California education officials look to individual school districts for guidance on reopening plan

WHEN IT COMES TO WHATRETURNING TO SCHOOL EVENTUALLYWILL LOOK LIKE FOX FORTY'SLONNIE WONG HAS MORE.THE STATE'S 1000 SCHOOLDISTRICTS HAD TO SHIP QUICKLYINTO EMERGENCY MODE WITHDISTANCE LEARNING STRATEGIESWILL SCHOOLS WERE CLOSED INMARCH.

THIS DOES LEARNING HASBEEN A HIT AND MISS STATEWIDEBUT THERE IS A DETERMINATIONTO KEEP FOR STATE SCHOOLSCHIEF TONY THURMOND SAYS THECHALLENGES ARE HUGE INCLUDINGWHEN SCHOOLS WILL REOPEN THESTATE CAN DICTATE STARTUPDATES, INSTEAD IT'SMONITORING HOW DIFFERENTSCHOOL DISTRICTS ARE CHOOSINGDATES AND WHY SHARING THATINFORMATION WITH THE DISTRICTSTHAT HAVE YET TO DECIDE THETHURMOND HINTED AT WHATCLASSROOMS MIGHT LOOK LIKESHE'S THEY HAVE TO WEAR LASTWORDS HE SAYS MUCH SMALLERCLASS SIZES SO THE SCHOOL TOWITH SOCIAL DISTANCINGPROVISIONS THAT COULD MEANCLASSES WILL BE SPLIT BETWEENMORNING AND AFTERNOON SHIFTSON TOP OF THAT GOVERNOR GAVINNEWSOM'S GUIDELINES FOR THEGENERAL PUBLIC WILL APPLY TOSCHOOLS LOTS OF A CONTACTFREEZING WEATHER ALL THAT WILLBE AVAILABLE TO SCHOOLS HASN'TBEEN DETERMINED ONE OF THE KEYUNANSWERED QUESTIONS IS HOWMUCH IT WILL COST THE SCHOOLDISTRICTS TO IMPLEMENT SAFETYMEASURES BEFORE THEY AREALLOWED TO OPEN IN LATE SUMMEROR FALL, 40% OF THE STATEBUDGET GOES TO EDUCATION.THE BUDGET IS LOOKING AT AHISTORIC BILLION SHORTFALLCAUSED BY THE LOCKDOWN ABUSINESS IS THE ONLY THING FORSURE IS THAT STAKEHOLDERS WILLBE COMPARING NOTES TO CREATETHE BEST OPTIONS FOR SCHOOLDISTRICTS CREATE LIKELY TOVOTE FOR SCHOOLS OR SEE IN