San Diego City Wire

New state regulations introduced to combat the COVID-19 pandemic could lead to schools in North County San Diego remaining closed to most pupils until at least February.

The San Dieguito Union School District, which last month settled a suit demanding it slow the restart of in-person instruction, had planned to open at the end of January. However, the new state rules make it clear that elementary schools cannot fully reopen until a county has a novel coronavirus rate of 25 cases per 100,000 residents or lower. Middle and high schools cannot reopen until the rate is seven per 100,000. The current county rate is around 70 per 100,000.

Individual schools that reopened prior to the county dipping into purple tier can stay open. But none of the schools in the district are in that position as they did not have in-person teaching to all students in at least one grade level. Some schools have partially reopened, but only for one day a week.

As the district pondered reopening, the San Dieguito Faculty Association and a husband of a local teacher filed suit asking that the district be barred from initiating a reopening. A settlement was reached, which included the district agreeing not to reopen in January.

Ginny Merrifield, the executive director of Parent Association of North County San Diego, blames teachers' unions for blocking reopening.

She told the Voice of San Diego that she believes the pandemic has revealed how teachers' unions are not taking the best interests of children into account. She argues that they have not worked with districts to reopen schools more quickly.

“Now that a black box has opened up, parents are looking in, and it’s kind of scary," Merrifield said. "Parents on one hand are feeling betrayed. I think there’s a loss of innocence in a way. Parents drop off their kids at kindergarten on day one until 12th grade and trust their schools. The pandemic has given us a loss of trust in the unions to not put students first.”