Opening TK-5 schools in Laguna Beach on a waiver does not make sense and many, such as myself, are not comfortable with it. A waiver gives the school district the option to potentially ignore rising COVID-19 numbers in Orange County.
In the recent school board meetings and email communications the waiver is being discussed as if it has always been part of the conversation. Nothing could be further from the truth. In August, us parents were asked to choose between two options. Option one was committing to online learning for the entire school year. Option two was committing to returning to in-person learning if/when Orange County meets the criteria Governor Newsom put in place.
These guidelines make sense as they require Orange County to be moving in the right direction before reopening schools. Now the waiver is being discussed as if it was part of option two all along. To be clear, none of us signed up for a waiver last month. This week the school district is asking parents to again choose between online learning and in-person learning before parents know whether or not a waiver is going to be used. Reopening on a waiver is a different option and should be treated as such!
I can’t possibly know how to choose which program I want my son to go into when I do not know whether or not a waiver will be necessary. It seems absurd that we would possibly ignore rising numbers and just open the elementary schools anyway! My frustration is the school district is behaving like returning to in-person learning when OC is doing well is the same choice as returning to in person learning when OC is spiking and we need a waiver to do so. It is not the same and the school district should recognize that. They are pretending this issue doesn’t exist and it’s just wrong!
Neil Rozen, Laguna Beach
