The following is from Superintendent Dr. Adam Clark:
Dear Mt. Diablo Unified School District Parents/Guardians and Staff,
I hope this message finds you well during this challenging time. As you may recall, we made a commitment to our families to partially open schools on January 11, 2021.
Over the weekend, we received the sobering but not surprising news that Contra Costa County residents will need to adhere to the State’s Regional Stay At Home Order. This news along with worsening pandemic trends will affect the timing of our direction as a district, like many districts across the state.
Opening our schools in a manner that protects the health and safety of students and staff is our number one priority. Currently, according to the Contra Costa County Department of Public Health (CCCDPH), Contra Costa County remains in the Purple Tier indicating “widespread” COVID-19 as measured by testing positivity rates, hospitalizations, and ICU rates. Additionally, health officials are warning that a holiday surge of the virus may lead to a significant increase in hospitalizations. These factors are further compounded with the onset of what is expected to be a serious flu season that may further complicate contact tracing.
Thus, out of an abundance of caution, at the December 14, 2020 Board of Education meeting (6:00PM), I will be recommending that our schools remain closed until a re-evaluation takes place at our January 13, 2021 board meeting. If the Board agrees with this recommendation, students will remain in distance learning, then we will re-evaluate on January 13 when to partially open schools.
Our Board had the foresight to continue a 100% Distance Learning Model for our students in grades TK-12 until the end of the first semester—at a minimum—as the concurrent COVID-19 data pointed to a surge heading into winter break; the magnitude of what is happening now is even graver than what the experts had anticipated.
I know that this pandemic has created hardships for many of our students and families and that for many this is not the news they hoped to hear. However, please know that this recommendation is solely based on our desire to keep our students, staff, and families as safe as possible.
Thank you, as always, for your continued support and understanding during these challenging times.
Sincerely,
Superintendent Adam Clark, Ed.D.
Mt. Diablo Unified School District
I 100% support this.
Are you a teacher ?
He’s not a teacher or parent, but he did do a semester at Pajama University and majored in Diaper rash, so he has some insight.
Eric is probably the head of the teachers union. If they have their druthers school will never open again.
DOWN WITH UNIONS!
How can anyone support that decision? Kids need to do other things than be glued to a computer screen or phone. They will be loosing a yr of school, for some a yr of learning and a yr of interacting with other children in a class room setting. For a virus that is 99.9 % recoverable for young people? Shame on them. The teachers who don’t want to go back should be replaced. The superintendent should be replaced. Parents should start a protest.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/students-have-already-lost-too-much-time-they-need-to-be-back-in-classrooms/2020/12/04/44495cf8-350a-11eb-8d38-6aea1adb3839_story.html%3foutputType=amp
The hard data that we now have from various public school systems being open for a while now does not support continued school closure, according to the Washington Post editorial board and Dr. Fauci. Why does MDUSD ignore this data? Meanwhile my friends kids in private school have been back for 2 months now-with no outbreaks. Hard not to feel like those of us who cannot afford private school are being left behind. I wish they were doing something instead of waiting for a vaccine because the students are failing And experiencing real mental health issues. As a parent I feel abandon by MDUSD right now.
Switched my kids to private school several years ago and I thank God every day they are no longer drowning in California’s public education system. Best. Decision. Ever.
It’s not as easy as “Fauci says open schools.” Read the whole portion. Some schools could be open. Some schools should be closed. Plus, if you have a community where too many of the parents are knuckleheads and not being safe, then the children are going to pass it on to their teachers and to other parents via their classmates. But apparently that’s too nuanced for people to grasp. Here’s the full applicable portion from the WaPo article linked above.
“Close the bars and keep the schools open,” Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told ABC last Sunday. In too many places, officials have pushed the reverse. Dr. Fauci was not advocating a wholesale, one-size-fits-all approach for the country to reopen schools but instead stressed the need to take into account local health conditions and capabilities.
Dr. Fauci was initially more cautious about what schools should do in the face of an unprecedented public health crisis, but his thinking has appropriately evolved as more has become known about the virus. Schools have not been a major source of covid-19 spread; European countries — as well as states such as Rhode Island and private and public charter schools — have brought children and staff safely back into the classroom with strict safety protocols including wearing masks, social distancing and proper ventilation.
