SANTEE, Calif. (KGTV) -- Schools in the Grossmont Union High School District reopened for in-person learning Tuesday, allowing students back on campuses for the first time since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March.
A large number of students began in-class instruction on Tuesday, but there were many others who chose to remain at home for distance learning.
ABC 10News was at Santana High School in Santee on Tuesday morning as students with masks on trickled onto campus. Each student underwent a health screening before heading into their classrooms.
Under the district’s blended learning plan, reopening campuses to a limited number of students is step 2 out of 5. Each school will only have 25 percent of students on their campuses. These students have been split up into different groups A-D depending on factors like their course schedule.
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The groups determine which day the students will come to school. Each group will attend in-person learning once a week; the rest of the time they’ll be learning from home. Class sizes will be made up of 8 to 12 students.
GUHSD Superintendent Theresa Kemper said it took a lot of organization and brainstorming to make the plan work, making sure they followed the state COVID-19 guidelines while juggling the daily campus routines.
Kemper “At the secondary level, you have students traveling to multiple classrooms, and so it took a lot of work in how to break them up in groups so we can have the hybrid model."
As for the full-time distance learners, Kemper said they will continue on with their schedule as planned until they can fully reopen their schools.
Kemper also added that the district will see how things will go in terms of in-person learning and they’ll continue monitoring the state COVID-19 numbers as they figure out the next step in their reopening plans.
