Presentation School expects to be first in county to reopen

The County of Sonoma Department of Health Services has completed its review of applications from 15 private school across the county seeking to reopen with in-person instruction. The Presentation School at 20872 Broadway in Sonoma was the first and only school approved on Oct. 7 to reopen, according to county officials, although other schools are expected to follow in the days ahead.

Presentation's application has also been reviewed by the California Department of Public Health, which listed on its website late Wednesday night that its application had been approved.

Presentation head of school Jacqueline Gallo said the school is ready to reopen sooner since its physical campus has been prepped but the Sonoma County Office of Education requires 14 days for turnaround between approval and reopening. Presentation’s official re-start date is expected to be Oct. 23.

In August, the California Department of Public Health developed the COVID-19 and Reopening In-Person Learning Elementary Education Waiver Process, which outlined detailed criteria required to allow elementary schools to conduct in-person instruction for students in small cohorts. This process required interested schools to submit robust reopening plans to the local health officer.

“We developed and submitted a robust plan and feel like we not only met but exceeded what the county was looking for in the waiver applications,” Gallo told the Index-Tribune on Wednesday.

“I’ve been checking in with our teachers and conducting webinars with our entire school community and they are ready to come back,” she said. Gallo noted that while all teachers have agreed to restart in-person instruction, the school will continue to offer remote instruction for any families that are not yet ready to return.

So how will it work?

Presentation is an independent school with a large campus and small classes sizes, says Gallo, so only a few adjustments have needed to be made. The school had already capped enrollment in some classes for the 2020-2021 school year “because we knew this was likely to be our reality in the fall.”

All 145 students in kindergarten through fourth grade will be able to return to campus together daily because the school can spread students out using additional classroom space, said Gallo. Grades 5 and 6 will return to class in two cohorts, one group in person one week and remote the next. The Sonoma County waiver process does not apply to students in grades 7 and 8 because of the county’s current COVID-19 state tier status.

Some of the safety measures that will be in place at Presentation include daily temperature checks for staff and students, mid-day symptom checks, regular COVID testing of staff, required face coverings, social distancing, a closed campus, enhanced cleaning, staggered drop off and pickups and more.

The school has also contracted with a third party tracing company.

“We’re feeling really optimistic that we can make this work,” said Gallo. “We have been working toward this day for many months.”

Earlier this week, Gallo shared with the Index-Tribune the email she had received from the county notifying her that her waiver was in process.

“Because they didn’t ask for more documentation, I had a good feeling,” she said. “I’ve been in touch with other heads of school who applied for waivers and their letter was different.”

"As a board member, I’m proud of and thankful for all the work that Jackie and the entire Presentation team have put into the school’s reopening plan,“ said parent Bahaneh Hobel. ”As a parent, I can’t wait for my daughter to get back to school and in-person learning with her friends and teachers again.“

Hobel stressed that Presentation’s COVID-19 Task Force “thoroughly vetted” all state and local requirements in formulating the school’s reopening plan and “in many cases surpassed what was being required for the health and safety of Presentation’s students and faculty.”

As for Hobel’s daughter?

“I can’t wait to see everybody and meet the new students in our class!,” second grader Coco Hobel told the Index-Tribune.

According to a county press release, the applications from the other 13 schools did not include sufficient details and supporting documentation on how they would meet testing and contract tracing requirements. Those schools had until Oct. 6 to submit supplemental information and were told they could expect to hear the decision about their waiver on Oct. 9.

Sonoma County schools have been closed for in-person instruction since mid-March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We know that remote learning is putting a tremendous strain on our families and students," said Susan Gorin, chair of the Board of Supervisors, in the press release announcing this step in the waiver process. "We are following the state's guidelines to support elementary schools that can demonstrate that they can reopen safely."

"We recognize that there are health-related risks associated with reopening schools," said Sonoma County Health Officer Dr. Sundari Mase. "The waiver process requires schools to demonstrate that they can do so as safely as possible. We factor this in, along with available scientific evidence and local data as we consider these school waivers."

Contact Lorna at lorna.sheridan@sonomanews.com.