Elementary Kids will suffer, standardized testing is showing, little kids are not learning as much as in person learning … There are exceptions, some Home Schooling tests show achievement, but this takes Parent commitment
“In retrospect I wish we had opened schools to in person learning back in October or November so that when we went into purple this winter we would not have to remain closed. That was a mistake on our part and I apologize for that. I am deeply ashamed that the district and the teachers unions were not able to be more effective in the interest of your children. Please be assured that when this is all over we will be doing a thorough evaluation of how we managed this situation in hopes to prevent that mistake from happening again”
Sincerely,
The Superintendent You Wish You Had
Lol @ amateur
Amateur gets it, well done.
This guy should be tossed out on his he/him butt!
@Aunt Barbara….”B”-Creamy.
Understandable. As much as we really need schools reopened, this seems like the safest decision. Opening during this spike would only make things worse for everyon
I wonder if things will stabilize by spring time? Spanish Flu went on for two years, but we already have the vaccine ready to go, doubt it would be as bad.
TomG
Understandable? It’s insanely idiotic.
Safest decision? What the hell is safer than a survival rate of 99.99% for healthy people under age 60?
Don’t blame MDUSD, they are ruling by the data and science. You know, the stuff manufactured to support their wishes.
The children are just collateral damage.
Stupid stupid stupid.
They cannot even wait to see what the winter will be like before they decide that they want to postpone the opening. #$#$, the smart play, since they obviously do not want to open, would have been to wait till January 4th and say ‘bad winter, high cases; therefore we are not going to open on the 11th as we had planned’.
The board should all be fired. They are teaching our children how to quit without trying. It should be obvious to all now that MDUSD does NOT care about the students. They do not care about providing and education.
This announcement does not come as a surprise and I would be ashamed if I was a teacher or a board member in this district.
I agree! Let’s at least try! Why not consider teachers essential workers. If they don’t want to work in the class rooms, find subs, find willing assistants to help.
Here’s an excerpt from a school administrator who’s school district is IN SESSION IN PERSON LEARNING, as of last week….
We do have some gating metrics that we’ve used that have come from the county Health Department about when to potentially close down. And those gating metrics are that if we have 20% of our kids absent for 5 consecutive days we would close for 14 days. If we had an absentee rate of 50% for a day we would close for 14 days. And if we can’t staff the building, we would have to close under those conditions as well. We have not hit any of those metrics, so, knock on wood, we’ve been able to stay open during this time.”
“But we have had to be very flexible with how we are able to provide education when staff are gone. We have had some teachers that have been positive and/or have been close contacts with someone that has been positive, so they had to be out of school. However, they were either asymptomatic or never became ill as close contacts. So, through technology, we can actually have those teachers live connect into their classrooms, be projected on smartboards in the classroom, and our teachers actually teach remotely from home. So, we have the actual teacher connecting with the kids those days. We use teaching assistants in the room to make sure kids are behaving and monitoring what kids are doing. And that has worked really well and I really have to give a lot of credit to our staff for their ability to use technology to connect and keep our full time teacher engaged with kids even when they can’t physically be here during these times.”
Ashamed to be a teacher in this district! How dare you. Teachers are working their butts off and more hours than what they get paid for. Teachers didn’t make this decision! So should I just quit my job? Leave my students without a teacher because of the decision the school board made? You should be ashamed for bashing teachers!
@ Teachermom
Yes, ashamed. Any teacher that supports this should be ashamed.
Not all teachers are working their butt off. Some are, I am sure of it, but not all. I mean, my kids have gone from 25-30 hours of in classroom instruction to 16 hours a week remote learning and only half of that has to have a teacher! This was done under the guise of, ‘need time for distance learning’. Really? What do you need, to set up a zoom? That does not take 10 hours a week … so what else are they doing now? Grading papers? Well, they managed to do that before while teaching in classroom 25-30 hours a week. So what is the difference?
Is not the union involved in this decision? No plan until October to open schools … yeah, I do blame the union along with MDUSD. I blame both.
Who should run the school district?
I believe the parents of the current student population should have the final say in everything relating to the students.
No one else.
I think the school board needs a new Superintendent.
