On March 9, 2021, the La Cañada Unified School District Governing Board unanimously voted to reopen schools for grades 7-12. Joe Radabaugh, the LCUSD Governing Board Clerk, issued a verbal motion to reopen grades 7-12 under the assumption that schedule one is the primary choice with flexibility for Superintendent Wendy Sinnette to choose a backup if needed based on County direction.
Hybrid Schedule #1 would have all students attend school virtually on Mondays, following the same schedule that we have now. The first period beginning at 8:25 A.M. and the sixth period ending at 1:35 P.M. Office hours would be held between 1:45-2:45 P.M. There will be three cohorts called A, B, and C. Cohort A will go to school on Tuesday/ Wednesday, cohort B will go to school on Thursday/Friday, and cohort C will not go to school in-person. Block periods would be eighty minutes long. The full schedule can be viewed on the eleventh slide of the LCUSD School Reopening and Safety Plan 2020-2021.
Dan Jeffries, Josh Epstein, Caroline Anderson, and Joe Rudabaugh voted in favor of the proposed motion, with Kaitzer Puglia, the Governing Board president, absent from the meeting.
During the meeting, Sinnette said the governing board was to “provide as much opportunity as possible for students who are on campus for in-person activities opportunities over the week of the 22nd and the week of the 29th and to require teachers to come back the week of the 29th for logistical planning so that we can perfect the reopening after spring break.”
The vote came after over two and half hours of recognizing the levels of vaccinations and risk, hearing public comments from local parents and students, and acknowledging the full impact of reopening the school.
Additionally, in a live social media poll from the LCHS Spartan Newspaper, 86 LCHS students voted on the question, “Do you want to return to school in-person?” 51% voted in favor, and 49% voted not in favor.
As of now, grades 7-12 are expected to have the option to return to school within the next month.
