After nearly a year of school closures, Mountain View Whisman School District plans to start bringing back students to campuses once Santa Clara County has been in the red tier of COVID-19 case rates for two weeks.
For decades, Gary Wesley was tireless in his role as a legal and policy watchdog in Mountain View, even when it didn t make him a lot of friends and many of his lawsuits went nowhere. He was found dead in his home last month at age 68.
The Mountain View Whisman School District, hamstrung by state guidelines that restrict schools from reopening until the countywide coronavirus case rate drops, is in no rush to plan for in-person learning.
They are not medical workers. They are not soldiers drafted to fight a war, he said. They volunteered for a job in which they educate children in a relatively safe environment, and that environment is gone. We have to restore confidence in that environment.
Trustee Debbie Torok suggested that the district bring teachers back to schools first, before students, to help them acclimate to in-person teaching during a pandemic. I believe and maybe I m wrong but as soon as a teacher feels comfortable in their classroom they re going to be willing to embrace more of what is ahead, she said.
It goes without saying that the last 12 months have been brutal and exhausting, fraught with challenges as a deadly, global pandemic completely upended the way people go about their lives.