PENINSULA — Masks and social distancing will still be the norm in peninsula schools this year, but Ocean Beach School District officials hope the upcoming school year will represent more of a return to a pre-pandemic normal than the 2020-21 school year proved to be.

Chief among the changes from last year is the return of five-days-a-week, in-person learning at all OBSD schools.

“We hope and plan to be in-person as much as we are able to do so, for as long as we are able to do so,” said OBSD Superintendent Amy Huntley. “That’s our mission.”

Pull Quote

‘We hope and plan to be in-person as much as we are able to do so, for as long as we are able to do so. That’s our mission.’

OBSD Superintendent Amy Huntley

But with the highly transmissible Delta variant spreading rapidly throughout the county and state, preventative measures will still be commonplace in local classrooms.

Per guidance issued in late July by the Washington State Department of Health, all school educators, students, volunteers and visitors must wear a mask or face covering — regardless of vaccination status — indoors and on school buses. Schools should also, to the extent practicable to allow for full-time and in-person instruction, maintain at least three feet of physical distance between students in the classroom.

While debates about mask mandates in schools have flared up and sometimes boiled over throughout the country as the new school year approaches, Huntley said that the district’s students have easily adjusted to the mask-wearing rules.

“The kids are great, they just put them on and we hardly had any problems with masks,” Huntley said. “They’re pretty self-adaptable, they just kind of roll with things. For the most part it went very well with kids … The masks haven’t really been that big of a hindrance for us.”

Other coronavirus prevention measures at schools include having good ventilation and indoor air quality, rigorous cleaning and disinfecting procedures, and covid-19 testing among symptomatic staff and students.

Huntley said that the district will offer testing to staff and students at no cost through Learn to Return, a state program supported by federal funds. OBSD schools are not planning to perform routine or random testing, but it is available for staff or students — with their parents’ consent — who would like to be tested regularly, as well as those who are symptomatic.

“[Testing is] another tool in our arsenal to help keep kids at school,” Huntley said.

In welcomed news, Huntley said that both P.E. and music classes will return to schools this year, although it remains to be seen if singing will be allowed. P.E. classes will consist of as much outdoor activities as the weather allows, with indoor classes consisting of activities “without having a lot of running and huffing and puffing that causes the issues,” Huntley said.

“It’s something we didn’t have last year, and the kids love P.E. So having those things back is really nice,” Huntley said.

Vaccine mandate for staff

Last week, Gov. Jay Inslee announced that statewide vaccine requirements have been expanded to include educators and school staff. He had announced earlier this month that vaccination was required for most state employees and private health care workers.

The requirement covers all K-12 employees in the state, including educators, school staff, bus drivers, coaches and volunteers at public, private and charter schools. It also affects employees at higher education institutions, such as colleges and universities, as well as most childcare and early learning centers.

The mandate includes exemptions for those with “legit medical reasons or sincerely held religious reasons.” Personal or philosophical exemptions are not allowed under the order.

“It has been a long pandemic, and our students and teachers have borne their own unique burdens throughout,” Inslee said last Wednesday. “This virus is increasingly impacting young people, and those under the age of 12 still can’t get the vaccine for themselves. We won’t gamble with the health of our children.”

Those affected by the order have until Oct. 18 to be fully vaccinated, or face losing their job.

For OBSD’s part, Huntley said that 81% of all district staff are currently vaccinated.

“The vast majority of the teachers are vaccinated. Where we are not certain yet if we will have some issues is some of our other departments, especially some of our departments that don’t work directly with kids all day,” Huntley said. “I know we’re going to lose some staff members over [the vaccine mandate], and we’re not sure if we can replace them … I do not think we will lose any teachers.”

While not expecting to lose teachers because of the vaccine mandate, Huntley said that the district is still looking to bolster the ranks of their substitute teachers, in case there are any teachers who leave during the school year or there are coronavirus cases that force teachers to quarantine. Anyone with a bachelor’s degree or higher can qualify to be an emergency substitute teacher, even if they don’t have a teaching background.

“With our substitute teacher situation, and our substitutes for paraprofessionals and that sort of thing, we, like everywhere else in the nation, are really short of people to do that work — even without covid,” Huntley said. “So absolutely, we’re interested in people that have degrees — and like children — and are interested in subbing. We can absolutely connect them with an emergency substitute certificate to work just in our district.”

If interested in becoming an emergency substitute teacher, contact the district office at 360-642-3739.