June 5, 2020 - On Thursday, the Mariposa County Unified School District Superintendent released a message to the school community on Fall reopening of schools.

June 4, 2020

Dear Mariposa County School Community,

We are near the end of the 2019-20 school year, and I speak for everyone when I say that our students, our staff members, and our parents, are exhausted, fatigued, and strained from nearly three months of what many are calling, “emergency mode” teaching and learning. This school year has challenged our community in many ways, and also has reminded us just how united our Mariposa community truly is.

This school year ends with many uncertainties regarding how we will reopen in the fall. I wanted to take a moment to share with you what the team is currently planning.

Our team is currently assessing the feedback received over the previous three months. We were all asked to build a distance learning model over night, and it is vital that we review the successes and failures of that distance learning model as we look at our reopening options for the fall.

At this time, our team is reviewing three different options/scenarios for the fall of 2020. Those three options/scenarios are as follows:

1.Traditional Classes
With extra safety precautions in place, our school district will begin the academic year in a traditional fashion. In collaboration with our Mariposa County Health Officer, our team will prepare and plan to adjust accordingly, in the event a COVID-19 outbreak occurs in Mariposa County.

2.Enhanced Distance Learning
Our school district will work to assess, modify, and improve our distance learning platform, and continue distance learning in the fall. In collaboration with our Mariposa County Health Officer, our team would monitor public health benchmarks to determine when it becomes safe to return to campus in a traditional model.

3. Blended Learning Environment
Our school district will offer a blended learning environment, in which both classroom based instruction and distance learning instruction options are provided. In this model, our team would collaborate with our Mariposa County Health Officer, monitor public health benchmarks, and determine when it would be safe to return to campus in a traditional model.

We know that our Mariposa school community will have to prepare for a range of possibilities and follow public health guidelines for the safety of our students, employees, families and community. We also expect to receive guidelines on fall athletics and extracurricular activities over the summer.

I can assure you that our decisions will be made in collaboration with our Leadership team, Union partners, and our Mariposa community leaders. The reopening plan we implement will reflect the input we receive from a wide range of stakeholders. As we take into consideration bus transportation, social distancing protocols, personal protective equipment (PPE), food services and cleaning procedures, we know that although this is a difficult task, we are confident in our ability to rise to the occasion to support our students.

We continue to ask for, and appreciate, your patience during this difficult time as we analyze all the information and variables that need consideration to ensure the health and safety of our students and staff members for reopening. We will continue to provide updates throughout this summer as we create our model for reopening in the fall.

I can speak for all of us, when I say I am grateful to be working in a school district and community that prioritizes our children. Because of our shared interest in seeing our students succeed, I am confident that we will meet this challenge and will continue to grow as a school community because of this experience.

Sincerely,
Jeff Aranguena
Superintendent
Mariposa County Unified School District
Source: MCUSD