Aguirre is the superintendent of Sweetwater Union High School District. He lives in South Bay.
The Sweetwater Union High School District has returned for the 2021-22 school year, for in-person instruction. After approximately 16 months of distance learning that began on March 13, 2020, and in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, most students, teachers and classified support staff have returned to a semblance of normalcy.
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As one of the first school districts in the county of San Diego to open the 2021-22 school year during the pandemic, our school district is at the forefront of many challenging questions. With over 36,000 students and approximately 3,600 employees, we are implementing appropriate practices and protocols to focus on safety. Ensuring that students and staff return to a healthy and safe environment to support in-person learning is paramount for us. We have taken to heart the words from the American Academy of Pediatrics that emphasizes a return to in-person learning with health and safety measures in place.
The COVID-19 pandemic and our understanding of it have been ever-changing. Variants continue to manifest in different manners. We must continue to be vigilant and have the ability to adjust our response to the evolving circumstances. Having said that, we have instituted a number of protocols with our current understanding, to focus on health and safety on our campuses.
Our protocols are closely aligned to the guidance issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the California Department of Public Health, and the San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency. What does this mean? This means that any individual, student or staff who tests positive for the coronavirus must isolate at home. For individuals who have come into close contact with someone who tested positive, a COVID-19 monitoring protocol that includes screening and testing is implemented. We all want this return to school to be done safely.
In addition, we have invested over $2.9 million on personal protective equipment, including air filtration system improvements, face masks, hand sanitizer, the installation of water bottle filling stations and more. We initiated a more robust cleaning process and have protocols in place for appropriate level of cleaning when someone tests positive for COVID-19 at one of our buildings.
In order to prepare for the safe return to in-person instruction we have worked in strong collaboration with other South Bay partners. For example, by collaborating with four partner municipalities of Chula Vista, National City, Imperial Beach, San Diego, as well as with the county of San Diego, and local universities such as UC San Diego and San Diego State University, we offered over 14 full vaccination opportunities through pop-up vaccination clinics at most of our school campuses. We partnered with SDSU to collaborate on grants awarded through the National Institutes of Health to bring additional COVID-19 resources available to our district students, staff and larger community. We continue to work in collaboration with the California Department of Public Health and multiple organizations to bring additional COVID-19 testing to our community.
It was not clear to me as superintendent one year ago if and when we would be able to reopen fully, to welcome students and staff back to schools in-person. It has been amazing to see how our staff and our students have responded during this in-person return to schools. They have exhibited great care and compassion by observing the health and safety protocols in place. Our staff has demonstrated great commitment in order to provide the stability our students and community need at this time.
We have learned that in a COVID-19 pandemic environment, we must adjust to new norms while we try to continue our lives as we knew them before. Although we now have a semblance of normalcy, we are not fully done with COVID-19. Our community is facing a challenge that transcends generations. As we have throughout this pandemic, we must continue to heed the advice of our scientific community to protect the health and well-being of our friends and family.
By working together, we can support our community so that we can overcome this extraordinary challenge. With continued collective efforts and actions, we will overcome this pandemic. ¡Sí se puede! Yes we can!
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August 07, 2021 at 02:25AM
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Opinion: Sweetwater Union High School District is now open. Here's how we did it safely. - The San Diego Union-Tribune
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