But then again, I have never been a fan of the school board.
Perhaps more parents should be getting involved with the education of their own children.
I’ve said it before, MDUSD won’t open until 2022 at the earliest. Even if everything with the vaccine goes perfectly smoothly (it won’t) the entire US population won’t be vaccinated until fall 2021 at the earliest. Then the MDUSD powers that be will say we need a waiting period to let the vaccine take effect and make sure it’s working. They will wait additional months for data to prove that there isn’t even the remotest possibility that even one person could get the virus.
Then again, I think Moderna estimates about a 94% effectiveness for their vaccine so maybe MDUSD will decide it’s still too dangerous. Maybe they will never reopen.
Nope. As soon as we move out of purple tier the District will go hybrid. We we’re so close to it before this announcement.
(By the way, hybrid doesn’t reduce exposure and it decreases the time your child actually has with his/her teacher in distance mode, but that’s a different discussion.)
4 people in my bubble are classroom teachers and want to go face to face, but only until the most vulnerable in our bubble are protected. Once our teachers vaccinated, we’re good to go, even if most of the general population aren’t vaccinated yet.
@itsme,
“Once our teachers vaccinated, we’re good to go, even if most of the general population aren’t vaccinated yet.”
Oh, now I get it. Teachers are pushing to the front of the line for the vaccine. That’s fine with me…the more I read about the vaccine the less I want it. I guess we’ll test it on “black and brown people” (Gavin’s words, not mine) and teachers and see how they fare before the rest of us take it.
Let us just HOME SCHOOL our children.
Yup. Also, let’s have the per student average cost of education follow the student wherever they go – private school, qualifying homeschool expenses, etc. Since the public system has decided to sit this one out anyway.
Total BS MDUSD! You should do better by the kids! I am so sad for the kids, yet again jerked around by so-called “school professionals”. We knew a spike was coming in the winter months….YOU SHOULD HAVE PLANNED FOR THIS! Then come the January meeting and more BS excuses and closure extensions. Fire this board and start with fresh ppl willing to do the right thing. Shame on you.
The recovery rate for those who get COVID I 99.9%. This means that COVID is mild flu, with the exception of older, vulnerable adults.
Children do NOT DIE from COVID. Nobody under the age of 30 has died in CA from COVID.
Teachers **say** they want to return to in-person teaching, but their unions’ actions show us otherwise.
Lastly, STOP voting for Democrats, who simply want power. This lockdown is the last straw!! #MovingOutOfCAASAP
This has nothing to do with unions and everything to do with the county and the people who don’t take this seriously.
You’re living in a fantasy world where everything is the fault of one group of people. It’s increasingly the case that experts recommend keeping schools open even when cases are high. We didn’t even get an opening negotiation from the union until October! Everything the district does has to be negotiated with the union. How can you possibly think that doesn’t play a role here?
Teachers union is playing a part. Of course they should be safe, but they are asking for a nearly zero risk scenario before they return. The important thing is that we have data that shows school transmissions have been very low when proper procedures are in place, and the vast majority of parents and students comply. SO, if we follow the data to enforce mask mandates (which we should)….why are we ignoring the data With something as important as the health and education of our students? Look I’m not a crackpot Covid denier: Dr. Fauci himself says schools should be open.
If you wear a mask, social distance and wash your hands maybe they will be able to open the schools sooner.
You aren’t paying attention. All the people who didn’t do these things also didn’t do them in October. When we had super low numbers of cases and hospitalizations. And yet schools weren’t open then. Why, I wonder?
We won’t strike over no raises.
No raises the last 3 years. State budget won’t support raises for another three.
So keep fishing.
Q: How many documented cases are there of students passing the virus to teachers?
A: NONE
Pay them to stay home and that’s exactly what teachers will do. They get away with it because of the vote power they hold over democrats who will do anything for votes.
A match made in hell……for the rest of us.
You may want to check out San Ramon school district and local private schools if you actually believe the answer to your first question.
Are we really shocked at this point? This is what happens when you have continued failed leadership in a district (even pre-pandemic) and Caillou grown up as Board President.
I am assuming that school will not return in 2021 but of course we will be dragged along with false hope with feel good buzzword newsletters each week. Just tell us already.
