LTUSD to remain in distance learning due to current county-wide COVID data

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - The Lake Tahoe Unified School District (LTUSD) Superintendent Dr. Todd Cutler has notified teachers, students and staff that they will have to postpone the reopening of in-person classrooms. Citing COVID-19 case levels not dropping to the desired levels in El Dorado County, and testing/tracing capacity, LTUSD will continue with distance learning at this time.

"It is heartbreaking to continually have to set our target return date back, but until we have a healthy and robust workforce to run the campuses for a consistent and extended period of time, we are reticent to set another target date," said Dr. Cutler in an email.

As of January 7 there have been 1679 residents who have had COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, 250 in the last 14 days. The figure of 826 cases per 100,000 people is the number that concerns health officials the most when discussing the reopening of schools.

Just as the community experiences increased COVID-19 cases, so does the LTUSD workforce, causing resources unavailable to run the schools. This includes not only teachers, but bus drivers, maintenance, custodial, and cafeteria staff, instructional aides, etc. With the number of staff members currently out on sick leave and/or quarantining due to being positive with COVID-19 or presumed positive, Cutler said they are unable to fully open the schools at this time.

"Simply stated, our schools cannot remain open when we do not have enough well staff to operate fully, safely, and with meaningful consistency," said Cutler.

The District had hoped to reopen this month to start off the second half of the school year with at least partial in-person classes.

"Our intention is simply to get our TK-8 students back on campus as soon as possible," Cutler told parents in an email. "We will continue to monitor both our local and district-wide COVID case data and keep you informed along the way."

TK-8 was able to open on a cohort plan this fall (two days on campus, three days on line) before heading back into full distance learning. South Tahoe High has been learning virtually the whole school year. When the State moved El Dorado County into the "widespread" COVID tier, any school not already in-person learning had to stay virtual. South Lake Tahoe is also under a regional stay-at-home order as part of the Greater Sacramento area.

The order of the State at this time states El Dorado County must be in the Red Tier designation for at least two weeks before the STHS can start having students on campus.

"Please know that our staff in LTUSD believes all students need to be back on campus and back in the classrooms. Students are the heart of this district and we miss them immensely. We know that with the resiliency and ability to learn in this new educational world there are also incredible challenges; our kids are struggling in so many ways after almost a year of being out of school and away from their peers and teachers. We too are struggling, knowing the hardships that our children have been dealing with for far too long. We continue to hold on to hope and optimism that we can get our students back on campus very soon, but regrettably, January 11 is, at this time, premature, due to several factors affecting our ability to resume the hybrid schedules," said Cutler in the email.

Cutler and LTSUD recognize the fact that schools being open for in-person learning is not the contributing factor to increases in transmission of the virus and it is the activity and behavior of the community that continues to keep the number of cases in high range.

"WE are the community; through our individual actions and behaviors we can hopefully soon go back to hybrid learning in TK-8 safely and with manageable staffing resources. Please continue to do your part in masking, washing hands, distancing, avoiding gatherings, and staying home when possible," said Cutler.

Once medical front line healthcare and critical workers are vaccinated against the virus in Phase 1A, the vaccinations will move to Phase 1B where the teachers and school staff are located. Earlier this week El Dorado County released data that estimated those in 1B would start being vaccinated in March-April but that can change under State direction.

On Tuesday, Dr. Cutler updated the South Lake Tahoe City Council that while schools are safe for kids there are over 400 teachers and staff involved. Eight staff members had tested positive for COVID-19 just that day. He said he didn't want to open schools to just have the close again and is aiming on a healthy workforce.