Most Santa Cruz County Public School Districts suspend instruction programs through Aug. 28
Due to the CZU Lightning Complex Fire, several districts and charter schools in Santa Cruz County will be suspending instructional programs through Friday, August 28.
According to the Santa Cruz County Office of Education, school districts took into account multiple metrics including:
- Air quality
- Number of staff impacted by evacuations
- Number of students who are unable to access their learning program
- If school campus is within an evacuation zones
- Power outages
- Impact of closure on feeder school districts
The following school districts have suspended instructional programs for this week:
- Pacific Elementary School District
- Bonny Doon Elementary School District
- San Lorenzo Valley Unified School District (closed through Sept. 8th)
- Santa Cruz City School District
- Soquel Union Elementary School District
- Santa Cruz County Office of Education Alternative Education Programs
- Live Oak School District
- Happy Valley Elementary School District
- Mountain Elementary School District
- Scotts Valley Unified School District
Officials said that every district and charter school is working closely with the County’s emergency operations team to mobilize all the resources avaialble to support students, staff, and families with emergency
shelters, temporary housing, food, mental health support, and other essential services.
Districts will contact families to provide an update on their child's school and let them know what resources are available.
School-related updates regarding the fires will continue to be posted at
santacruzcoe.org/wildfires. Please feel free to contact Sage Leibenson at (831)466-5900.
The CZU August Complex Lightning Fire grew to 71,000 acres as of Sunday morning. Containment inched up to 8%.
There are still more than 24,000 structures threatened and the number of structures destroyed climbed to 129 in both Santa Cruz and San Mateo County, although officials concede they are far from calculating the total damaged from this fire.
