Pasadena Unified In-Person Learning Won’t Resume Until Jan. 11 at Earliest

Pasadena Unified School District schools will not resume in-person learning on a district-wide basis any earlier than Jan. 11, per a recommendation made public Thursday by Superintendent Brian McDonald and overwhelmingly supported by members of the school board.

“The justification for this recommendation really is grounded in the need to keep our students and staff safe,’’ McDonald told board members during the PUSD’s regular meeting, which was conducted remotely Thursday.

Significantly, the Jan. 11 date — marking the start of the second semester – is a target, and hardly a guarantee. L.A. County would first need to improve two steps on the COVID-19 danger scale. The county is now in the purple tier – the most dangerous, denoting “widespread.”

What’s more, if and when in-person learning resumes, it will be done on a hybrid basis according to a plan the PUSD has labeled the “simultaneous” option – a plan also preferred by McDonald, he said.

Under that model, whole classes would remain intact, but with half the students learning in-person and half watching remotely. That would allow for social distancing on campuses while also giving parents who are fearful of COVID dangers the option of keeping their kids at home.

And, any transition back to in-person learning – should it happen — would be phased in, McDonald said.

“Maybe we start with maybe TK (transitional kindergarten) through 2 and then maybe third (grade) through fifth maybe a week or so later, and then our middle-school students, six through eight, and then our high-school students,’’ McDonald said.

There’s another hurdle, too – the teachers union would have to sign off on any return to campuses, and has not yet done so. School-board Vice President Scott Phelps told Pasadena Now following Thursday’s meeting that, “It’s going to take several more (negotiation) sessions in the next couple of months.’’

In the meantime, however, the PUSD is proceeding with plans that could get special-ed students and students learning English as a second language back to campuses by the end of this month, under a so-called “cohorts” model.

Under that plan, students would be broken up into groups of no more than 12. They would be allowed on campuses and supervised there by two non-teacher instructional aides – under strict COVID precautions — while their teachers, off-campus, conduct the classes remotely.

That plan can get underway with L.A. County still in the purple tier of COVID danger – but needs approval from the Pasadena Public Health Department, an application-and-review process that can take several weeks to complete. A PUSD staff report suggested that enrollment for the cohorts plan could begin as early as Oct. 12, with a target date of Oct. 26 to begin.

McDonald, pressed by board member Roy Boulghourjian about safety concerns for those early-returning students, said, “I hear the concern, but by the same token, these are our neediest kids, and so I think we have a duty and an obligation to make sure that they are served.’’

“The key for me,’’ McDonald added, “is not bringing back large numbers of people onto the campuses. I think if it’s these small cohorts, then that’s manageable and we can do a much better job of keeping (students and staff) safe.’’

With regard to the possible wider resumption of in-person learning around the district, McDonald is also stressing safety first – and got across-the-board support from board members.

“I think we’ve all seen what has happened when K-12 schools as well as higher ed open up a little bit too early,’’ McDonald said. “I’ve had some experience with that, where we traveled halfway across the country to drop our son off at college, and then within a week he was back home. So we certainly want to avoid that kind of situation. We want to keep the instruction consistent for students and our staff.’’

McDonald also pointed to the upcoming flu season as another reason to play it safe and not push to restart any in-person learning this semester.

“Flu season is coming up, and that’s going to be another issue,’’ he said. “When you combine the flu and COVID, that will make for a very bad situation. So we want to avoid that as much as possible. … It would make perfect sense to simply wait until the start of the new semester at least to think about bringing our students and staff back.’’

Board members backed McDonald down the line.

“I hear the parents that are putting the pressure on us to start as soon as possible, but I still feel like I want to err on the side of caution when it comes to being safe,’’ said Michelle Richardson Bailey. “Look at us (the board), we won’t even meet in the board room because we’re not feeling safe to meet together. … I actually would support the superintendent’s recommendation. I think it’s the right thing to do.’’

Board member Elizabeth Pomeroy said, “I also support the recommendation to continue with the processes that we have now to complete one semester in this way. I think it’s reassuring to families to know that this semester will be a self-contained unit in which we follow the processes that we now have, with the possibility of next semester being a little bit to the next phase. I think it eases some of the uncertainty if we confirm now that we are making plans for a change in the second semester.’’

Pomeroy also said the three months between now and that Jan. 11 start-up target gives teachers time to master the challenges of teaching half their classes remotely.

“It will give time for some training of the teachers in those processes (of hybrid learning), because there is more technology involved and more pedagogical practices to learn in the simultaneous versions,’’ she said.

Phelps, meanwhile, called McDonald’s recommendation “very reasonable” – and strongly urged everyone to practice COVID precautions, to help L.A. County emerge from the dangerous purple tier.

“I encourage everybody to wear your mask so we can in fact DO it in January,’’ Phelps said, referring to the Jan. 11 target date.

As for the cohorts program, Phelps said, “I have no doubt that English learners and the special-ed groups can be done safely. … I would recommend using the ventilation of an outdoor setting.’’

Board member Lawrence Torres said, “I think this is the right move. … I think this is the only move, and I think we will be joined by the vast majority of school districts in L.A. County.’’

Torres also praised the half-and-half split of students online and in person, saying, “I think coming back to do this sort of hybrid model is really exciting, because it really gives you the best of both worlds – if families are uncomfortable, they can stay (home); if students want to come in (they can). But everybody’s getting the same content. I think this is exactly the right way to go.’’

Board president Patrick Cahalan and board member Kimberly Kenne also supported McDonald’s recommendation – but worried that a recent rise in COVID numbers around the country and around the world could portend trouble in Pasadena, too.

“I think this is the right decision,’’ Cahalan said, (but) I’m concerned at the (COVID) numbers that are coming out of Europe — they seem to be going right into wave No. 2 in several different countries. So I suspect that we have that to look forward to in the next several weeks here in the U.S.

“I’m glad that we’re not making a decision (to resume in-person learning this semester) that we would then have to rescind,’’ Cahalan added.

For her part, Kenne cautioned, “I would have said three weeks ago that we would be in the red tier by now as a county, and we’re not – and I’m no longer really optimistic.’’

“By the time we go through holidays and people decide they haven’t seen their family long enough, and regular flu season, there is a chance we’ll still be distance learning in the spring.’’

McDonald’s recommendation came at the end of a lengthy staff presentation to the board, titled “Return to in-person learning recommendations,” which can be read in its entirety here.