Malibu Elementary Students Return To School Next Week

MALIBU, CA —It’s finally happening. After a year of false starts, sometimes tense negotiations, and hours upon hours of computer screens, TK-5 students in Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District are returning to campus for the first time next week. Now that Los Angeles County is poised to move into the Red Tier, the district announced that it is also anticipating that secondary school students will be able to return later this year once schedules are finalized, something the district said is an urgent priority.

TK-5 students throughout the district will step onto campus for the first time at some point next week, Superintendent Dr. Ben Drati announced in an email to parents. Each class will be on-campus one time throughout the weeks of March 15 and 22 for an orientation, where they will meet their teachers in person, engage in various icebreaking and teambuilding activities, and learn the myriad health and safety protocols in place. Though each school’s schedule will be a little different, Drati said he expects the new hybrid schedules will be up and running by April 12, after the weeklong spring break.

Each school will implement one of three versions of a hybrid schedule that put students in classrooms for a minimum of 10 hours a week: either a cohort model in which four days a week, one group comes to school in the morning for roughly 2.5 hours while another group learns at home, and the cohorts reverse after a midday cleaning; a model in which four days a week, students return in-person to school in the afternoon, and have distance learning in the morning, with the option to learn virtually in the afternoons; or an option in which students participate in on-campus learning two full days a week from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. in divided groups, and participate in distance learning for the rest of the week.

Families that wish to continue learning only virtually will have that option.

The school is implementing all standard safety procedures. Students must complete an online COVID-19 health screening each day before coming to campus, and must be cleared before they can enter. The district has established a School Exposure Management Plan addressing quarantine, testing, isolation, and disclosure procedures should anyone test positive for COVID-19.

Each student is required to wear masks and remain six feet apart from anyone else, and no parent volunteers are allowed on campus. Schools will undergo deep cleanings between morning and afternoon sessions, and again at the end of the day. Air ventilation and HVAC systems also circulate fresh air, and some classes will be held outdoors. Additionally, staff are tested on a regular basis, and the district has partnered with Providence St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica to vaccinate staff. The full district safety plan can be found here.