San Bernardino County Sees 370 New Coronavirus Cases, One More Death – San Bernardino Sun 9/3/20, 9:15 PM
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San Bernardino County sees 370 new coronavirus cases, one more death – San Bernardino Sun 9/3/20, 9:15 PM LOCAL NEWS • News San Bernardino County sees 370 new coronavirus cases, one more death By JEFF HORSEMAN | [email protected] | The Press-Enterprise PUBLISHED: September 3, 2020 at 5:24 p.m. | UPDATED: September 3, 2020 at 5:24 p.m. This critical coverage is being provided free to all readers. Support reporting like this with a subscription to The Sun. Special Offer: 99¢ for the first 3 months. Support local journalism The number of con!rmed coronavirus cases in San Bernardino County grew by 0.8% while the county’s COVID-19 death toll rose by 1 in numbers posted Thursday, Sept. 3, by county public health o"cials. https://www.sbsun.com/2020/09/03/san-bernardino-county-sees-370-new-coronavirus-cases-one-more-death/ Page 1 of 5 San Bernardino County sees 370 new coronavirus cases, one more death – San Bernardino Sun 9/3/20, 9:15 PM The county now has 48,615 cases, up 370 from Wednesday, Sept. 2. Countywide, 744 have died from the virus. Here are the latest numbers, according to county and state public health o"cials. San Bernardino County Con!rmed cases: 48,615, up from 48,245 Wednesday Deaths: 744, up from 743 Wednesday Hospitalizations: 264 con!rmed patients Wednesday, down from 283 Tuesday; 59 suspected patients Wednesday, down from 66 Tuesday Intensive-care unit: 92 con!rmed patients Wednesday, down from 100 Tuesday; 9 suspected patients Wednesday, up from 7 Tuesday People tested: 497,549, up from 491,880 Wednesday Recoveries (estimated): 42,727, up from 41,800 Wednesday To see a map and list of cases, deaths and per-capita rates by community, click here. Newsroom Guidelines News Tips Contact Us Report an Error Tags: All Readers, Coronavirus, health, public health, Top Stories IVDB, Top Stories PE, Top Stories RDF, Top Stories Sun https://www.sbsun.com/2020/09/03/san-bernardino-county-sees-370-new-coronavirus-cases-one-more-death/ Page 2 of 5 9/4/2020 How one Southern California desert town has reopened its classrooms to hundreds of elementary school students | EdSource HIGHLIGHTING STRATEGIES FOR STUDENT SUCCESS How one Southern California desert town has reopened its classrooms to hundreds of elementary school students Temperature checks, distancing and strict rules for recess and lunch are all part of the new school day. SEPTEMBER 4, 2020 | MICHAEL BURKE I nside classrooms, sneeze guards are set up at each desk and many students wear masks. On the playground at recess, students must stick to their designated play area in groups of up to 12. In the cafeteria, tables that could normally seat 16 students are now limited to four. At Lucerne Valley Elementary in Southern California’s high desert, hundreds of students have returned to in-person learning and a dramatically different school day. The school was one of the first public schools in the state to receive a waiver to reopen for in-person instruction under regulations issuedissuedissued bybyby Gov.Gov.Gov. GavinGavinGavin NewsomNewsomNewsom in July. The new realities at Lucerne Valley offer a glimpse into what’s called a hybrid learning model and what lies ahead for other schools across the state that await their own chance to reopen. “The challenge with distance learning in the desert is a big one. The best internet we have out here isn’t good,” said Peter Livingston, superintendent of LucerneLucerne ValleyValley UnifiedUnified,Unified northeast of San Bernardino. “Having kids in with their teachers is what we needed.” Lucerne Valley began its school year Aug. 6 with online-only classes, but received approval from the state on Aug. 12 to reopen for some in-person instruction, which began Aug. 20. Waivers to reopen are available only for students in kindergarten through sixth grade, so Lucerne Valley’s middle school and high school with students in grades seven and up are still in distance learning. The elementary school’s 463 students all had the option of participating in in-person instruction or sticking full-time with distance learning. Almost all — about 400 students — https://edsource.org/2020/how-one-southern-california-desert-town-has-reopened-its-classrooms-to-hundreds-of-elementary-school-students/639579 1/8 9/4/2020 How one Southern California desert town has reopened its classrooms to hundreds of elementary school students | EdSource decided to return to the classroom and the school split them into two cohorts. One cohort comes to school Mondays and Tuesdays, while the other attends on Thursdays and Fridays. When students aren’t physically at school, they are participating in distance learning — including on Wednesdays, when everyone is remote and the school undergoes a deep cleaning. Students who chose not to participate