When the coronavirus first hit, San Diego thought that it was only going to last for three weeks, but now it has almost been a year since Poway students have gone back to school Plans to open Jan. 19 got pushed back again at the last PUSD board meeting, and now school will not return to in-person until .

The board meeting on Jan. 14 released needed information on when students may be able to go back to school. This meeting also provided insight of how the cases have spiked, when we may be able to go back, and what has to happen before we go back to school. The state has provided information such as we must be out of the purple tier for 5 days in order for us to go back to school.

  Poway high had a plan to go back to school after Thanksgiving, however because of all the families grouping together to celebrate, COVID-19 cases have spiked from a 7.4 percent case rate in November to 69.7 case rate for the first week of January For the PUSD elementary schools that were in session. “416 students and staff quarantined during the three weeks we were in school in December which affected 29 school sites,” Carol Osborn the Associate Superintendent of Learning Support Services said. This has led to a shortage of staff around Poway Unified School District which is a critical factor of attending school in person that is besides health.

Students are faced with the conflict of whether they want to go back to school, or stay virtual learning. “I would love to go back to school, but I just don’t want the virus to spread to me, or others like my friends and family,” junior Robert Houshan said.

Although there are benefits of going back to school, the virus has frightened many students. “Going back to school would help students including me learn much more than virtual learning, but with the virus spreading more, I am not comfortable with going back to school yet,” junior Brandon Armas said. Going back to would benefit many students in learning and performing better in classes, however many are also scared because of the virus.

Covid19 needs to be contained and Poway needs to be in the red tier before it is safe for students to go back to school. The red tier of COVID-19 means there is still substantial risk of the virus spreading, however it is much safer then going back to school at the current state CA is in.

Before the state came out with the new guidelines, the district planned to open high schools in Feb. , but now there is no real way of knowing the new start date. “Middle school and high school students can not return unless we are out of the purple tier, and are in the red tier for five days,”PUSD Superintendent  Dr. Marian Kim-Phelps said. Hopefully soon once COVID-19 cases are under control, we will be able to attend school in person.