Moving back to the purple tier: What does this mean for schools thinking about reopening?
Riverside County is moving back to the purple, most restrictive tier and must remain there for at least three weeks.
As the county moves back to the purple tier, what does this mean for the local school districts that were planning to bring back students? News Channel 3's Caitlin Thropay has those answers and shows us a local school that's now readjusting again.
"Hearing that we've moved to the purple tier is a disappointment," L lisa Hernandez told News Channel 3. She's the principal at Nova Academy in Coachella. Her school was gearing up to reopen at the beginning of November.
"We were really excited to bring our students back on campus and really start preparing our campus you know taking all of the safety precautions we needed to take … now we'll just really shift gears and continue to focus on our distance learning program and really improving it so that we're accessing and supporting all of our students and all of their needs," she said.
According to Riverside County, schools that reopened in the red tier can stay open. Schools that were not yet open in the red tier cannot reopen without a waiver from the county. Those in-person waivers are only issued for kindergarten through sixth grade.
Nova Academy is a charter high school. They cannot reopen and cannot apply for a waiver.
“We’re just going to put our families and students and staff safety first,” Hernandez said.
"It's very disappointing for our county to go back in the purple tier,” Head of School at Palm Valley School, Dr. Steven Sherman told News Channel 3. Palm Valley School in Rancho Mirage can remain open.
"We are very blessed and fortunate here at Palm Valley to be the first school to get the waiver and to have all of our students back here on campus but it does serve as a reminder for us to continue to be vigilant regarding our defensive procedures and practices," he said.
We asked the three public school districts in the valley how the change to the purple tier might impact the timeline for hybrid learning.
A Palm Springs Unified School District spokesperson gave us a statement:
"Since we aren't planning on launching hybrid program until after winter break, this doesn't modify our plans at this time. If we remain in purple past the three weeks that could push the date for return later, but it is too soon to speculate on that."
The Coachella Valley Unified School District also gave us a statement:
"CVUSD is actively working on developing our Return-to-School Plan with our stakeholder Task Forces. This announcement does not impact our District at this time as we will continue refining our Plan to ensure the safe return of our students and staff to our schools. Our Board of Education has made it clear from the outset that the safety of our students and employees is their number one priority and this has not changed."
Desert Sands Unified School District did not give us a statement however, there is a board meeting tonight at 7 p.m. that will address the continued planning for the school year.
Link to watch the DSUSD meeting is https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5OYnlj-RDBDcxVA8mzj_RQ.
As we've reported over the past month, CVUSD, PSUSD, & DSUSD were discussing a return to class under the hybrid model. PSUSD & DSUSD officials were planning a possible return to the classrooms at 50% capacity for three days a week in January.
Schools can obtain a waiver application on the RUHS-Public Health website or by clicking here.
Please see this website for all schools that have sent in applications: https://rivcoph.org/SchoolWaiver
Stay up-to-date with the latest local coronavirus news, including reopenings and closing, new case data, live news conferences, and other updates at KESQ.com/Coronavirus or download the News Channel 3 app on the Apple Store and Google Play.
