How Coachella Valley schools are reopening, adjusting to new 3 ft. distancing guidance

School districts within the Coachella Valley have varied reopening plans. While some students at Desert Sands Unified School District are already in school, other students at Palm Springs Unified School District will be heading back to the classroom on April 12.

Coachella Valley Unified School District submitted its reopening plans to Riverside County last week for approval. However, now that Riverside County has transitioned from the state's most restrictive purple tier onto the red tier, districts won't be needing state or county approval.

"It’s still important to get it validated, if nothing else," said CVUSD Board of Trustees President, Joey Acuña. "Even though we don't officially need their approval, it's nice to have the validation that our safety plan was complete and covered all the bases that we need to cover."

Acuña said they expected to have that feedback by Thursday, when the board is set to meet and make a decision on bringing some students back.

"It’s like most hybrid models and it’ll move up. It’ll start in the early grades and move up," said Acuña.

Each district has adopted hybrid learning, which only integrates students into the classroom a small portion out of the week. The rest of the week would remain at virtual learning.

"It’s only 2 days out of the week and to be honest I don’t like that, the other 3 days is just going to be at home. Might as well just finish the 5 days at school," CVUSD parent, Maria Cebrera said.

As the decision-making approaches, Acuña said everything is on the table and being considered.

"One issue that’s different in our district than in, not all districts but many districts especially here in the valley, is our transportation is the majority of our students. We don’t have a lot of waking schools. We have a few walking schools, but the majority, especially when you start getting into the middle and high schools, a lot of it is transportation. It poses a different problem than say someone who has a lot of community schools where everybody walks to school," said Acuña.

On Friday, March 19 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its guidance for students at school, which now reduces the amount of physical distance between them from 6 ft. to 3 ft. The guidance applies to grades K-12. An exception, however, states that if "cohorting" is not possible and if students reside in communities of high transmission, the 6-foot guidance will remain for middle school and high school students.

The Coachella Valley Teachers Association president told News Channel 3 regardless of the change, they agreed on a minimum of 4-foot distancing for all grades.

Palm Springs Unified School District responded to News Channel 3's request for comment, and said they would not be making changes, at least for now.

Desert Sands Unified School District responded that they would maintain the "status quo" while reviewing the guidelines.

"It seems really good to me that they return to school because kids get depressed being locked up all the time," CVUSD parent, Inocencia Jaramillo-Camacho said in a response translated from Spanish to Engish.

On Sunday, the portal closed for parents to register their kids for virtual or hybrid learning at CVUSD. If anyone missed the opportunity, district officials said they could reach out to their students' schools.

Despite varying opinions, Acuña had some advice for parents:

"The most important thing for us is you tell us what’s good for you, what works for you."