September 16, 2020

DISTANCE LEARNING EXTENDED THROUGH DECEMBER 2020

Preparing
today’s students
to be the
thinkers,
leaders,
and creators
of tomorrow.

Dear San José Unified Community,
San José Unified has decided to continue distance learning for all students through the end of
December 2020. This has been one of the most difficult decisions we have ever had to make as
a district because we know in-person instruction is the best way to serve our students, and we
are deeply disappointed that the conditions in our community do not allow us to safely bring our
students back to school campuses at this time. We are especially concerned for our students that
are struggling with distance learning and our most vulnerable students that lack the social
support needed to facilitate learning.
We reached this decision with the collaboration of our community, including feedback from the
most recent survey, negotiations with our labor groups, discussions with health officials, and
data on viral transmission in Santa Clara County. The key factors that influenced the decision to
extend distance learning include:
•

•
sjusd.org
408-535-6000
855 Lenzen Avenue
San José, CA 95126

•

•

•

County prohibition on indoor gatherings: Santa Clara County continues to prohibit
activities such as indoor dining, indoor
movies, and indoor gatherings while
allowing K-12 schools to reopen with no
capacity limits or distancing requirements.
We cannot reconcile how a school classroom
differs from other indoor gatherings.
County COVID-19 data: While Santa Clara
County has been successful in slowing the
virus transmission, new case counts continue
to exceed levels seen in March when schools
were initially closed. Additionally, case counts in San José are higher than other cities
within the County. http://bit.ly/SJCovid
Substantial community spread: 57% of new
cases in Santa Clara County come from an
unknown source, causing significant difficulty in
isolating and tracing positive cases.
Inadequate testing and contact tracing:
Currently, the responsibility of testing students and
staff and contact tracing for positive cases is
largely placed on schools. We do not have
adequate funding or staff to source the quantity of
tests that would be required or provide contact tracing for positive cases.
Strong preference for consistency: Roughly 60% of parents, students, teachers, staff,
and administrators prefer a commitment to a plan through at least the end of the
semester.

 With the extension of distance learning, we remain committed to making adjustments to improve the distance learning experience
for our students and teachers. In particular, we are focused on the following areas:
•
•
•

•
•

•

Technology infrastructure upgrades: We are in the process of increasing the bandwidth at our school sites and
adding to our device inventory with 5,000 new Chromebooks on the way. We also recently upgraded to the latest
version of Webex, which allows teachers to leverage breakout rooms to facilitate small group interaction.
Training and support: We are continuing to add training for our teachers and staff to improve the distance learning
experience. Families can request technical support through their school or on our website, www.sjusd.org. Every
school has a dedicated technical support person.
Reduced screen time: We are working with teachers to balance the class time to include small group and
independent work and reduce the amount of time the teacher spends on whole class instruction. The number of
instructional minutes for students in TK and Kindergarten will be adjusted, and teachers will continue to be
available to support students.
Teacher stipend: We are in discussions with our teacher’s association to provide every teacher with a stipend to
enable them to purchase what they need to better facilitate distance learning.
Advocating for increased community support: We are continuing to have discussions with local, state, and
federal agencies to advocate for the social supports our students and families need during the pandemic. Schools can
provide computers, high speed internet, and online classrooms, but we rely on the larger community to support the
families of our most vulnerable students by providing a safe and stable home environment.
Increasing social and emotional supports: We have used the responses from the initial Strengths and
Development Questionnaire (SDQ) to provide emotional support to students that indicated a need. If you have a
student that needs support, please visit this link to complete the SDQ: https://sjusd.app.box.com/file/720105805330.

Ultimately, the health and safety of our community is our highest priority. We believe our schools should reflect the community
around us and know that the County’s Public Health Department is doing everything possible to continue to slow the spread of the
virus. Today, Dr. Cody, County Public Health Officer, issued an enhanced testing order that tightens requirements for large
healthcare providers to provide easily accessible testing for all residents of Santa Clara County. We believe this order will increase
the success of slowing viral transmission and allow for additional activities, including bringing students back to campus, to safely
resume.
Thank you for your continued patience and support as we navigate our response to the pandemic.
Sincerely,

Nancy Albarrán
Superintendent

Page 2 of 2