In August, San Diego Unified School District officials announced that students and staff would only return to school but through distance learning at home, while they consider preparations to get students back onto campuses physically, but it could be months before actually returning.

San Diego Unified created a plan to keep everyone safe from the spread of coronavirus. Their plan consists of purchasing more than 11 million in personal protective equipment, around 200,000 masks and 14,000 bottles of hand sanitizer from the state.  They will require masks to be worn and could possibly be checking temperatures daily. They decided that every classroom without good natural ventilation will have a MERV 13 air filter or portable air cleaner and continue to practice social distancing.

According to recent news reports, “San Diego County will remain in the red, or substantial, tier of the state’s four-tier COVID-19 reopening plan for at least another week, even as public health officials reported 278 new COVID-19 infections and 14 deaths from the illness.”  San Diego Unified will begin reopening in phases, with about 12,000 elementary students with needs and students with high special education needs for limited, in-person support sessions. Some believe that it is still not the time to reopen schools because they do not want to close again because of an outbreak. Meanwhile, some students have protested going back to learning in person because online learning just is not working.

Recently, San Diego Unified District started bringing small groups of ¨vulnerable¨ or troubled students in Elementary Schools for in-person learning starting October 13, which will be the first phase of reopening schools. When middle and high schools will be returning is unknown at this point.

When will the Second Phase start? Well, it all depends on how the first phase goes and it’s success. However, Richard Barrera, Board Vice President of District D, including Hoover High School, says he hopes the second phase could start in November and that as of Wednesday the district has spent $45 million in preparing to reopen schools.