Pacific Palisades School Aims To Bring Students Back To Campus

PACIFIC PALISADES, CA — A Pacific Palisades school is working to bring students back to campus in less than a month. After Governor Newsom announced elementary schools could apply for a reopening waiver, Seven Arrows Elementary School announced plans to pursue safe, in-person learning.

“We agree that ‘learning is non-negotiable’ as Governor Newsom maintains,” the school announced on their website. “With that in mind, we are setting our sights on opening our doors and hearts to our school community on September 3.”

Under the proposal, students would be on campus five days a week, and masks would be mandatory. Seven Arrows, a private school, plans to limit class sizes to 10-12 students, and install plexiglass in “heavy interaction spaces.” Parents who are uncomfortable sending their kids to campus have the option to keep their children home with distance learning.

Monday night, the California Department of Public Health revealed the criteria elementary schools must meet if they want to reopen campus. Before applying, schools must consult with labor, parent and community organizations, and publish reopening plans on their website. Plans must address sanitation protocol, contact tracing and testing, as well as benchmarks that would trigger a switch to distance learning.

CDPH also recommends that schools in counties with more than 200 coronavirus cases per 100,000 people should not be allowed to reopen. Los Angeles County currently has a case rate of 338.3, according to the CDPH website.

Patch has reached out to Seven Arrows and CDPH for comment.