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Local school district officials are still trying to understand guidance that kept them from bringing more students back to Del Norte High School.

Two weeks after the California Department of Public Health released guidelines that changed the definition to reopen a school, Del Norte Unified School District Superintendent Jeff Harris said he and his staff are still trying to understand why the decisions were made.

Pointing out that there has been no person-to-person spread of COVID-19 at local schools, Harris told the school board Thursday that his staff are trying to get state officials to reconsider their stance.

“Really the things that are new and different, and the things that don’t make sense, are the fact that the governor has lifted the modified stay at home order,” he said. “In many many ways they are lightening some of the burdens and restrictions throughout the state and yet they seem to be tightening restrictions for schools and kids.”

Under CDPH’s new guidelines outlined in its Jan. 14 document, “COVID-19 and the Reopening In-Person Instruction Framework Public Health Guidance For K12 Schools In California For the 2020-21 School Year”, all students within a single grade must have been offered multiple classes on campus at least one day a week for a school to be open.

At Del Norte High School students had been taking music, art, automotive, wood shop, agriculture and other electives in-person, but that doesn’t meet CDPH’s definition of an open school, Harris told trustees Jan. 14.

The school can continue doing what it’s been doing, but it can’t bring more students back, according to Harris. Choosing not to follow state guidelines could result in a misdemeanor charge for the school district, he told trustees Jan. 14.

On Thursday, Harris told trustees that school district officials anticipated that Del Norte County would move from the most restrictive Purple Tier to the less restrictive Red Tier on the state’s color-coded “Blueprint for a Safer Economy” earlier this week. But the state is applying a different metric for moving into a less restrictive tier, he said.

On Tuesday, when giving his COVID-19 update to the Board of Supervisors, Public Health Officer Dr. Warren Rehwaldt said an exemption was granted to smaller counties to keep them from moving into a more restrictive tier unnecessarily. But counties have to meet the same criteria as other larger counties to drop into a less restrictive tier, he said.

To graduate to the Red Tier on the Blueprint, Del Norte County has to average less than two cases a day and sustain it for about two weeks, according to Rehwaldt.

On Thursday, Harris told trustees that the district wants to know what the metrics are and if the county is in a position to move into a less restrictive tier, to bring that up with state health officials and the governor.

“Moving to a less restrictive tier has a beneficial effect on our economy, and for the purpose of the school district, the ability of our students to participate in more activity, both content-based core activities and extracurricular activities,” Harris said.

The school district and Del Norte County Public Health Branch are also looking toward vaccinating teachers and classified staff. Harris said the district is focusing on staff members who are 50 years old or older, especially those who have underlying health conditions.

Teachers and school staff fall under Phase 1b of the state’s vaccination eligibility. Individuals in that category also include people who are 65 years old and older, food and agricultural workers as well as child care workers.

“Everyone who works for the school district, who provides child care and preschool will be eligible for the vaccine as soon as they’re able to start rolling them out for (Phase) 1b,” Harris said. “Gradually we’ll expand it to those who are under the age of 50 and expand it to folks who are substitutes, substitute classified and substitute certificated. Tier 1b is not teachers. Tier 1b is educators. It’s everyone within our system that makes school possible.”

During public comment, Lisa Sedgwick, a first grade teacher at Mary Peacock Elementary School, brought up comments to a Facebook post Harris had made announcing the guidelines preventing the reopening of Del Norte High School.

Noting that one comment, from Ron Franklin, stated that teachers shouldn’t be paid and are a disgrace, Sedgwick said it felt like a punch to the gut.

“What hurt more was no one said anything after that,” she said. “No one stood up for the hard-working teachers. No one from the district removed the hurtful words. Maybe if it’s too hard to monitor all comments, then the option to have people comment should be turned off.”

Parent Leslie Erler, who noted that the county had been in the Red Tier until December, said it was frustrating to learn that “kids could have been in school the entire time.”

“Our kids could have been in school and certain leaders that were against it and didn’t think it was safe pushed their way and bullied their way through,” she said, adding that she also supported teachers’ push for a pay increase in January 2020. “Our teachers did deserve a pay increase and we do, as parents, care about teachers. But if teachers aren’t being role models and if leaders aren’t being role models it’s still frustrating.”

Crescent Elk Middle School teacher Patricia Shelton, disagreed with her colleague about limiting negative comments, though she said she also hates seeing them.

“At a time when, in my opinion, censorship is running rampant in this country, I’d like to say that I appreciate the district allowing people to use their voices,” she said. “In this country we have a right to use our voices and I want my students to know we have that right whether someone agrees or disagrees. If a teacher is that thin skinned they can’t read the frustration of people and they might go somewhere else, let them go somewhere else.”

On Thursday, three new COVID-19 cases were reported to Del Norte County public health staff along with one new case among the county’s incarcerated population, according to the Information Hub. There are a total of 21 active cases in the county as of Thursday.

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