The Los Altos School District lifted its indoor mask mandate effective Monday, but administrators strongly recommend students and staff continue masking, aligning with the most recent guidance from the county and state.
Full COVID vaccination is still required for students and staff to attend overnight field trips and for parents to volunteer in classrooms.
Superintendent Jeff Baier made the announcement at the March 7 Board of Trustees meeting, citing LASD’s low case numbers, with only four recorded the previous week. Despite low cases and high vaccination rates, Baier acknowledged the difficulty of change and said a community-based approach is essential when dealing with the transition.
“We might have a situation where we need some empathy for a particular staff member or student’s situation where we’re going to ask that masks be worn,” he said. “We do this with other things like peanut allergies, where we ask families not to pack peanut butter and jelly sandwiches because we have someone in the class with a peanut allergy.”
At this time, however, teachers cannot require under their classroom rules that masks be worn. Egan Junior High teacher Pierre Pasturel called into the meeting to express his and his peers’ concerns about the lifted mandate and to recommend that the board grant teachers the authority to require masks in their classrooms.
Trustee Bryan Johnson responded to Pasturel’s appeal by noting that students should be trusted to abide by teachers’ requests. However, if a student refuses to wear a mask, a teacher may not ask him or her to leave class but should find a compromise, like seating the student toward the back of the classroom near a window.
New sex-ed curricula
LASD is in the process of implementing new sexual health curricula for several grade levels, an effort to comply with the California Healthy Youth Act, which requires that school districts ensure students in grades 7-12 receive comprehensive sexual health education and HIV prevention education.
After initial efforts to develop curricula that would satisfy the requirements of the bill stalled due to the pandemic, the LASD Wellness Committee revisited the matter in January. The committee is set to choose one of two content options, run a pilot program in the spring and then evaluate its options for grade-level implementation. The success of the pilot program will be reviewed in the fall, with full implementation planned for next spring.
Historically, information about puberty is taught in fifth grade and expanded on in sixth grade, with a more complex version of reproductive health taught in seventh and eighth grades. The Healthy Youth Act only legislates grades seven and up, but LASD will likely be adapting curricula for grades 5-8.
Committee member Sandra McGonagle said the district has been “mostly compliant” with the Healthy Youth Act, but changes must be made to bring LASD fully in line with the requirements of the bill.
The selected pilot program will begin sometime in the spring, with fifth- and sixth-grade classes taught at Oak Avenue School and seventh- and eighth-grade classes taught at both Blach Intermediate School and Egan Junior High.
“I think all of the teachers who have typically taught sex-ed are excited about getting a more comprehensive published curriculum,” McGonagle said.
A parent info session held Monday included an overview of the curricula options and the implementation plan, followed by a Q&A session. After the Wellness Committee chooses the pilot curricula, another parent education event will feature an overview of the topics and lesson materials by grade level and recommendations on how to speak with their kids about comprehensive sex education.
Parents whose children are in the classes selected for the pilot program will receive information, including the dates of instruction and opt-out details, via letter before it begins.
“The school’s role is to teach information, facts and skills,” McGonagle said. “And it is really the role of the family to define what their values are and what the expectations are within your own home and family.”
TK, pre-K expansion
LASD plans to expand transitional kindergarten so that all area 4-year-olds receive a full day’s education prior to kindergarten by the 2025-2026 school year.
The transition to the full TK program will unfold over the next four years. Next school year, three to four classes will be offered at limited LASD sites and will only be available to children whose fifth birthday falls between Sept. 2 and Feb. 2. Each year until 2025, class numbers and birthday limits will expand until 14-17 classes total are offered at all elementary sites and all kids with a fourth birthday by Sept. 1 will be able to register.
Adding an entire grade level to each elementary school will be a large financial undertaking, especially when LASD does not receive state or federal funds to expand. Each classroom will have a ratio of one credentialed teacher and one classified assistant to 24 students. Staffing the classrooms will cost from $3.2 million to $4.7 million in the next four years, with an additional $700,000-$850,000 for one-time setup costs to grow to full capacity.
LASD is also working to meet the requirements of the Extended Learning Opportunity Program, which requires schools to serve at least half of English-learning, low-income and foster/homeless students with pre-K by the 2022-2023 school year.
Because of the coordination required to put both programs in place, LASD is hiring a categorical program coordinator for planning and implementation.
Meetings held in-person, online
LASD will be shifting the way it conducts its board meetings in response to the impending end of the state of emergency in California. Beginning next month, board meetings will be held in person but will continue to stream online via Zoom. Public comments must be made in person or emailed to the board prior to the beginning of the meeting.
