Nearly 16,000 Santa Rosa public school students will be sticking with distance learning through the end of 2020 after a unanimous vote by the school board Wednesday.
This could have ripple effect for 70,000 other students in the county, which is why some parents are rallying today to urge a reopening of schools.
But a newly reported virus outbreak infecting dozens of people across 13 childcare centers is likely to push county officials to act cautiously. Sixty-two children, family members and staffers have been infected with 30 cases traced back to one center alone.
"Sixteen students - and it looks like one of the students was actually the first case - three staff members and then 11 parents and siblings. This outbreak is ongoing and we have at least 11 contacts that are still pending," said Sonoma County Public Health Officer Dr. Sundari Mase.
The facility will be closed for two weeks.
"I don’t think it’s surprising but I do think it’s something that gives us a little pause when we think about going back to re-opening schools," said Dr. Mase. The announcement came just before her office begins reviewing waiver applications Thursday to allow schools to reopen on a case-by-case basis.
County School Superintendent Steve Herrington cautions reopening classrooms is even more complicated than opening a hair salon or restaurant.
"A store operation versus a school operation: it has a higher standard protocol. You cannot compare a school to Home Depot or Raley’s or Safeway."
While the state has said it will provide support to schools, many of those services are not ready to go.
"The state, although it says in their guidance that they would provide support to schools with contact tracing, that’s not in place yet," Herrington explained. "The state is also directing healthcare providers to provide testing to school employees because they are deemed essential workers. That has been difficult to accomplish with some of our contract vendors such as the medical providers in this county, because they’re really saying they’re testing for exposed cases."
Without proper precautions in place, reopening classrooms could allow outbreaks to spread widely.