Please also enlighten us as to where all the funding is going this year since our children are receiving the watered-down version of school. Why do teachers have to use their own money to purchase all of the supplies for their students during this pandemic?
This was predictable and predicted back in October. The union didn’t even come to the table until then, six or more weeks after schools should have reopened. The whole thing looks perfectly designed as a stalling strategy. Wait wait wait, finally come out with a plan to reopen at the height of winter season, cases go up, oh so sorry we can’t open after all. We really tried!
Right now, there are special ed kids losing abilities and functions they had achieved, and missing out on progress they would be making. And the developmental windows don’t stay open forever (for any kid). We are talking about life-altering effects on these kids, a huge huge loss to them and their families. The whole thing is so grotesque. Moral bankruptcy all around. Next time you hear a school official or union officer talking about equity and the underprivileged, remember that they kicked them to the curb when it mattered most.
Bravo
MDUSD has a hidden adgenda that they don’t want to share with us.
The data consistently shows within our states and the world has shown no spread from within a classroom that practices basic cleaning and face masks. A few US districts have had issues with organized school sports but that is not what we are asking to have happen.
All confirmed cases have been from outside of their homes or classroom and zero spread in the classroom itself.
Open our Elementary schools as agreed follow the health guidelines and let us move forward in getting our children educated same as the private schools.
Last comment spoken by a teacher that doesn’t want to go back to work and/or someone without kid’s.
Tell that to the eleven year old that shot himself in Lodi last week during zoom
But yeah it’s all trumps fault keep believing that ( TDS )
Your angry comment shows how out of touch you are with reality
It’s amazing that most outbreaks are in LTC facilities and meat packing factories that are all practicing the CDC guidelines
The antidote for fear is faith
Umwhat … maybe you take a breath.
Yes, we are blaming MDUSD for not doing their job. It is their job, as teachers, to teach children. That is why we pay taxes, which pay for the buildings and their salaries, so that they can provide a service to us by teaching children. As a parent, I can support that behavior, but since when did it become my sole responsibility to teach my children which I pay taxes to provide?
I do not pay a contractor to do work on my house and then do it myself.
As for my work situation, not your business but okay, I am blessed to be able to work from home. I have modified my schedule to help my child who needs some assistance. This required my employer to accommodate my needs as well as some of my customers around the country and world. I do help my children.
But take into account the server at a restaurant who can not work remotely. Or the parent who works a call center like Samsung or ADT security. Though they may be able to ‘work from home’ they do not have the flexibility to adjust to the child’s school schedule. Hence, why the pay into the system to provide for teachers who can do that service.
Now do you get it?
Serious parents wanting their kids to get a decent education will either enroll them in a private school or just move out of this goofy backwards state!
Doesn’t sound like you really know what’s going on. You’re the one that sounds so very stupid.
@Mdusd
“We won’t strike over no raises.” If you’re a teacher who works for the MDUSD and talks like that, YIKES!
Complications from influenza kill WAY more children/students than COVID. If schools were safe enough to have in person learning during flu season each year then why are they closed for COVID?
The opposite is true for those age 70+, where COVID is deadlier than influenza.
Yes, COVID can be deadly for the elderly and those with underlying serious medical conditions, but NOT for most people, and student-aged most of all. Open the schools!
Day cares and some schools have been open for months and in many parts of the world, I have yet to hear of a superspreader event traced to a school or day care ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD.
The union has been at the table. The district is prepared around 60%of the time
Maybe the teachers are older (average age is 40) and at risk. Why don’t you volunteer in the schools during a global pandemic. You want to die because kids lose a year of school?
It’s true that parents need to step up and do whatever you have to to help your kids now. The kids who do well by high school are the ones with parent support. No matter how great the teachers are.
FYI, I did volunteer to teach this year – in a college classroom, which is a higher risk population.
A reasonable approach would allow teachers in high risk categories to continue to teach online only. But if you think any risk is too much, you are the very problem we are talking about. Zero risk isn’t the right criterion, because this is doing certain damage to a lot of kids and families.
