North County schools delay, reverse in-person learning

A number of North County school districts are changing up their plans for phasing into in-person learning at their buildings, as the activity of COVID-19 continues to increase.

Districts have announced either postponement of implementing in-person learning, or rolling back on prior phase-ins made. The decisions come at a time when local and statewide activity continues to increase, leading to more restrictions ordered by Gov. Jay Inslee for businesses and private gatherings.

Clark County Public Health’s Nov. 24 update on COVID-19 reported that there had been more than 359 cases per 100,000 of the population in the past 14 days in the county. That rate had been increasing since early September, jumping by more than 40 percent from Nov. 17 to Nov. 24.

As a result, districts made changes to their reopening plans. For Battle Ground Public Schools, primary school students would not transition to in-person learning before Jan. 4, according to information from the district website. Student orientations would begin the week prior.

Ridgefield School District will also be holding off on phasing in until 2021. In a Nov. 18 letter to district families, RSD Superintendent Nathan McCann said that kindergarteners wouldn’t be back in buildings until Jan. 5.

Acknowledging Inslee’s recent orders, McCann said that although schools were not included in any of the restrictions the district decided to go ahead and hold off on its own.  

“While empirical evidence suggests that in-person school is safe and does not necessarily contribute to community spread, the unknowns associated with the current county conditions make delaying our return the sensible choice,” McCann wrote.

McCann noted that the postponement would coincide with the district’s Winter break, leading to fewer days of potential in-person learning missed.

Woodland Public Schools has rolled back its own in-person learning for primary school students, though some are still attending class in buildings. In a Nov. 20 letter WPS Superintendent Michael Green announced that second- through fourth-grade students would return to remote-only learning, while kindergarten and first-grade students would continue with a hybrid model.

The rollback went into effect Nov. 23. Green wrote in the letter that case rates in both Clark and Cowlitz counties had “unprecedented increases.” He explained the decision came after working with health officials in both counties who reviewed a number of data points analysing hospitalizations and the rate of infection.

“All data points are increasing at such a dramatic rate that we must take steps to reduce the risk to students, staff, and our community,” Green wrote.

Green said the decision to keep two grade levels in the hybrid model came from recent studies of COVID-19 which showed that the younger the student, the less likelihood of transmission. He added that the youngest students were the ones who needed the in-person instruction the most among the school population. 

Green wrote that health officials believed much of the spread of COVID-19 was coming “largely from indoor, adult social gatherings.”

“If we all make a concerted effort to limit contact with those outside of our immediate household (whether we believe we are sick or not), we have a great chance of rapidly bringing cases down and returning all grades to in-person learning,” Green wrote.

The Green Mountain School district has also rolled back its in-person learning. In a Nov. 20 district update, GMS Superintendent Tyson Vogeler announced that following the Thanksgiving holiday, the entire district would return to remote learning. 

In the update Vogeler wrote he believed that the earliest the district could return to in-person learning was mid-January. Until then, the only in-person services at the school would be for picking up and dropping off learning packets, Vogeler wrote, adding sack lunches would continue to be delivered until the district’s Winter break.

“It is very hard for me to reach this decision and deliver this message, but I believe it is the right decision at this time,” Vogeler wrote.