that with spring break coming up, and locally having zero confirmed cases, let’s see where we’re at in two weeks and maybe reassess,” he said.

Aranguena did specify that as long as social distancing and social gathering restrictions are in place, MCUSD would obviously comply with those guidelines and would not be reopening schools.

“As long as those two items are in place, we will not be able to operate normal classes,” Aranguena said.

Other thoughts

Aranguena said some of his discussions in recent days have centered around budgetary matters.

He expects Gov. Gavin Newsom’s education budget proposal to be “dramatically” different in the aftermath of Covid-19.

“For us locally, we’re going to have to be having conversations about our budget and how that might be impacted by the state’s budget,” Aranguena said. “We’ll start focusing on the district office level: what is this going to mean for our budget, and what proactive measures can we take? What implications might it have?”

In a separate matter, Aranguena said his team is working with county officials on “preliminary” conversations to determine whether it is possible to use school facilities “for possible childcare that the county might provide.”

“It’s very much surface level conversations,” Aranguena said. “Those are early stages of collaborating.”

Aranguena said officials continue to work toward providing more guidance and expectations for teachers and students during this unique time.

“That will be something we’re really pushing this week,” he said.

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