in any face-to-face learning are instead taking classes in the school’s “virtual academy,” which is run by district teachers who are each assigned between 24 and 30 students. Those teachers and students follow the state’s guidance for distance learning, engaging in a mix of live instruction, such as video conferencing, and non-live instruction, which includes pre-recorded lessons and other independent work. When Lucerne Valley initially applied for the waiver, San Bernardino County had more than 200 cases of the coronavirus per 100,000 residents. The state has said schools should not be considered for waivers if the county where they are located isn’t below that threshold. This week, Newsom implementedimplementedimplemented aaa newnewnew color-codedcolor-codedcolor-coded countycountycounty trackingtrackingtracking systemsystemsystem that will change the way the state determines when schools can open for in-person instruction. Livingston successfully argued that an exception should be made for Lucerne Valley because, at that time, there were only about 56 cases per 100,000 people in the district’s jurisdiction, he said. Those figures have since dropped to about 27 infections per 100,000, Livingston added. “Our argument was that we’re a little different out here. Our rates are much lower, and we’ve got the science to back it,” Livingston said. “This isn’t like it is down in (the city of) San Bernardino and those areas.” https://edsource.org/2020/how-one-southern-california-desert-town-has-reopened-its-classrooms-to-hundreds-of-elementary-school-students/639579 2/8 9/4/2020 How one Southern California desert town has reopened its classrooms to hundreds of elementary school students | EdSource ← → Lucerne Valley Elementary resumed some in-person learning on Aug. 20, with a hybrid model. Click the arrow to the right to see several more photos from a recent school day at Lucerne Valley. • •••••••••••• New realities As students enter the school grounds every day, a thermal camera takes their temperatures. The camera can capture the temperatures of up to 14 students at a time. The students then wait in an outdoor courtyard, where they can physically distance from each other before it’s time to go to their classrooms. Masks are recommended but optional for students in kindergarten through second grade and required for students in third grade and above. Inside teacher Carissa Brander’s first-grade class last week, about 10 students sat two to a table, each with their own sneeze partition. The partitions are disinfected every night and are switched out in between cohorts. Supplies like crayons are also swapped out between cohorts. Students in the class each have their own work packet. When they’re in the classroom, Brander works with them through the packet, which includes activities like handwriting and reviewing https://edsource.org/2020/how-one-southern-california-desert-town-has-reopened-its-classrooms-to-hundreds-of-elementary-school-students/639579 3/8 9/4/2020 How one Southern California desert town has reopened its classrooms to hundreds of elementary school students | EdSource letter sounds. During their distance learning days, the students continue to work on the packets from home, supplemented by lessons pre-recorded by their teachers. Before in-person learning resumed on Aug. 20, Brander and the other teachers at Lucerne Valley were initially required to teach from their empty classrooms for the first two weeks of the school year while their students logged on from home. “It’s nice to have them back because it’s weird to sit in here by myself on the computer,” Brander said. “It was an adjustment making all of our lesson plans virtual, but it challenges us to be creative in the way we present stuff.” After the district transitioned to distance learning in March, it purchased about 200 hotspots for families who needed them. That helped those families, but even then, the internet speeds were slow and distance learning was a challenge for many of those families, Livingston said. “With our hotspots, they get better internet. But it’s definitely not like in the city,” he said. “And so especially with the little ones, like the first- and second-graders, there’s more accountability now because they get to come back to their teacher twice a week.” Misty Davis, who has two daughters at the school, agreed and said a return to in-person learning was necessary for her youngest daughter, Sophie. Sophie is in second grade and benefits from one-on-one communication with her teacher, but she hasn’t been able to have those types of interactions during distance learning, Davis said. “There are 20 other kids on the Zoom and everything’s kind of chaotic,” Davis said. “So this is a lot better.” Not every teacher in the school, however, has abandoned daily, live video conferencing. Mckenzie Tardibuono, a fifth-grade teacher, still teaches every day over Zoom.