Berkeley school district discusses updates to phased reopening of schools
BUSD Board of Education/Courtesy
BUSD Superintendent Brent Stephens presented updates on a projected timeline of reopening schools and designing a hybrid learning model with the Berkeley Federation of Teachers, or BFT. In a discussion of hybrid learning models for elementary schools, the school district and BFT agree on a model that implements distance learning in the morning and optional in-person learning in the afternoon, but they disagree on requiring COVID-19 testing for students.
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In light of Alameda County’s stay-at-home order, which is in effect until at least Jan. 7, the Berkeley Unified School District, or BUSD, Board of Education has decided to continue distance learning until further notice.
In a Dec. 18 message to the BUSD community, Superintendent Brent Stephens said because of the continual increase of COVID-19 transmission rates, the previous reopening date for the pre-K and transitional kindergarten through second grade program, Jan. 13, is “simply not possible to meet.” He added that all Alameda County public school districts face the same reality.
Although Stephens does not know when BUSD schools will reopen, negotiations with the district’s union partners are ongoing to ensure that when it is safe and legal to open, they will be ready.
As schools remain closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Berkeley Unified School District, or BUSD, created online dashboards that show the progress of its plans to reopen schools across multiple grade levels.
The purpose of the dashboards is to provide transparency to the community, according to the school district’s website. BUSD spokesperson Trish McDermott added that since its campuses were shut down, the school district has been looking to reopen schools due to a concern that remote learning has not been similar to in-person experiences.
“We know that students who are currently engaging in distance learning miss some of the important elements of school, including the social and emotional experience of attending school in person with peers and friends out on the playground and in close proximity to teachers and other educators,” McDermott said.