Saying they miss the social interaction and routine of daily classes, as well as the focused learning experience, about 35 Santa Barbara Unified School District students gathered at the district headquarters Tuesday afternoon to ask for a quicker reopening.
The Board of Education has talked about implementing a hybrid schedule for junior high and high schools in January, with time split between in-person instruction, remote learning, and independent study without a teacher.
Students who gathered in the parking lot, mostly from Santa Barbara High School, said they are not learning as much with remote classes conducted online, and some teachers struggle with the technology end of things.
Independent study time, as proposed in the hybrid schedule for junior high and high school students, could mean more homework that they aren’t learning from, one student said.
Students sometimes spend four hours a day on Zoom, and more time on the computer doing homework, said Jaeda Spence, a Santa Barbara High School junior.
“We aren’t talking about how alone that can make teens feel, or the lifelong effects this may have caused. We are overwhelmed. Even if we don’t have a ton of homework, there is this underlying sense of sadness and disappointment,” she said.
“I have always liked school and have a safe environment at home, but online school has drained me. The thought of doing this for the next nine weeks is not something I can even comprehend. If our goal is to get us back on campus, we need to start that as soon as possible.”
Missing out on the social aspects of school has impacted their mental health, students said, and they feel robbed of the chance to make high school memories.
One Santa Barbara High freshman student said remote learning has been “kind of a bad way to start” her high school experience.
Students who play sports, and hope to play in college, worry about the impact of delayed or canceled seasons on their prospects.
In-person learning is allowed under the county’s current status, and the district has had seven months to make a plan for it, said protest organizers, who include San Marcos High School student Sierra Chesluk.
Asked what they would want for school to reopen, students said they would like remote learning to be an option for kids and teachers who were high-risk or otherwise uncomfortable with going back to school, and in-person learning for the rest.
Other students pointed to reopening methods other local districts are using – symptom screening, testing, masks, social distancing – and said there are ways for the district to make a plan and bring classes back safely.
Santa Barbara Unified conducted family, student and staff surveys, and said Oct. 13 that 62% of junior high students and 49% of high school students responding said they were ready to return to school in person.
The survey results said 41 percent of junior high and 44 percent of high school families showed a preference for school reopening on Nov. 9, about 38 percent of them preferred coming back in January, and about 15 percent said they don’t want in-person classes for the rest of the 2020-21 school year.
Staff members overwhelmingly said they would prefer to return in January.
All of the Santa Barbara Unified schools are using remote learning right now, and many other large local districts have also delayed reopening in-person classes.
Both the Santa Maria-Bonita School District and the Santa Maria Joint Union High School District have been reluctant to pick a reopening date due to the number of local cases, and the difficulty of managing testing and social distancing with a large number of students and staff members.
Mostly elementary schools have reopened so far, under the state waiver program, and many of them are small, private institutions.
Higher education institutions are using remote classes for the fall, and Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria announced Tuesday that the majority of spring semester courses will be online-only.
Some lab and career technical education classes will be held in person, following state guidelines, college representatives said.
— Noozhawk managing editor Giana Magnoli can be reached at gmagnoli@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
