Schools wary amid surge




The reopening of school after the winter break saw as many as 1,208 Las Virgenes Unified School District students out, with COVID-related teacher absences around 10% in the first few days, The Acorn has learned.

According to Superintendent Dan Stepenosky, the three days ending Jan. 5 respectively saw 42, 45 and 44 teachers out with COVID.

In that same period, student absences totaled 9.5%, 16.5% and 9.8%. Jan. 4 saw the most students out over those first few days—1,208—while the others experienced about half as many. Students in quarantine totaled 186, 362 and 308 respectively Jan. 3 to 5.

“The truth is there are many cases out there in the community,” Stepenosky told The Acorn. “We’re doing our best to keep kids safe, but there will be students who get COVID. At 224 cases (per 100,000) people, it’s everywhere.”

Since late December, with students away from campus, Stepenosky was communicating with parents about efforts to keep everyone safe while focusing on in-person, fullday instruction.

“We have been very successful in keeping students and staff safe by following the protocols, looking out for one another, and making adjustments when needed,” he wrote at the time. “We are in this together.”

Parents were made aware of another testing event, on New Year’s Eve day, at district headquarters on Las Virgenes Road. And those who hadn’t received earlier notices were told of weekly testing available at Agoura and Calabasas high schools and A.C. Stelle, Lindero Canyon and A.E. Wright middle schools.

“LVUSD has been at this for 22 months,” Stepenosky said.

“We have run eight vaccine clinics, so our vaccine rate is 100% for staff, 94% for 12-to-18 year olds and 61% for 5-to-11 year olds. Currently we’re working to expand capacity, hours and days of testing and bring vaccine clinics to each individual school so staff can get boosted and students have another opportunity to get vaccinated,” Stepenosky said.

On Jan. 6, Stepenosky sent another message: “As COVID case numbers continue to rise, we have experienced a dramatic increase in requests for testing at our district testing clinics.

“To ensure that we keep our students and staff safe, on campus and in classrooms, we are shifting to testing by appointment only and only testing students and staff.”

Testing sites would no longer be open without an appointment, he added, urging anyone who needed a test to plan one at the website healthcheck.lvusd.org.

“Common sense, caring and kindness will carry us through this fifth wave,” the superintendent told the school community.

COVID has affected campuses across the region.

The Los Angeles Unified School District on Jan. 11 announced that of the 424,230 students and employees who have taken a baseline COVID test, 65,630 tested positive prior to the spring semester.

More than 80% of LAUSD students have taken a test; 90% of teachers.