Eyes on our Schools: Back to Campus Updates

It’s late August and Downey Unified students are back in school! This fall, the return to school means both in-person instruction as well as Online Learning through our new and robust 100% online instruction for grades K-12.

Classes are settling in; performing arts students are rehearsing and preparing for fall shows; our student athletes are having their first home and away games and ASB and numerous campus clubs are wrapping up their “Welcome Back” events. Making their debut this year, our on-campus Wellness Centers at all middle and high schools are available for students providing them access to additional mental health and wellness support services.

Although things are still very different from years past, we are all committed to making this a great new school year and our Downey Unified families make that evident as they continue to make the best of each situation that comes our way.

As Superintendent Dr. John Garcia shared last week, the Board is very proud of the great and very quick progress the District has made in offering our students an enhanced option for Online Learning in addition to the option for a safe and full return in person. Downey Unified’s new Online Elementary School is up and running and is exclusively serving 800 kindergarten through 5th grade students, while approximately 900 of our middle and high school students are attending a rigorous Online Learning program offered through each of their home schools.

We are extremely proud to be able to offer our elementary and secondary students a learning approach that strongly simulates the in-person classroom experience and schedule they are accustomed to, but fully online.

As President of the Board of Education, I along with my fellow members recognize our important and ongoing role of implementing vital protections to keep students and staff as safe as possible as we continue into this new school year. Each of our meetings continues to feature a comprehensive Return to School board update presentation with important public health information and recommendations for Board consideration. As always, families are encouraged to attend our meetings, in person or live via Zoom, and review the helpful presentation documents found on our Board’s webpage at web.DUSD.net.

As a result of new state and county public health recommendations, we recently approved two new actions at our last Board meeting. The first is the revised requirement for all students and staff to mask while outdoors on our campuses, unless eating or drinking. This decision follows LA County Public Health’s recent guidance requiring masking at all large outdoor sporting events such as at Dodger Stadium and other outdoor venues.

We feel this is an important additional step to keep our school communities safe, specifically when and where physical distancing is not possible. Our goal is to maintain students’ safety as they enjoy the playground with their classmates, pass their peers from class to class and gather safely to enjoy outdoor campus events.

Also approved during our August 17 meeting were processes to comply with the State’s requirement for vaccine verification for all California school employees, per the August 11 Health Officer Order. This past week, all Downey Unified staff were asked to provide proof of COVID-19 vaccination in anticipation of starting weekly testing for all non-vaccinated staff by September 1, 2021, well in advance of the State’s requirement for starting testing by October 15, 2021.

We thank all our staff who have already taken the very important step to get fully vaccinated to protect themselves, their families, our school communities, and our students and colleagues who cannot be vaccinated.

As shared by Superintendent Garcia last week, Downey Unified’s protocol when a student or staff member tests positive for COVID-19 is to have our district nursing team work with the LA County Department of Public Health to conduct the appropriate contact tracing to identify anyone in our school community who may have been in close contact with the positive case.

Parents/guardians of a student or students that are determined to be in close contact, will be contacted directly regarding next steps. This is a process that we’ve had in place since the beginning of the school year that directly reflects within our district’s COVID Dashboard, found at web.DUSD.net/coronavirus. The COVID Dashboard is updated throughout the week with confirmed school related positive COVID-19 cases at each of our schools.

I, along with the rest of the Board, continue to encourage our school communities to seek opportunities to get vaccinated. This week, we proudly offered the District’s fourth vaccination clinic, with an evening event at Downey High School on Thursday. A fifth vaccination clinic hosted by Warren High School will be held at the beginning of September, so please be on the lookout for those details to be shared soon.

As the Pfizer vaccine has now received full FDA approval, we hope that many more in our school communities feel heartened by this news and seek to get vaccinated by visiting MyTurn.ca.gov to make an appointment or find one of many walk-in opportunities in our community.

In other exciting news, Downey Unified continues our efforts to grow our educational offerings, this time with the successful opening of Leap, the district’s first early education program for 3 to 5-year-old students. Currently housed at our Pace Education Center, this program is in its second week of instruction, currently serving 25 students and we are excited for the program to grow. If you are interested in learning more, please visit web.DUSD.net/leap.

As we head into September and continue into the first few months of school, I want to remind everyone that we continue to adjust and adapt to this ever-changing environment that we again find ourselves in. With that, our Back to School nights will soon be underway and similar to last year, these events will now be held virtually.

Please be on the lookout for more information to be shared by your child’s school in the next few weeks. We can’t wait to showcase the amazing things our students have accomplished since their return on August 11.