SACRAMENTO, Calif. _ Elk Grove Unified School District, the largest in Northern California, announced Saturday it will close all schools for the next week after a family whose child attends one of its schools was put on quarantine for coronavirus.
While individual schools across California have closed due to the COVID-19 outbreak, Elk Grove is the first school district in the state to suspend instruction. Spring break, scheduled for next month, will instead be moved to next week so that no school days will be lost.
The district said in a letter to parents on Saturday that the family of one of its students is under a quarantine order by the Sacramento County Public Health Department.
"After careful consideration and in light of the new information, effective immediately, the District will close its schools, cancel classes and any student-related activities from today, March 7 _ March 13, 2020," the letter said. "Please know that to date, no student or staff has tested positive for COVID-19."
The spread of the new coronavirus has dealt a double-whammy to Elk Grove residents Denye and Elysse Versher. Not only do they have a 7-year-old child in the Elk Grove school district, but they also had been planning a Carnival cruise with their children in Mexico. They canceled those plans Friday after learning about the 21 positive coronavirus tests on the Grand Princess, the cruise ship now being held off the coast of San Francisco.
"We canceled the cruise yesterday, and we got the alert today from the school," said Elysse Versher, a vice principal at West Campus High School. "It's just really scary times, but we're trying not to panic. When you're in a state of panic, you're not making logical decisions. We have a 3-year-old, and we have a first-grader that we were taking on a cruise, and we just don't want them exposed."
Versher is going to take this next week off to stay at home with her kids, she said, and she's got messages into her human resources representative to figure out how to handle her time off but also to seek support for the principal in her absence.
As an administrator, Versher can't help but wonder how schools and districts are going to deal with the changes in schedule because students have to make up instructional minutes. At the same time, she said, graduation venues have already been rented and families have booked plans for summer travel. In addition, she said, any extension of the school year requires county and state approvals.
In future, Versher said, she hopes school systems nationwide will develop contingency plans and policies to deal with these sort of events because this probably won't be the last time this happens.
Asked what her family will do for spring break, Versher said they would most likely stay at home in a self-imposed isolation.
The closure also will affect all campus sporting events, including Saturday night's CIF Northern California Open Division semifinal game between the Sheldon High School boys basketball team and Dublin High at Cosumnes River College.
The school has roughly 64,000 students between 67 schools, according to the district. Long Beach, Fresno, Los Angeles and San Diego are the only districts in the state with more students.
"The public's health and safety is paramount to Elk Grove Unified School District (EGUSD) and all of our community and educational partners," the letter to parents on Saturday said.
