CC SR 20201006 E - PVPUSD Letter
RANCHO PALOS VERDES CITY COUNCIL MEETING DATE: 10/06/2020
AGENDA REPORT AGENDA HEADING: Consent Calendar
AGENDA TITLE:
Consideration and possible action to receive and file a report on the City’s support of a
letter from the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District advocating the county
reopen schools.
RECOMMENDED COUNCIL ACTION:
(1) Receive and file a report on the City’s support of a letter from the Palos Verdes
Peninsula Unified School District and the Southern California Chapter of the
American Academy of Pediatrics to county officials advocating for the reopening
of schools.
FISCAL IMPACT: None
Amount Budgeted: N/A
Additional Appropriation: N/A
Account Number(s): N/A
ORIGINATED BY: Megan Barnes, Senior Administrative Analyst
REVIEWED BY: Karina Bañales, Deputy City Manager
APPROVED BY: Ara Mihranian, AICP, City Manager
ATTACHED SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS:
A. September 29 letter to Los Angeles County officials (page A-1)
BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION:
On August 28, Governor Newsom announced a revised reopening plan for California
that replaced the county monitoring list. The Blueprint for a Safer Economy assigns
counties to one of four colored tiers based on their COVID-19 test positivity and
adjusted case rates:
• Tier 1 - purple (widespread)
• Tier 2 - red (substantial)
• Tier 3 - orange (moderate)
• Tier 4 - yellow (minimal)
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Under the system, schools in the purple tier cannot reopen for in-person instruction
unless they receive a waiver from their local health department for grades TK-6.
Schools can reopen for in-person instruction once their county has been in the red tier
for at least two weeks.
As of the writing of this report, Los Angeles County remains in Tier 1 (purple), with an
adjusted daily case rate of 7.3 cases per 100,000 residents. Per state guidelines, to
move to Tier 2 (red), the county's case rate needs to be 7 or fewer new cases a day per
100,000 residents for two consecutive weeks.
On September 29, the L.A. County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to open the
waiver process to elementary schools to allow in-person instruction for grades TK-2.
Each week, 30 schools divided equally among the county’s five supervisorial districts
will be granted waivers, with priority going to schools with higher percentages of
students who qualify for free or reduced-price meals. Any unclaimed waivers for a given
week will be redistributed to schools with higher percentages of students who qualify for
free or reduced-price meals to reach the 30-school cap, regardless of supervisorial
district. According to the California Department of Education, 7.9% of Palos Verdes
Peninsula Unified students qualified for free or reduced-price meals in the 2019-2020
school year.
Prior to the board vote that day, Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified Superintendent Dr.
Alex Cherniss and Dr. Tomas Torices, Executive Director of the Southern California
Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, sent a letter to the Board of
Supervisors and Public Health Director Dr. Barbara Ferrer urging them to reopen
schools (Attachment A). The letter also called for the creation of an independent
scientific oversight committee to ensure that the school-based decisions of the
Department of Public Health are justifiable and grounded in data.
In the days before sending the letter, Dr. Cherniss sought support from local elected
officials, including Mayor Cruikshank. Because there was not enough time to bring the
letter to the City Council for consideration, the Mayor gave authorization to add his
name to the support list, and Staff is providing this report to inform the City Council and
the public after the fact. As a reminder, the City Council previously authorized the Mayor
to sign a letter to Governor Newsom and county officials concurring with school
reopening concerns raised by Dr. Cherniss in July.
Staff will continue to monitor this issue.
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September 29, 2020
To: Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors
Supervisor Kathryn Barger, First District
Supervisor Janice Hahn, Fourth District
Supervisor Sheila Kuehl, Third District
Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, Second District
Supervisor Hilda Solis, First District
Los Angeles County Department of Public Health
LA DPH Director, Dr. Barbara Ferrer
We, the undersigned education leaders, civic leaders, and representatives of the American Academy
of Pediatrics, urge you, effective immediately, to open our schools.
We are requesting the following:
1.Immediately approve school waiver applications (Grade K-6)
2.Follow the State of California’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy and open ALL schools when we
enter the Red Tier (which will be soon)
3.Convene an independent scientific oversight committee to ensure that the school -based
decisions of the LA DPH are justifiable and grounded in data.
