Hoover High School students have yet to enjoy the brand new theater and classroom building constructed last year. District and state leaders toured the new facilities Friday and went over the safety plans to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in classrooms.
“This newly renovated school will soon be able to welcome back teachers, classmates and teammates to experience their new school for the first time. I am confident that our partners at the school district are doing everything they can to open the doors safely,” said State Senator Toni Atkins.
San Diego Unified plans to return all grade levels to in-person learning on April 12th.
But some parents say that’s not soon enough and filed a lawsuit against the district this week.
Reopen SDUSD is the group leading the lawsuit. It claims the district violated a state law by limiting the access of education services to the students.
Attorney Marc Levine represents the parents and said the district is required to give a certain amount of hours of instruction to each student, and those hours aren’t being met.
“We’ve got situations where a student received almost no class time or no accessible class time. We’ve got children who are using technology that isn’t working or don't have access to the technology,” Levine said.
San Diego Unified officials made no comment on the pending lawsuit.
In preparation for welcoming students back to classrooms, the district has issued a parent survey that will help determine students’ schedules and frequency of onsite instruction. Parents have until Friday to fill out the survey.
Board of Education President Richard Barrera said he knows some parents are torn on whether to send their children back to classrooms.
“We are opening up the in-person option for all families who select that option. We’re also very much aware that some of our families won’t be comfortable yet having their kids come back, so we have to maintain a stable quality distance learning option,” Barrera said.
San Diego Unified says they “will make every effort to accommodate the family’s preference” and will let families confirm their preferred model by the end of the month.
