As COVID-19 hit, Ventura County schools closed suddenly. Then the slow, tumultuous path to reopen As of March 1, the majority of Ventura County school districts are working to phase in students for a hybrid return. Here's how we got to this point. Shivani Patel, Ventura County Star Published 4:55 pm UTC Mar. 17, 2021 It was “the day the world shut down.” That's how one Ventura County teacher referred to March 13, 2020. Technically, it was the day schools officially closed their doors, after a week of daily — even hourly — changes in response to growing fears of the novel coronavirus, which two days earlier had been designated a pandemic by the World Health Organization.