The Healdsburg Unified School District (HUSD) announced Saturday afternoon, March 14, that the district will suspend site-based learning from March 16 to April 5.
According to a press release from HUSD Superintendent Chris Vanden Heuvel, the decision was made in collaboration with the Sonoma County Department of Health Services, the Sonoma County Office of Education (SCOE) and nearby school districts.
“After careful consideration and contact with other Sonoma County agencies, I have made the extremely difficult decision to suspend site-based learning for the Healdsburg Unified School District through April 5 and to activate our remote learning plan that was developed over the course of the last week,” Vanden Heuvel said in a press release.
There are currently no cases of COVID-19 among HUSD students or staff, however, the decision to suspend site-based learning was made based on collaboration with SCOE and the county health department.
According to the press release, “This decision allows our community to ‘flatten the curve’ and reduce community spread of the virus.”
The remote learning plan includes providing packets with two weeks of learning material for elementary students. Students were sent home with packets and secondary school (junior high and high school) students will be assigned online lessons and assignments starting March 24.
Further directions and materials will be provided by individual schools. Site principals will provide information to families about delivering and returning these materials.
According to the press release, “Teacher(s) and principals will be working during the school closure from a safe location to continue to provide student assignments throughout the closure. Of course, students are not required to complete work during spring break, March 16-20.”
In terms of meals for students, the district is working under guidance of the state to provide meals to students during this time. The district anticipates that meal service will be able to begin by March 23 and will be available for pickup at the Healdsburg High School cafeteria at 1024 Prince St. in Healdsburg.
More details on meal availability will be available later in the week.
District after school child care and ASES programs at schools will be suspended as well as any school-based child care for spring break.
Vanden Heuvel said the district will continue to keep families informed as conditions change.
“We will continue to keep you informed as conditions change and details emerge. I encourage you to monitor your texts, email and check our website regularly. Finally, if you have any questions related to school, please feel free to reach out to me or your school principal,” Vanden Heuvel wrote.
For the latest information on COVID-19, the district recommends visiting the Sonoma County Emergency website:https://socoemergency.org/emergency/novel-coronavirus/.Sonoma County also has an information and resource hotline: dial 2-1-1 on your phone, or text your zip code to 898211, which lets you text with a 2-1-1 call taker who can answer questions.
For school-related updates, including how to talk with your children about this pandemic, please visit our COVID-19 web page that can be found at www.husd.com.
