San Bernardino County elementary schools could meet state criteria as soon as next week that would allow them to start reopening, county officials said yesterday (Tuesday, Feb. 9). The county has 33.2 new coronavirus cases per 100,000 residents, or an adjusted rate of 32.7 after accounting for the number of coronavirus tests in the county. The trend suggests that it could soon reach an adjusted rate of 25. Once the rate has been 25 or lower for five consecutive days, school districts can begin the process of reopening kindergarten through sixth-grade classrooms for in-person instruction, said County Director of Public Health Corwin Porter. The decision of whether to reopen if it meets state criteria rests with each school district, he said. Porter said The number of new positive cases has been dropping swiftly since the winter surge.
At this time, the Morongo Unified School District has no plans to reopen elementary schools, even if given the green light to do so. In December, the school board voted to continue distance learning for the rest of the 2020-21 school year. The county encourages people to continue getting tested, which, along with helping people avoid spreading the disease, lowers the percentage testing positive. If the number of people being tested drops too low, then the county’s case rate will be adjusted upward, making it harder to reach reopening benchmarks, rather than downward as it is now.
