Reopening California

Full time, in-person school starts August 16 for all students in San Francisco

Wednesday, May 26, 2021

Here's when SF will return to in-person classes full time

Tuesday night the San Francisco Unified School District Superintendent said that all schools will start back up for in-person learning August 16 for kids in the city.

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Tuesday night the San Francisco Unified School District Superintendent said that all schools will start back up for in-person learning August 16 for kids in the city.

This news comes as San Francisco Unified is being questioned for attempting to qualify and receive 12 million dollars of grant money for opening early -- Something that some lawmakers say didn't happen.

San Francisco Unified School District superintendent Vincent Matthews making it clear during Tuesday's school board meeting that all schools and grades will start back up in the city come August.

"A full return in the fall, Aug 16th, full days, 5 days a week," said Dr. Vincent Matthews.

San Francisco Unified announced school start times this year that are limited to 7:50 a.m., 8:40 a.m., and 9:30 a.m. Many parents sounded off about that during Tuesday's meeting. At this point masks will be required when the school year starts up.

As for distance learning going forward, state lawmaker Phil Ting says that is a no.

"We're not going to give districts the ability to do distance learning. That authority expires on June 30th and I don't anticipate that being renewed," says assembly member Ting.

The district though says a remote option may not be completely gone in certain cases.

"Considering what it will take and what it will look like to offer a very small remote option even as we await guidance from the state," said Dr. Matthews.

As the focus moves to preparation, lawmakers are calling out S-F Unified for not starting students up weeks and months ago despite having good COVID numbers. Ting says the district should not get $12 million in reopening funds since outside of elementary schools, they only allowed senior high schoolers to go back and only had 10 percent of those students for in-person learning.

"It's incredibly disappointing," says Ting.

United Educators of San Francisco president Susan Solomon represents the teacher's union. She says the San Francisco Unified School District deserves that money and students shouldn't be punished here.

"We made the effort we did, whether more could have been done I don't know for certain, there were students who chose not to come back for various reasons," says Solomon.

The school district now though focused on getting schools ready for what the superintendent says will look like pre-pandemic times. It is important to note that the state of California has provided the district with 'some' supplemental funding for testing, vaccine initiatives, PPE, enhanced cleaning, and improved ventilation. Out of the more than 19-thousand students and employees that have gone back to schools this school year, the district says there were just 27 Covid-19 cases. None of those believed to have been transmitted at schools.

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