LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – It’s been just over a month since the two Northshore school districts began the new school year, becoming the first of Lake County’s districts to open the doors to in-person instruction after months of COVID-19-related closures and challenges.

After the first month in session, the superintendents of both districts – Mike Brown in Lucerne and Dr. Giovanni Annous in Upper Lake – say that, so far, so good, with parents happy to have their children back in class, teachers glad to be with their students and the children getting back into the traditional learning environment, with the benefits of interaction not just with teachers but with their classmates.

Reopening Lucerne Elementary School District and Upper Lake Unified was the work of months for staff and administrators.

There were necessary and expensive adaptations, including reducing class sizes, installing new hand sanitizer stations around school grounds, regular rounds of school playground disinfection, increasing the number of bus runs, shorter school days, plexiglass cubicles and teaching stations, masking, staggering lunch hours and, much to the delight of the children, more chances to move the learning environment outdoors.

In describing the return to school, “The adjective that I use is ‘amazing’,” said Upper Lake Elementary Principal Stephanie Wayment.

She said everyone is happy and joyful to be able to be on campus. “They’re celebrating each other’s successes,” she said, adding that the return to school has been really good for everyone’s social and emotional development.

Once the doors were open, there were still more challenges. In the midst of this first month back to school, there have been massive wildland fires in Lake County and around the region that caused classes to be canceled at Lucerne Elementary on Aug. 25 because of air quality.

In Upper Lake, where the schools have a new HVAC system, Annous said it was challenging but they lost no school days, instead recommending that everyone stay indoors on the days with the worst air quality ratings.

Also in August, the state issued a new COVID-19 blueprint for recovery which, for some counties, meant schools couldn’t reopen for in-person classes. However, locally, it had no impact on the schools because Lake County’s case numbers have remained comparatively low.

Both Brown and Annous said their efforts have gained them the attention of parents in other districts who want their students back on campus.

“We’ve got a lot of parents requesting interdistrict transfers,” said Brown.

However, both he and Annous said so far they’ve turned away bringing new students into the districts in order to keep class sizes small because of the need for social distancing.

Because of the limitations of the state reopening guidelines, neither of the districts have begun organized sporting activities again, the superintendents said.

As of this week, all four of the county’s other school districts – Kelseyville, Konocti, Lakeport and Middletown – are still in distance learning mode but report actively working on how to transition back to having children and teachers in classrooms.

And on Thursday, Mendocino College said it is extending remote instruction for its students through Spring 2021.

‘A good start’ for Lucerne

Lucerne Elementary and Upper Lake Unified both started classes on Aug. 12, with the districts also offering a distance learning option for parents who wanted it.

“It was a good start. It was as magical as ever,” said Brown.

He said the little kids arrived in their brand new school clothes and waited in line as temperatures were taken, a process that got quicker every day.

Brown said people have been happy to see the school reopen.

In Lucerne, the changes they’ve implemented include serving lunch in the cafeteria at four different times so the children can be spaced apart for social distancing. “They’re talking and enjoying themselves,” Brown said.

For some of the younger classes, the school has small desks that can be taken outside and placed on the lawn. Brown said they’ve also moved a set of bleachers under the large and shady mulberry trees so classes can enjoy an outside learning area, and a lot of the teachers are taking advantage of the opportunity to go outside.

He said eating lunch and outdoor recreational activities are the only places the children can’t mask. “It’s a nice break for them to be able to get out and take that mask off.”

Brown said that the school started the year with about 85 of its students in the distance learning program and about 200 attending in person, which is close to last year’s enrollment numbers.

To keep classroom sizes small, Brown said they moved intervention teachers into the classrooms on regular teaching assignments and also hired a new teacher.

In the weeks since Lucerne Elementary started, Brown said they’ve made some adjustments to improve safety protocols.

He said they are expecting numerous students to return for in-person instruction early in October, at the end of the quarter. “Distance learning is not working out so well for some of them and others just want to return.”

If there was a wrench in the spokes, he said, it was the school’s bond construction project to build new classrooms, which had delays and required moving half a dozen teachers and their classrooms around the campus.

Brown said the cement for new sidewalks in key areas of the campus were poured the week before classes started. The project overall had been pushed back over the summer due to delays with moving key electrical equipment.

A new double kindergarten classroom with connecting bathrooms is supposed to be ready at about the start of November. Once that’s done, Brown said they will move other teachers so the next phase of the construction can take place, the removal of old modulars by Country Club Drive, which will be replaced with new classrooms.

He said the pandemic is illustrative of how important schools – especially teachers – are to the economy.

“I hope it’s not a lesson that’s soon forgotten,” he said.

‘100-percent dedication’

At Upper Lake Unified, Annous praised his staff for their efforts to work together and make changes that would keep students safe in an atmosphere where COVID-19 remains a major concern.

He credited them with having “full-on, 100-percent dedication” as well as resiliency.

Like Lucerne, Upper Lake is offering families the option of distance learning.

For the elementary school, 55 percent, or 188 children, are learning on-site, while another 154 children, the remaining 45 percent, are using the distance education option, he said.

At the middle school, Annous said it’s a 47 percent, or 88 children, on-campus versus 53 percent, or 100 children earning from home. The high school has roughly the same percentages, which equals 136 students in classrooms and 156 children distance learning.

