Tuscon Unified School District Announces Start Of Hybrid Learning

TUCSON, AZ — The Tucson Unified School District announced Wednesday that schools will start a mix of in-person and virtual learning on Oct. 19 after months of closure due to the coronavirus.

The announcement from Superintendent Gabriel Trujillo came at a school governing board meeting Wednesday.

Trujillo said the date will stand as long as the Pima County Health Department gives the district the go-ahead.

“We are committed to making these decisions, of course, based off of Pima County Health Department recommendations at every phase of this epidemic,” Trujillo said during the meeting, according to the Arizona Daily Star. “We did so when the criteria was in the danger zone. We have to honor the recommendations again, as this criteria starts to move north into yellow and green.”

Pima County has met the benchmarks required by the state to safely reopen schools as of Sept. 4, the Arizona Department of Health Services said. But Pima County has an additional metric regarding schools' ability to enact contact tracing that has not yet been met.

In the phased reopening, district employees will return to the office Sept. 28 and non-teaching staff will come back on Sept. 21. Teachers won't be required to return until the Oct. 19 start date and those who have children will be allowed to bring them with to the buildings. Families will be given the option to continue with virtual learning only.

Starting Aug. 17, each school district in Arizona was required to open one school for vulnerable children. Tucson has since had to temporarily shutter several schools due to coronavirus outbreaks, even as Arizona's number of new cases and deaths continues to decline.

But the superintendent said this phased reopening will allow the school district to conquer obstacles if they should arise.

“We think that this is the most cautious approach that allows us to take a step forward but still be able to implement all of our mitigation strategies,” Trujillo said.