Lake Elsinore USD Eyes April Return To Class For Elementary Kids

LAKE ELSINORE, CA — Now that the county has a green light to reopen elementary school campuses, the Lake Elsinore Unified School District will soon be submitting its COVID-19 safety plans to the county as part of the required process for restarting in-person learning, a district spokesperson confirmed Wednesday.

Transitional kindergarten through sixth-grade students in Riverside County may return to the classroom following news Tuesday that the county's adjusted daily coronavirus cases dropped to less than 25 infections per 100,000 residents — the threshold needed to restart elementary school in-person instruction per state guidelines.

The caveat is that districts must first submit plans to the county and state on how they plan to protect students and staff from spreading the coronavirus. The plans must receive both county and state approval before reopening can occur.

The LEUSD is slated to submit its safety plans to the county by the end of the week, and the reopening schedule will be discussed at the March 11 LEUSD board meeting, according to district spokesperson Melissa Valdez.

The district is eyeing a phased-in approach to in-person learning for its elementary students starting in early April, and will continue remote learning through March 26, Valdez confirmed.

Four Riverside County public school districts received the green light Tuesday from the county to reopen due to their approved COVID-19 safety-plans; state approval of the districts' plans is anticipated, the county announced.

Corona-Norco Unified School District, the Palo Verde Valley Unified School District in the eastern desert, the Murrieta Valley Unified School District, and Desert Sands Unified School District in the Coachella Valley are slated to resume in-person instruction shortly.

Parents within the districts are asked to check with their school or district for more information.

A county schools' team "continues to review other districts' safety plans expeditiously along with state review," the county said Tuesday in a news release.

Schools previously open for transitional kindergarten through sixth-grade education under the earlier waivers process remain in operation, as do those schools that opened for all grade levels during the county's brief period in the state's red tier framework. No public school district reopened under those scenarios.

In order for secondary students in grades 6-12 to return to the classroom, state guidelines require that the coronavirus daily case rate drop to under seven infections per 100,000 population. Riverside County is at 16.6 infections per 100,000, it was announced this week by Riverside University Health System.

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