Getting students back into classrooms for 100 percent in-person learning in a safe environment continues to be the top priority for the Manteca Unified School District.
The reason is simple. In-person learning — not distance learning or a hybrid approach — is seen as the most effective way for students to learn.
“That is what we are here for,” Manteca Unified Superintendent Clark Burke.
Burke confirmed Wednesday the administration is working closely with teachers to find a path forward to make more robust in-person learning possible.
Discussion has stepped up in recent weeks as COVID-19 numbers have improved at the same time the district continues to explore even more ways to address COVID-19 concerns in classrooms and throughout campuses.
The district has data that shows learning loss is occurring at all levels. The most acute losses have been at the first through third grade.
At the same time the district understands how stressful the hybrid learning approach with all sixth through 12th graders distance learning on Wednesdays and splitting the remaining four days between online and in-person learning plus the kindergarten through fifth graders going to school for half days has been on families.
But what many people may not realize, as MUSD Community Outreach Director Victoria Brunn, is how stressful the hybrid approach has been on teachers.
“They make it look so seamless,” Brunn said of going between in-person and distance learning throughout a week.
Brunn added teachers have taken on that additional stress understanding that partial in-person learning is better than no in-person learning.
Burke emphasized the school board and district are 100 percent committed to finding a way to go back to 100 percent in-person learning as soon as possible with proper precautions in place.
And while the district is still working out details with teachers on how to best do that, it will not be like it was before the pandemic.
By that Burke means appropriate COVID-19 protocols will stay in place.
It is also likely the district will make its precautions even more muscular beyond what they have already done with the more than $24.1 million to date using state funds. The $49.7 million earmarked for the district through the federal $1.9 trillion COVID relief package will go toward addressing how to help students recover learning losses as well as further enhancing COVID-19 safety measures by building in even more redundancies.
Burke expects COVID issues will exist in a large degree for the next year or so until an acceptable level of comfort is attained. That said, he noted a return to “normal” as it existed before the pandemic started may not fully occur.
The continued downward movement of some key COVID-19 data and the increasing number of people vaccinated is making the talk of moving closer to 100 percent in-person learning feasible.
That said Brunn stressed Manteca Unified is not relaxing any COVID-19 protocols but actually constantly looking for ways to improve them whether it is switching to what has been more effective disinfectant in classroom cleaning to tweaking procedures.
The district was among the few larger districts with 20,000 or more students to move from 100 percent distance learning to a hybrid model. Burke believes the experience gleaned since last October will allow the district to ultimately move to 100 percent learning either sooner and/or with minimum hiccups and COVID-19 protocol related concerns than other similar sized and larger districts.
As an example, there are districts that are still scrambling to possibly add medical-grade air scrubbers that have been a standard issue in all 1,600 Manteca Unified classrooms since mid-January.
Burke re-emphasized the reason Manteca Unified opted to move when it could by investing heavily in efforts to battle the spread of COVID-19 on campus was due to the belief the best way for students to learn is in person with safety precautions in place.
Those efforts appear to be paying off based on the district’s COVID-19 dashboard. As of March 18 out of 27,000 students, teachers, and support staff there are only 23 people that are currently positive — 12 students and 11 staff members.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
