OCEANSIDE, Calif. —
More than 100 high school students were in quarantine as of Thursday after a student at an Oceanside school tested positive for COVID-19 just two days after the Vista Unified School District reopened for in-person learning. The positive case was reported at Mission Vista High School where students returned on Tuesday.
According to the district, more than 130 students in four classes at the high school, along with four teachers and one aid have been ordered to quarantine for two weeks after one student tested positive for COVID-19.
Vista Unified officials say they have to act with an abundance of caution and based on their decision tree, anyone who may have had contact with the student does have to quarantine. As of Thursday, this is the only reported case in the district since campuses reopened.
“The student did not come into close contact with every student; however, since this is our first incident, we are proceeding with an abundance of caution,” a statement from the district read in part. “These students and staff members were placed into a 14 day quarantine at home in accordance with the Decision Tree requirements. Their classes will pivot to the virtual learning model we used during the month of September using Canvas and Zoom.”
On Tuesday as Vista Unified opened up all campuses to half of its 20,000 students who chose to return some teachers expressed concerns to News 8 saying there weren't enough consistent safety protocols in place.
The district did not release information on the student with COVID, but one student told News 8 they reportedly contracted the virus off-campus.
Meanwhile, the San Diego Unified School District announced its phased reopening plan for teachers, parents and students this week. The plan reaches beyond the initial appointment-based schedule. While the timeline is still fluid, the plan follows a downward trend in COVID cases. Officials for SDUSD say as cases decrease, they’ll move on to the next phase.
The district would begin by expanding the current appointment-based plan to students in grades 6th through 12th. Phase 2 would involve elementary school students going back to campus four days a week on an AM/PM split schedule. Under phase 2, middle school and high school students would return to class two days a week.
The schedule continues to expand eventually to phase 4 which would be students attending class in-person all five days of the week.
The district says they’ve worked with UCSD to make this plan safe for students and staff. They’ve purchased $45 million worth of PPE and other safety upgrades that include 200,000 masks and 14,000 bottles of hand sanitizer.
District leaders will meet on Tuesday to provide an update on the timing of the next phase. They said this will follow the release of weekly county numbers and tier updates from the state.