Portola and Quincy students could return to the classroom sooner than their counterparts
By Debra Moore
Forget Aug. 23, which was the original back-to-school date for Plumas County students, now it will be Sept. 7, the day after Labor Day — at the earliest.
The Plumas Unified School District governing board approved the new date during its Aug. 11 meeting. However, the Dixie Fire ultimately will dictate what happens. It’s likely that Portola and Quincy students will return Sept. 7, with the Indian Valley and Chester students to follow at a later date (since they remain in a current evacuation status at this time).
Plumas Unified Superintendent Terry Oestreich and her administration have relied heavily on the expertise gained by other school districts who suffered through the aftermath of fires in their own areas. During the Aug. 11 meeting, Tim Taylor, who served as the Butte County superintendent during the Camp Fire, addressed the board members before they made their decision.
Taylor happened to be in Paradise as we making his remarks via Zoom, returning to celebrate the reopening of a school that burned in the Paradise Fire. Part of his message was that it takes time to recover from disasters such as the Camp and Dixie fires.
He addressed the three phases of a recovery effort. “First and foremost you have to let the first responders get the fire extinguished,” he said. As the school board was meeting, the fire was only 30 percent contained and it’s unknown where and how it will progress. Part of this first phase is ensuring that the district’s students and families are safe and have housing.
Secondly, he said, there will be the restore stage. “You will figure out where students are going to go,” he said.
The last stage is to rebuild your community. “We see that up here in Paradise,” he said. “It takes a long, long time to heal.”
He assured the school board that the schools, including the charter schools, wouldn’t lose any funding.
Taylor said that one of his regrets was that they resumed school too soon after the fire. He described the importance of ensuring that the schools are safe to return to, that all of the air ducts are free of smoke, and any hazards removed. This is work that needs to be done by specialists.
Then there is the need to train teachers, staff, bus drivers, etc. to deal with trauma.” That takes four to five days of professional development,” he said.
“You want to reopen your schools when everyone is prepared,” he said. “As long as you tell parents when you plan to reopen, it’s good. Don’t flip flop.”
He said he also talked to Terry Oestreich and Taletha Washburn, the director of Plumas Charter School, about this being the time to move differences aside. “You have to do what’s right for children,” he said. (There is an opportunity for the two entities to work together in Taylorsville where they both have school sites. While both the Greenville elementary and high school campuses escaped the fire, the area surrounding them and the infrastructure make reopening the sites now unfeasible. Plumas Charter’s elementary school campus burned in Greenville, but its middle/high school campus survived in Taylorsville. Plumas Unified has a former elementary school site there as well.) More information on this topic will be addressed in a separate article tomorrow or Friday.
The school board debated when Indian Valley and Chester students might be able to return to class, but there are too many unknowns at this time.
Joleen Cline, the school board representative for the Portola area, questioned why Portola couldn’t return to school Aug. 23 since it is not impacted by the current fire (though air quality there as been in the hazardous range). Oestreich responded that there were still many evacuees in and around Portola, as well as Quincy, and this would provide more time for individuals to return home. Additionally, as much as possible, it remains one district.
The school board voted unanimously to move forward with the targeted start date of Sept. 7 with the realization that it could change at any time.
