January 19, 2021 — The Ukiah Unified School District, the largest in the county, met last week for an update on distance learning and the governor’s not-yet finalized proposal to partially reopen schools by mid-February. The California Safe Schools for All plan is an incentive program that would give schools grants to bring kids back into the classroom.
And a letter signed by sixteen local doctors to Mendocino County leaders and representatives laid out in stark terms how detrimental distance learning has been for children, citing widening disparities in academic success and “more and more kids suffering from isolation, anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, obesity and diabetes,” as well as an addiction to screens, social media and gaming. The letters’ signers include Dr. Drew Colfax of the regular KZYX Coronavirus Update, and Dr. Mark Luato, the county’s EMS medical director. It closes with the unambiguous exhortation that “Getting children back to in-person school now is essential!”
Enrollment in the district is down slightly, and could go down further if Sanel Valley Academy, a charter school in Hopland, opens next year. The majority of students in the district have seen a decline in their academic assessments, with only about a third of them meeting proficiency levels in most areas.
Most of the district’s 800 employees received their first round of the covid vaccine during events at the Ukiah Valley Conference Center on January 12 and 15. Assemblymember Jim Wood, who is also a forensic dentist, participated in giving some of the shots.
In other vaccination news, the county reports that public health has vaccinated 5,970 people over the age of 18. That’s not counting those who have been immunized through hospitals, pharmacies, or the Indian health centers, which get their supplies through other channels in the state and federal government. According to a county press release, the approximately 1,200 people who came to the vaccination event at the Redwood Empire fairgrounds on January 13, many of them senior citizens who waited in a light rain for hours, have been vaccinated or scheduled for their first shot.
Those who received their first dose of the Pfizer vaccine on December 30 or 31 can receive their second shot on Thursday, January 21, between 9am and 4pm, at the Redwood Empire Fairgrounds in Ukiah. You’ll need your ID and the vaccine card you got with your first shot.
Vaccines don’t play into the safety plan that schools must have if the governor’s proposal to reopen passes, but they could make it safer.