California schools will remain closed through end of year, distance learning continues
Salinas, Calif. (KION) - In an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus, Governor Gavin Newsome announces all public schools in the state will remain closed for the rest of the year.
"Schools will not reopen but classes are in," said Governor Gavin Newsome at a press conference earlier today.
Across the state, students learn they won't be going back to school this year.
"[It's] The right thing to do for our children for the parents for the households for the communities in which they reside is to make sure that we're preparing today to set our school system up to where we are increasing class time but increasing it at home," says Newsome.
Meanwhile for Pedro Aguilar, a senior at North Salinas High School, this school year didn't end the way he had plannned.
"I didn't know it was going to be my last day of school," says Aguilar. "I'm the president of the MECHA club and I've been thing about what activities we are going to do and what were not going to do anymore because of the coronavirus."
Finishing classes and graduating is important as ever for Aguilar.
"My goal was to graduate and then after graduate i was going to go to college," says Aguilar. "It [graduating] means a lot to me because, I mean, as I said we've been preparing for this. We just had like 2 months to graduate and this happened."
Governor Gavin Newsome addressing that concern today.
"You were looking forward to those graduations you were looking
forward to seeing how you did on the sat, those grade, and competitive
environment particularly for our senior and all of those things we are
working in real time," says Newsome.
The San Benito County Office of Education releasing a statement saying in part: "We will be recommending to our board of trustees to close schools and continue with distance learning until the end of the year."
In Santa Cruz County, the logistics of graduating seniors is still being worked out.
We don't have any plans to be able to present at this point but it is something we've been actively working on for weeks now and working in conjunction with all of the superintendents in the county," says Dr. Daris Sabbah, Superintendent of Schools for Santa Cruz County.
Tony Thurmond, the Superintendent of Public Instruction, is sending a message about learning from home. "It's so important that our school continue to do what they are doing schools are using
distance learning."
Meanwhile, the Monterey County Office of Education's superintendent also reassuring students and parents saying in a memo today that "district leaders will be planning how they might offer these experiences [like graduation] in different formats at a later date."