“It’s going really well,” said Wayment. “Everybody is acclimating and working together collaboratively and maintaining all of their safety precautions.”

Wayment said she believes the return to school has been a success. “Everybody’s very happy to be back.”

She said all children and staff are wearing masks, and parents have all been very positive and patient, grateful for their students to have options to either be on campus or at home.

Class size reductions have been key to making it work because of the need for social distancing. Annous said before the pandemic, they had a districtwide class size average of between 22 to 32 students. Now, it’s between 12 and 15.

Another critical aspect is equipment. Annous said that they started the school year with 15,000 disposable masks, along with 2,000 face shields for staff, who get a new face shield every Monday.

Annous has personally spent his evenings and weekends in the high school shop fabricating custom, fit-to-order table dividers, shields and plexiglass teaching zones requested by staff.

The district also started the year equipped with 300 gallons of hand sanitizer which is distributed among classrooms, where 100 disposable masks also are kept at any one time, he said.

Annous said the district has 123 thermometers on hand for checking students’ temperatures when they get to school in the morning.

The district’s John Deere tractor, equipped with a fogger, sprays down picnic tables and playground equipment as many as three times a day, between breaks and events. Annous said the school district buses also get fogged with disinfectant.

Annous said they made a major change in the structure of school days, creating cohorts for students. Children now attend a 90-minute block for the first three periods of the school day while pushing the middle and high schools to a later start.

They now do two bus runs per route morning and evening to allow for fewer children – as few as eight with a maximum of 14 – on the bus at any one time, Annous said.

The district also is continuing its food delivery to students who remain at home distance learning, he said.

One minor adjustment the district made since opening school is to make every Wednesday a minimum day; previously, two Wednesdays a month had been minimum days. Annous said that extra time is used by staff to help support students on distance learning.

Annous said a teacher had told him how she had been concerned when first coming back, but as classes got underway she started to feel normalized and focused on the academics.

He emphasized the need for an emotional sense of safety for students and teachers.

Earlier this month, the district used Zoom and Facebook Live to host back to school nights for parents, with teachers getting the chance to talk about the transition back to the classroom.

Wayment said that at the end of the first grading period they are planning to introduce more changes, with additional students to return to campus.

Annous said they now have families who are on distance learning who are on a waiting list to transition back to campus.

However, Wayment said that because of social distancing requirements they may not immediately be able to accommodate all of the families interested in sending their children back to school.

Annous said he can’t put into words the gratitude he feels for his staff and their efforts. “Without that, we could never have been where we are today.”

While management can make decisions and leadership strategies, the staff, Annous said, “are the ones who take charge of it” and make sure it happens.

He added that the return to school – and meeting the challenges that went along with it – couldn't have been done without the “Upper Lake Strong” mindset, with everyone coming together.

Charter and Christian schools reopen doors; other districts make plans

In the weeks since Lucerne and Upper Lake reopened their doors, other districts have continued planning to do the same while also dealing with air quality issues and, in the south county, evacuations due to the LNU Lightning Complex.

Middletown Christian School reported that it went back to school for in-person instruction on Aug. 17.

On Sept. 2 Lake County International Charter School in Middletown reopened for in-person instruction, and on Monday began its full cohorts with 12 to 14 students per classroom, said Director Gwendolyn Maupin-Ahern.

“We are doing OK, but it is definitely a challenge doing a hybrid model where students are both online learning while others are also present in the classroom,” she said, adding, “We are working out the kinks. Our staff is amazing, creative and resilient.”

Konocti Christian Academy in Lakeport returned to in-person classes on Monday.

Meredith Wiser, KCA’s president and interim principal, said the school’s board of directors and staff worked together to develop a COVID-19 preparedness plan for safely instructing students this fall.

“Our goal is to provide an excellent Christ-centered education in a safe learning environment. KCA will continue to comply with local Public Health orders, governor’s orders and other laws,” she said.

Other districts around the county continue to hold classes virtually while continuing to evaluate transitioning back to the more traditional classroom model.

At Kelseyville Unified, Superintendent Dave McQueen said his district staff will determine on Friday whether it can meet the state guidelines to safely begin the hybrid learning model, a blend of in-person and distance learning.

If the district determines that it can meet those guidelines, the earliest Kelseyville Unified schools could be back to in-person instruction with a modified schedule would be Oct. 5. McQueen said he will make a public announcement once a decision has been made.

Middletown Unified School District began distancing learning classes on Sept. 3 after the LNU Lightning Complex and the related south county evacuations caused a necessary delay from its planned Aug. 24 start for school.

In a letter to parents, Superintendent Michael Cox reported that the district leadership team met on Tuesday morning to discuss and evaluate the reopening of schools. “I know it’s only been eight days, but we want to prepare for re-opening and creating a safe and secure learning environment where students can learn best, in our school. It is our goal to have a return to school in person as soon as it is safe and feasible to do so for all involved.”

Cox said the district’s leadership team will meet every two weeks to discuss and evaluate when students can return to school and will communicate their progress after each meeting.

“The leadership team has identified concerns and we are building a rubric that will be shared so you can see the progress we are making,” Cox said. “We will also be soliciting feedback from staff/families and community members using data to move forward in our re-opening efforts.”

He added, “This is a living document and process,” and it will change based on stakeholder input and guidelines from the California Department of Education and Lake County Public Health Department guidelines.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.