Romoland District prepares to welcome students March 15

Photo shows desks with plastic shields and physically distanced in Romoland School district classrooms.

By Doug Spoon, Editor

Saying they are ready to welcome students back to school, Romoland School District officials this week discussed a reopening plan that begins with students in grades TK through 2 returning to campus in a hybrid learning model on Monday.

Students in grades 3-5 will return beginning March 22 and middle school students will return soon after, as long as Riverside County’s continuing decline in adjusted COVID-19 case rates allow. Students have the option of staying in full-time distance learning.

The hybrid model is similar to that introduced by Menifee Union School District. Students will be placed in one of two groups. Each group is on campus two days a week (elementary school students 7:30 a.m. to 12:20 p.m., middle school students 7:35 a.m. to 12:11 p.m.). Students in one group will have in-person learning Monday and Thursday. The other group would be on campus Tuesday and Friday.

All students will be in distance learning on Wednesdays.

Parents have been informed of students’ schedules via email. Much of Tuesday’s district board meeting involved the steps taken to ensure safety of students and staff when on campus.

Students and staff will be required to wear masks when on campus. Students are urged to bring hand sanitizer to school for their own use and to bring their own water bottle and snacks. Desks are placed apart to ensure social distancing and plastic shields have been placed on desks.

Like that of MUSD, the hybrid schedule in Romoland School District presents difficulties in disinfecting classrooms during transition periods at middle school. Passing periods are six minutes, leaving insufficient time to clean desks before a new group of students come in. Rooms are disinfected at the end of each school day.

Public comments read at the board meeting included concerns expressed by both teachers and parents.

A teacher at Harvest Valley Elementary School expressed concern about a rule that parents and siblings are not allowed to accompany new students to their classroom because of social distancing rules.

“How are new students supposed to know where their room is?” the teacher asked. “As a teacher, we are limited to a six-foot box in front of the room. And how can we teach letters and sounds with a mask on? We talk about social distancing, but co-mingling will happen in restrooms.”

A question was asked about the consequences for students who come to school sick or refuse to wear a mask. Like MUSD, a system establishes a series of warnings about not wearing a mask, followed by further discipline if needed.

Other concerns included the existence of only one staff restroom at Harvest Valley on campus and the possibility that portable restrooms brought in would not include sinks for hand washing. In addition, a parent complained that due to the safety precautions precluding after-school care, the Lazy Creek Recreation Center is the only center offering after-school services in Menifee and its enrollment is limited.

It was announced at Tuesday’s meeting that the district has entered into an agreement with the teachers union to return under mutually agreed upon requirements.

As the district’s Memorandum of Understanding with the Romoland Teachers Association states, teachers and staff will be trained in proper disinfection and safety methods; teachers will be required to wear masks; and “the District shall ensure that all classrooms, restrooms, and work spaces that are in use are cleaned and disinfected daily, including but not limited to desks, doorknobs, light switches, faucets, and other high touch fixtures, using safe and effective disinfectant…”