Timing is everything.
For the Santa Barbara Unified School District, that timing is not now.
The high number of COVID-19 cases in Santa Barbara County has blocked the district’s ability to apply for a waiver to reopen elementary schools.
The district has a waiver ready to go, but the California Department of Public Health won’t even review the application right now because the case count is too high.
The board was poised to approve a waiver, but new data released from the county on Tuesday thwarted those plans.
“The thing that has changed as of today is because our threshold, our seven-day average of new daily cases, is over 14, at this point we are not even reviewing any waiver applications until that number drops down because CDPH won’t approve those,” Dr. Peggy Dodds of the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department said.
Santa Barbara as of Tuesday had about 14.1 new COVID-19 cases per day, per 100,000 residents.
“Our numbers are rising,” said Dr. Lynn Fitzgibbons, an infectious disease specialist. “We are not yet at the magnitude of Los Angeles County, Ventura County and other surrounding counties are, but we are getting there. The other problem, of course, is this isn’t an island. As our numbers go up. As we continue to have cross-county communication, travel, work, life, our numbers are going to continue to go up and really as a region we are going to experience this next massive surge.
With people now getting tested after Thanksgiving travel, Fitzgibbons said she is not optimistic about things getting better anytime soon.
“We are far from talking about getting back to red again,” Fitzgibbons said, referring to the state’s color-coded COVID-19 reopening tier.
The school board on Tuesday night decided not to take a vote, but will hold an emergency meeting as soon as the case count drops enough for the county Public Health Department to again start accepting waivers.
“We can’t make a decision at this point in terms of the waiver because we’re not in a position to move forward with a waiver,” board member Jacqueline Reid said. “But we’re ready, when the time comes.”
Board member Kate Ford said the outlook is bleak, so when the situation changes, the board can talk then about applying for the waiver. She said nothing is likely to change in December, so realistically, applying for a waiver would not happen until January.
“It’s very hard for me at this point to feel like it would be smart even to submit the application,” Ford said. “I see things getting worse, not better. “
Fitzgibbons attempted to remain positive as she ended her comments to the board Tuesday night.
According to state rules, elementary schools cannot open in the purple tier unless they apply for a waiver.
Other smaller public schools have reopened, including in the Hope School District, the Carpinteria Unified School District and the Montecito Union School District, but they opened when the county was in the red tier. Several private elementary schools also opened in the red tier.
“With vaccines on the horizon, I do see the end in sight,” Fitzgibbons said.
The Goleta Union School District is in the same situation and plans to hold a special meeting Wednesday night to discuss the waiver situation.
— Noozhawk staff writer Joshua Molina can be reached at jmolina@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
