When schools closed on Mar. 13 of last year, it soon became abundantly clear that online school was not ideal and that a solution was quickly needed to get students back into classrooms. 

Since then, school districts across the country have been seeking ways to reopen in-person classes safely and responsibly. 

Nearly one year later, few schools in California have accomplished this goal. 

However, it seems that as vaccines are distributed and public anxiety over COVID-19 subsides, hope for reopening PVPUSD schools seems to be on the horizon. 

Already, the school district reopened facilities for sports teams to practice back in October. 

The district even periodically opened up kindergarten classrooms for hybrid learning starting Nov. 30 until announcing reclosure following two separate advisories from the Los Angeles County Department of Health – one coming on Dec. 29 mandating a 10-day quarantine upon returning to L.A. County from travel, the other on Jan. 8 advising schools in the county to remain closed until at least Feb. 1, citing the COVID-19 spike that has crippled Southern California hospitals.   

Although the devastating outbreak, which has seen Los Angeles County surpass one million total cases and become the epicenter of the global pandemic, seems to only have gotten worse since the beginning of the school year, reopening seems closer than it has ever been. 

On Jan. 8, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced a proposed education budget for the fiscal year of $90 billion that specifically allocates $2 billion to help schools reopen and $4.6 billion to open summer schools to address shortcomings in the past year’s schooling. 

The “Safe Schools for All” plan calls for funding weekly testing for all staff and students, creating increased ventilation within classrooms and providing all necessary personal protective equipment (PPE). 

As an incentive for reopening schools, Newsom promised advanced money to schools that proposed reopening plans to the state by Feb. 1 to reopen lower elementary grades by mid-February for hybrid learning.

In a statement from the school district, Superintendent Dr. Alex Cherniss explained to families what the governor’s new plan means for PVPUSD students.

“Governor Newsom released his 2021 Budget Proposal, which included $2 billion allocated to K-12 education, for elementary grades to offer in-person instruction, beginning in February (grades K-2) and March (grades 3-5),” said Cherniss. “This funding and timeline, with local approvals, would allow for all elementary schools (K-5) to be open in a hybrid program by March of 2021.”

Not all school districts in the area, however, have been equally as enthusiastic about Newsom’s new budget. 

The Los Angeles Unified School District has already expressed worries that the new package doesn’t take into account the logistical and monetary behemoth it would take to open their more than 1,000 schools for their over 600 thousand students, especially at a time when many communities these schools are located in have been ravaged by both deaths and immense economic ramifications caused by COVID-19. 

The LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner has already put to rest the idea that schools in his district would reopen soon. 

He has even gone as far as to suggest that every student and staff member would be required to have been vaccinated before returning to school campuses. 

The requirement, Beutner said, “would be no different than students who are vaccinated for measles or mumps,” in reference to vaccination requirement policies already in place at LAUSD. 

The goal of vaccinating every student within the second-largest school district in the country seems far off. 

In California and across the country the process has been slow and oftentimes chaotic.

As of right now, according to many teachers, there has been no concrete plan announced to vaccinate PVPUSD teachers. 

Nevertheless, with the apparent success of the initial reopening of lower grades, a new state budget and potential funding from the new Biden administration, in the coming months, students, especially those in elementary and even lower middle school grades can be hopeful that they may yet reenter classrooms.

For high schoolers and upper-middle schoolers, however, the future remains unclear. The governor’s proposal does not make any suggestion as to when grades higher than sixth grade should open this year, if at all. 

It seems highly unlikely that high schools especially – with larger class sizes, more mature students, and individuals more likely to engage in risky behavior – would reopen before the 2021-22 school year (although spring sports do have the potential to be able to compete). 

Despite this, Newsom’s new budget and the plan to reopen schools for younger kids is a sign of hope and may be the first of many steps we take to return to normalcy and away from COVID-19.