We’ve been following closely the rise of new private options for parents to send their children during the day while school remains online-only – day camps and athletic programs, for example, would provide activities and help with school work (for a price).
On top of equity concerns, there’s another issue, VOSD’s Will Huntsberry reports: They’re not actually allowed under current guidelines.
“Dr. Wilma Wooten, San Diego’s public health officer, confirmed this, and said current guidelines do not allow camp-style child care locations to operate during normal school hours,” Huntsberry reports.
Like all circumstances involving the coronavirus, things could change quickly.
“Wooten, however, also said that the governor’s office may provide new guidance on day camps soon. Gov. Gavin Newsom could waive the requirement that unlicensed day camps can only operate outside of normal school hours,” Huntsberry writes.
Some camps say even the current rules provide some wiggle room and they might choose to open regardless of whether they’re changed.
It’s Been Real, Watch List
Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday that San Diego County will likely be removed from the state’s coronavirus watch list by Tuesday.
Sunday marked the fifth straight day the county reported a case rate below 100 cases per 100,000 residents; the state requires three state days of a case rate below 100 in order to remove counties from the list.
So what does removal from the watch list mean? Uh, no one really knows.
On Friday, in anticipation of San Diego being removed from the list, Mayor Kevin Faulconer sent a letter to Newsom asking for clearer guidance outlining what removal from the watch list would allow.
Under the state’s criteria, schools could begin to reopen to in-person instruction if a county maintains a rate under 100 cases per 100,000 residents for 14 days, but last week San Diego Unified announced it was adopting stricter standards that will likely keep its schools closed for months. Poway Unified School District also said it would wait for a few months regardless.
On schools: We recently wrote about how Los Angeles and San Diego’s largest school districts have been marching in lock step, announcing their big decisions together and driving education policy across the state during the pandemic. But Monday, Los Angeles Unified School District announced something on its own: It would test every student and teacher in the enormous district.
In San Diego, the county has set aside $5 million for testing at public schools but has not released any plan for how it would go. The U-T reported that some private schools have ambitious plans to test students and teachers.
Virtual special education: EdSource has a profile of the despair some parents of special needs students are facing, featuring a family in San Diego, and attempts to improve special ed services delivered from afar.
Kumeyaay vs. the Border Wall
Young women members of the Kumeyaay Nation have been leading the charge against President Donald Trump’s border wall, including by organizing protests that have held up construction.
The latest effort, as Maya Srikrishnan details in this week’s Border Report, is a different kind of protest: They’ve filed suit to halt the project, arguing the government is violating the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, a law meant to protect and safely relocate native burial sites.
“Defendants are currently constructing the border wall directly through Kumeyaay burial sites and sacred lands, causing irreversible and easily avoidable damage to Kumeyaay remains, cultural items, history, and religious practices,” the suit argues.
SDSU Breaks Ground
It wasn’t a typical groundbreaking: All the dignitaries wore masks. They didn’t stand shoulder to shoulder but had separate sandboxes set up. But leaders of the city and university celebrated the historic transfer of land from the city of San Diego to San Diego State University Monday. The university moved construction equipment into to build a stadium and start construction on the river park. The rest of the development, including homes, hotel rooms and university buildings will take decades to build out.
The pandemic has stopped many of our most beloved activities, but photo opps in which people wear construction hats and hold shovels are not one of them. (SDSU Newscenter)
In Other News
- Greg Moran has the details on the only criminal jury trial that’s taken place in San Diego since the pandemic began. (Union-Tribune)
- SDG&E warned that power outages could continue as the heat wave rages. (NBC San Diego) The U-T explored why this is happening. (Disclosure: Mitch Mitchell, SDG&E’s vice president for government affairs, sits on Voice of San Diego’s board of directors.)
- Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility officials said six correctional officers and two inmates were hospitalized after an incident in a recreation yard Sunday. (10News)
The Morning Report was written by Sara Libby, and edited by Scott Lewis.