Claremont Unified School District’s budgets have for many years been reliable: $80 million, give or take a couple million dollars. Some years it runs a deficit, others a surplus. Last March though, all that tranquility was turned on its head when the COVID pandemic shut down campuses. Literally overnight, teachers and students scrambled to convert to online instruction. Some kids flourished under the new normal, others floundered.
On November 3, three candidates—Kathy Archer, Bob Fass and Chris Naticchia—will compete for two open seats on the Claremont School Board. The elected candidates will serve four-year terms. Kathy Archer is a history teacher at Charter Oak High School in Covina, though she has lived in the Claremont community for over 20 years and has a daughter at Claremont High School.
Claremont Unified School District employees with the Best Learning After School Time program hold a protest on Thursday outside the Richard Kirkendall Education Center in Claremont. The CUSD Board of Education is scheduled to vote Thursday evening on a recommendation to lay off the BLAST employees because the district can not offer the program for the fall semester. COURIER photo/Steven Felschundneff
The overwhelming majority of Claremont Unified School District families chose to enroll their students in the blended learning program for the upcoming school year.
Out of a projected enrollment of around 6,800 students, just 637 chose online instruction only with no on-campus component. The balance opted for blended learning program with daily synchronous and asynchronous instruction, and a return to campus as soon as the district deems it is safe to do so.
Claremont Unified School District’s Board of Supervisors held a pair of virtual community meetings Thursday to brief parents, caregivers and students on what it does and does not yet know regarding the fall semester, which begins September 2. And like the previous Zoom board meetings, interest was high. The 9 a.m. session was extended by 30 minutes due to the abundance of questions from the more than 450 people listening, yet had not yet been answered by the scheduled 11 a.m. end time.
The long list of uncertainties surrounding the upcoming school year just got a little shorter.
Claremont Unified School District’s Board of Education held a morning virtual community meeting Thursday to brief parents, caregivers and students on what it does and does not yet know regarding the fall semester, which begins September 2. A second meeting will be offered at 6 p.m. on Thursday night.
On July 1 parents and caregivers of students at The Children’s School at Claremont McKenna College received a surprise email announcing the school would not reopen for the fall 2020 or spring 2021 semesters. “We are committed to your child’s learning, growth, and safety at The Children’s School. We write today with what we know will be a disappointing update on our plans for fall," said CMC President Hiram Chodosh.
Claremont High School graduate Isabella Jakini holds a picture of her friend Dana Sanchez as she receives her diploma from CHS Principal Brett O’Connor on Tuesday during a drive-up commencement at the school. Ms. Jakini brought her friend’s portrait along because Ms. Sanchez, who is also a member of the class of 2020, could not attend in person. Mr. O’Connor had hoped to hold a more traditional graduation ceremony this summer, however as coronavirus cases spiked over the last few weeks, the administration opted for the drive-up model. COURIER photo/Steven Felschundneff
The Claremont Unified School District Board of Supervisors has rescheduled and restructured tomorrow’s virtual community meetings in an effort to assuage working parents who had voiced concern over their timing.
The meetings are now being combined into two identical presentations and Q and A sessions—the first from 9 to 11 a.m. and the second session from 6 to 9 p.m. on Thursday, July 30. Parents and caregivers of all CUSD students from PK through 12th grades are invited to attend either meeting.
With Claremont Unified School District officially going to online school in the fall, parents and caregivers are readying for their new role as de-facto homeschool teachers and those who work outside the home are balancing this responsibility with full-time employment. Adjusting to the new, ever-changing normal has forced parents and caregivers to delve into a whole host of new skill sets. And, like most issues these days, the reviews are mixed.
The Claremont Unified School District Board of Education voted unanimously Wednesday that all students will attend online school when classes begin September 2.
Each of the five board members sited public health as the overriding reason for supporting the move.
Claremont High School Principal Brett O’Connor announced on Thursday that due to the recent spike in coronavirus cases the school is cancelling its in-person graduation ceremony scheduled for July 30. In its place they will have a drive up commencement at the school on July 28 and 29 between the hours of 2 and 8 p.m. COUREIR photo/Steven Felschundneff
Already facing unprecedented pressure and looming financial setbacks from a worldwide pandemic and California’s spiking COVID numbers, the schools were rocked last week by President Donald Trump’s announcement that the US Department of Homeland Security would pull visas from international college students and order to return to their home countries if they did not attend at least some classes in person, on college campuses.
The Claremont Unified School District Board of Education tomorrow will decide whether to reverse course, when it votes on a recommendation “to open the 2020-2021 school year in Phase One of CUSD's ‘COVID-19 2020-21 Return To School Continuum Plan,’ and to remain in this phase until further notice.”
If it passes, all students will be attend online school when classes begin September 2.
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