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Virtual Learning Highly Controversial for Bay Area Parents

Some Bay Area parents tried to recall the Cupertino school board president last year over virtual learning, while others are now demanding that schools bring it back to keep their kids safe as COVID-19 persists.

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(TNS) — Even in the heart of Silicon Valley whose technological wonders made it possible, the online “distance learning” that substituted for sending kids to school during the pandemic proved so unpopular that Cupertino parents mounted a recall drive against their school board president.

State officials, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is also facing a recall vote this month, got the message and canceled online K12 classes, leaving only an “independent study” home-school option for those who didn’t want to send their kids back to class. In many districts, those programs now have long waiting lists.

But many parents in Cupertino Union and other districts around the state — from Fremont and San Jose’s Evergreen to Los Angeles and San Diego — aren’t happy with the alternative and want distance learning back, at least until there are fewer COVID-19 cases or kids under 12 can be vaccinated.

“In-person is always best,” Mamatha Omprakash, whose son and daughter are in first and second grade at Cupertino’s Faria Elementary. “But the kids picked up very well how to manage the gadgets and online instruction, and more than anything, the kids were safe. We already had two cases in school. We’re really scared.”

Like a growing number of California communities, Cupertino has become a battleground over school closures and other measures during the pandemic. Parents outraged over the slow reopening of classrooms gathered more than 2,000 signatures toward recalling board member Lori Cunningham, whom they argued has been too deferential to the fears of unionized teachers about returning to classrooms.

Some Cupertino parents and those in other Bay Area districts have threatened to sue over outdoor mask mandates. They complain about mandatory quarantines they say keep kids home unnecessarily, and other matters like short school days and controversial instructional material imposed without adequate input from parents.

Omprakash was among a few dozen parents who have demonstrated outside the Cupertino Union School District offices over the past week, urging district officials to make distance learning available again. Some 500 to 800 or more Cupertino parents are believed to be interested in that option.

But officials say their hands are tied. District Communication Director Erin Lindsey said that since state lawmakers let the provision for full or hybrid distance learning expire at the end of June, it is “no longer funded by the state of California.”

Cupertino Union’s independent study program, Home Study, now has 208 participants out of a total district enrollment of 14,000.

But Omprakash says home schooling doesn’t work for her family.

“We’re working parents,” Omprakash said. “We cannot become full-time teachers.”

Sapna Rao, whose daughter also attended Faria, opted for the Home Study program. She said it’s been more difficult on her family than distance learning, where her daughter saw friends on the screen during online classes.

“Distance learning was different,” said Rao. “She could interact with all her classmates, and we could focus on our work.”

Like other districts throughout the state, Cupertino has seen few COVID cases among students and staff since they returned to campuses last month — 10 students among 14,000 and six staff members. Districts and public health officials have reported few if any instances of the virus spreading in schools, though they say that should be expected to occur from time to time.

Even so, parents pushing for a distance learning option aren’t convinced classrooms are safe for their kids, especially with the highly contagious delta variant of the virus circulating throughout the country. The variant unleashed devastating outbreaks early this year in India, where many Cupertino families have family ties.

“The virus is so contagious, and with little kids, we can’t expect them to keep masks on all the time,” Rao said.

Daya Patel, whose boys, ages 9 and 4, attend De Vargas Elementary, notes that his employer, Cisco Systems, has him working most of the week from home out of concern about the virus. He doesn’t understand why schools aren’t doing likewise.

Some districts like Palo Alto Unified have partnered with outside providers to run their independent study, where kids learn online much like they did in distance learning with credentialed teachers and other students, though not necessarily from their own schools. But districts have to pay for it. Cupertino parents say that’s appealing because they’d want more virtual lessons with their kids’ home study teacher.

Lindsey said that while Cupertino’s Home Study meets state requirements, “the district will continue to look at ways to support the teaching and learning taking place in the home study program.”

Parents who organized the Cupertino recall effort say they have no objection to those who want distance learning back as an option, as long as it doesn’t limit in-person learning for the rest.

“Although we fought for reopening,” recall organizer Val Ryabov said, “we believe that parents should be offered a choice.”

Srivinas Ponnala, an organizer with the parents pushing for distance learning, said they met with school officials this week, and that the response was “not really positive, not really negative.” They also circulated a petition that 18,000 parents signed, from districts including Fremont Unified, Evergreen in San Jose, Los Angeles Unified and San Diego Unified. They submitted it to Newsom’s office but “didn’t get a response.”

“We pretty much don’t know what else they expect us to do,” Ponnala said, fearing infections will spread in local schools as they have in other states. “What we hear is that the governor is busy with his recall stuff. But we’re running out of time. We don’t want to be another Texas or Florida.”

©2021 The Cupertino Courier (San Jose, Calif.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.