If you look up salaries in the East Bay, many teachers are making over $100k, some approaching $200k, with administrators often making $200k plus. Once they have tenure and a few decades of easy work getting constant pats on the back, they have an easy job that also pays way more than it should. Now teachers have figured out how to keep collecting those high salaries while doing half the work, from home, in their underwear, while drinking Campari spritzers! Teachers really are some of our most intelligent citizens.
100K-200K?….. Where?….
Well, if SOME people (and you know who you are) had adhered to precautions back in March, we wouldn’t still be in this mess and the kids would be back IN school.
Yes donkeys fly,so stop denying it,you non believers/those with a brain
@Jazzman, same narrative as always, pointing the finger to SOME individuals that don’t follow the orders of these POS power hungry bureaucrats. This is a virus! This will not be contained and it has to run it’s course. Yes, many have died and yes many more will die. Interestingly, Covid has not impacted overall total deaths in the US when compared to recent years but if you really think everyone hunkering down in their homes is going to make it go away then you are an idiot. Schools need to open. Even Big Pharma peddling Fauci says schools need to reopen
This is a fantasy. In Spain they shut down so hard people were literally under house arrest and kids couldn’t go outside for six weeks for any reason. But the virus isn’t gone, of course, and they had another surge this fall.
The thing is, this time they knew not to close schools. The data was in.
@Savagette,
Total deaths *are* up in the US this year. All cause mortality is up by about 300k so far. (You can find articles saying otherwise but they all neglect the fact that death data is slow, so the most recent ten weeks are always undercounted.)
Oh, and schools should be open!
Biden announced he will open schools first 100 days. I guess the unions, specifically Teachers, will be getting a big payoff and it will be fine as soon as he is president . Trump has said since July schools should open. Science agrees.
Gee, just like so many said. A miracle happening with lyin Biden being elected. Lying, cheating, hypocrites.
@ Anon
Well at least they had on underwear and I think it’s tequila not spritzers lol
YOU ARE DELUSIONAL
The interests of the Teacher’s Union over the interests of our children – Nice
I’m sad, I’m frustrated for the kids.. I have one in 1st and another in kindergarten. They are doing fair, but HATE online learning and it’s a struggle. I think it’s ridiculous. Im barely holding on with my work too.
Then just today I see about 15 kids unmasked at a nearby playground… I dunno.
I know of schools that are open – public schools and they are making it work with gating metrics set by the Health Department. So far so good since August. Maybe the Health Department in this county could help out a bit?
If the district and teachers are refusing to go back to work, can we get a refund on our property taxes?
Welcome to the school of hard knocks.
This is a complete failure for our students. Look at the stats that should be driving this – actual deaths. In Contra Costa County there are 0, yes 0, for ANYONE under 30. We have had 2 deaths in the last two weeks, yet we are locking down. There has been 1 death in Walnut Creek and Pleasant Hill OUTSIDE a nursing home. People are NOT dying in our county in numbers that should close down the schools. To the extent kids/teachers are vulnerable, let them continue to stay home, but the number of students that are NOT learning is very high and getting worse…learning form home is NOT working. The number of kids failing had more then doubled last month – that was why the district considered sending the kids back. Sadly, this problem is getting worse. Don’t listen to me, listen to Dr Fauchi who also is saying the kids need to get back in school.
“They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.” — Carl W. Buehner.
Thank you for all your support in the comments; wonderful people of Claycord.
As educators, we do not enjoy distance learning, but these are the conditions we are living in today. I refuse to let this define my students’ learning or me as a teacher. I hope this video inspires change as we make it through these difficult times.
https://youtu.be/Cj2G5D9kz6c
I heard MDUSD is still hiring teachers. Does anybody know this to be true? If so, can you explain why?
We always have vacancies
@winnie
I am a teacher and I did vote to strike in our last bargaining which we voted on in June.
If our teachers and our union was ever going to strike, it would have happened then, but the crappy contract passed by our union and teachers led to nothing.
We won’t strike..
I am applaud.Children recover . Kids need interaction with friends. Our kids are being emotionally dammaged. Enough is enough.
Going to tell my children they live in the county governed by morons. Where government are are so scare of the virus with 99.9999999 survival rate. BTW nobody isolated the virus yet 😉 Ask yourself how they test vaccines 😉 most ppl are dumb, you can see it clearly right now.