Update: California Schools Expected to Stay Closed Through End of School Year

Public schools statewide are now expected to remain closed through the end of the school year to slow the spread of COVID-19, according to Tanya Krause, Scotts Valley Unified School District superintendent.

An April 1 letter to families from all of the school superintendents in Santa Cruz County explained, “While we understand this further extension of school closures poses serious hardship to many families in Santa Cruz County, it is the most effective way to slow the transmission of this pandemic by continuing to implement social distancing practices.”

Local school superintendents are in communication with universities to develop protocols for high school seniors for grades, transcripts, scholarships, college applications and commencement celebrations.

The policies will be shared “over the next several weeks,” the letter said.

All public schools in the county have been closed since March 16 for “this unprecedented crisis.”

As of April 1, Santa Cruz County has 54 cases and one death, California 8,155 cases and 171 deaths, the U.S., 213,000 cases and 4,700 deaths, and worldwide 932,000 cases, 426,000 deaths and 193,000 recovered.

“I am pleased with the hard work the teachers, support staff, and administration were able to quickly accomplish in one week in order to implement online learning,” Krause said. “We are working to ensure that teachers and families have the materials they need and we are answering questions that arise.”

Krause thanked community members for their support.

Students work with their teachers via remote learning activities while the campus is closed, observing spring break April 6–10. School and district websites offer support with technology, counseling web pages, and educational resources and ideas.

School districts throughout the county are providing breakfast and lunch meals to school-age students Monday through Friday except for spring break. Drive-through pickup at Scotts Valley High School is in the circle in front of the gym, between 10 a.m. and noon. Parents are asked to complete request forms in advance so meals can be planned.

The County Office of Education offers wellness resources for stressed parents at sccoe.link/wellness offers resources. More resources are at: sccoe.link/community_resources and sites.google.com/pvusd.net/pvusdparentideas/home

Story By Jondi Gumz