Over the past several weeks and months our county has reopened gyms, tattoo parlors, restaurants
and bars with restrictions, while our schools have been shut down. Moreover, local LA DPH policies
have allowed for parents with financial means to pay for “camp” and send their children to on-campus
schools acting as child care facilities, while those families that cannot afford “camp” are forced to
remain at home in remote learning. These policies undermine the rights of all students in Los
Angeles County to receive the Free and Appropriate Education (FAPE) to which they are legally
entitled. Now is the time to make education equitable and accessible for all students and
families who are ready and willing to return to school.
A-1
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (LA DPH) has made the local decision to NOT
allow school waivers in grades K-6, making a unilateral political decision that does not take into
account the varying COVID rates in different parts of this very large county. The State of California
specifically permits schools in counties within the “Purple Tier” to reopen s chools for grades K-6
under a waiver program, exactly because the state recognizes differing situations may exist within a
county, a fact that our own county refuses to acknowledge . Orange County, San Diego County, and
Ventura County, have reopened schools under county-approved waivers while in the “Purple Tier” to
great success. Los Angeles County, in contrast, is eliminating the possibility for hundreds of
thousands of students to return to school. This decision, not based on science, is unacceptable
because the purpose of the state waiver is to allow for willing families and local school agencies
(LEA) to reopen safely under the state and local reopening guidelines.
Furthermore, as the downward trend of COVID positivity continues, we urge Los Angeles County to
comply with the State’s “Blueprint for a Safer Economy.” This policy specifically states that,
“Schools can reopen for in-person instruction once their county has been in the Substantial
(red) tier for at least two weeks” https://covid19.ca.gov/safereconomy. Currently, we are being told
by Dr. Ferrer that when our county enters this “Red Tier”, schools would still not be permitted to
reopen per LA DPH until “after the election.” LA DPH would choose not to amend its local health
order when we enter the “Red Tier”.
As education leaders and civic leaders, we are joined by the California Chapter of the American
Academy of Pediatrics in urging local elected lawmakers to allow students to return to schools as
soon as possible. On September 16, 2020, the AAP issued a press release titled; School is the
essential business of childhood. California Pediatricians urge policy-makers to prioritize
reopening in-person elementary schools as the most important act we can take to protect the
health, safety, and social-emotional well-being of California’s children.
https://aapca2.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/AAP-California-Reopening-CA-Schools-Policy-
Statement-Sept-16-2020_CA2.pdf
At the suggestion of local medical experts from several academic centers in Los Angeles County,
we are also requesting an independent scientific oversight committee to be appointed by the Board of
Supervisors, to oversee and report to the Board of Supervisors on the school-based decision making
of the LA DPH. This group would be comprised of medical professionals and education
A-2
professionals, removing politics from the decision-making. There is currently a lack of transparency
as to the science behind how the local health order guidance is developed and implemented with
regard to schools. Our ever-changing local health orders are consistently different than those of
neighboring counties and the CDPH (California Department of Public Health). Our children deserve
better than what they are currently getting from LA County. They have no do-overs with regard to
their education, and they are falling behind and suffering emotionally. We need you to act.
Thank you for your urgent attention to our children’s need for the best and most equitable education.
Sincerely,
Alex Cherniss, Ed.D., Superintendent, Tomas Torices, MD, Executive Director,
Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District Southern California Chapter American Academy of
Pediatrics (AAP-CA2)
This letter is endorsed by the following elected officials in Los Angeles County:
Suzanne Seymour, President, PVPUSD Board of Education
Matthew Brach, PVPUSD Board of Education
Linda Reid, PVPUSD Board of Education
Michael Allawos, Mayor, City of Glendora
Leighton Anderson, President, Whittier Union High School District Board of Trustees
Douglas R. Boyd, Vice President, LA County Board of Education
Brian Campbell, Trustee, Palos Verdes Library District, Former Mayor, City of Rancho Palos Verdes
John Cruikshank, Mayor, City of Rancho Palos Verdes
Suzanne Hadley, Mayor Pro Tem, Manhattan Beach
Michael Kemps, Mayor Pro Tem, City of Palos Verdes Estates
David McGowan, Mayor, City of Palos Verdes Estates
Jeff Pieper, Mayor, City of Rolling Hills
Velveth Schmitz, Mayor, City of Rolling Hills Estates
Joe Vinatieri, Mayor, City of Whittier
Pat Wilson, Council Member, City of Rolling Hills
Frank Zerunyan, J.D. LLD (hc), Council Member, City of Rolling Hills Estates
A-3