Hermosa Beach Valley Middle School to open in two weeks

Ted Scott, principal at Hermosa View Elementary, preparing for students to reenter the classroom on Monday, March 8, the first day of in person classes for third graders at HBCSD. Photo Courtesy of the HBCSD

by Donald Morrison

Middle school in the Hermosa Beach City School District will open for in person classes on Monday, March 29, Superintendent Jason Johnson announced today. 

The reopening news follows an announcement yesterday, March 11, by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, that officials anticipated the County would move into the less-restrictive Red Tier on Monday, March 15. 

The Red Tier requires a new positive COVID-19 test rate of less than eight percent and no more than seven daily new cases per 100,000 people. If the County can stay within or below that threshold for two weeks, schools countywide can open; Hermosa is betting big that will happen. 

“Team HBCSD has been preparing since summer for this moment,” Johnson said. “And I am confident our little district will continue to overcome big challenges.

Students will attend school four days a week in an a.m./p.m. rotation. More than 80 percent of parents said they’d prefer the a.m. schedule and while not all families will be able to be accommodated, the district will make an effort to keep siblings together. Families are expected to be notified of their placement on Monday, March 22. 

“We are thrilled to have collaborated with our teachers to create a schedule that maximizes in-person class time,” Johnson said. 

Third, fourth and fifth graders in the HBCSD returned to in person classes this week, beginning on Monday March 8, in a hybrid learning model, with limited classroom sizes. 

Sixth graders are scheduled to begin returning to campus this coming Tuesday, March 16, in a self-contained “distance learning at school,” model, according to HBCSD Superintendent Jason Johnson. Students will come on campus to work on their distance learning courses for two days a week. 

“This was just to get it going,” Johnson said. “Our sixth grade teachers have been so collaborative working to get students back.”

If the case rates surge to the point of keeping LA County in the Red Tier past the end of March, the HBSD has developed a hybrid learning model to begin bringing back middle school students regardless. 

A total of 273 HBCSD middle school students responded to a survey about whether or not they’d like to continue distance learning until the next school year, with 21 students saying they’d prefer to remain online. As of March 12, there are 40 students in grades six through eight that have chosen to stick with remote learning. 

Enrollment

To date, 638 Hermosa students have been brought back to campus for hybrid learning: 98 kindergarten students, 99 first graders and 83 second graders, 118 third graders, 115 fourth graders and 125 fifth graders, according to the superintendent. 

A total of 87 students between kindergarten and fifth grade have chosen to continue remote learning for the time being

Teacher vaccination

All of the HBCSD staff had received their first shot of the vaccine by the end of Monday, March 8. Johnson said 50 percent of staff had already found alternative ways of getting the vaccine by the time the Beach Cities Health District began administering vaccinations at the AdventurePlex in early March. 

“I just want to give the HBCSD staff a shout out,” Johnson said. “About 50 percent of them secured their own vaccinations. That was their own hustle.”ER

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