On Oct. 13, the Beverly Hills Unified School District (BHUSD) held a regular Board of Education meeting during which Superintendent Dr. Michael Bregy discussed the District’s “Ready Together” uniform plan to safely reopen and return to the physical school. The plan was first published on Oct. 4, not as an academic reopening plan but a physical one based on guidance from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health Order, the California Department of Public Health Order, and outside expert opinions. L.A. County, which is currently in the purple “widespread” tier, must achieve 14 consecutive days of less than an eight percent positivity rate and less than seven daily new cases per 100 thousand people before moving to the red tier, and allowing for in-person instruction. While all K-12 schools in purple tier counties are prohibited from physically reopening, the L.A. County Department of Public Health updated their Health Order in September, allowing schools to submit an application to offer in-school instruction for small cohorts of students with Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) and children who are English Learners (EL) needing assessments and/or specialized in-school services.
After much interest surrounding the school waiver program for in-person instruction offered for students in transitional kindergarten (TK) through second grade, Bregy informed the Board that BHUSD is unlikely to be a recipient. A motion was approved by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Sept. 29 to begin accepting applications in early October. Public health officials can grant up to 30 waivers per week, with priority given to schools with a large population of low-income students who qualify for free and reduced-price meals. “We are not in a place with our low-income students to be one of the first that is awarded,” Bregy said during the Oct. 13 meeting. “As you can see, with our Hawthorne TK-2 low income data, we’re at about 2.4-2.5 percent, and then also Horace Mann is at about 6.37 percent. And so, there are schools throughout L.A. County that have 80 to 90 percent of low-income learners.” Bregy added, “This is something that is not a sure thing, as they will start to award these waivers to school districts and schools with the highest level of low-income learners.”
