Lemoore's schools prepared to welcome students back to school as COVID-19 virus continues to loom

Lemoore Union High School District and the Lemoore Elementary School District plan on returning students to the classrooms, but both districts will require all students and staff to wear masks, at least while in the classroom setting. Students will not be required to wear masks outside the classroom.

Certain accommodations will be made for students with health issues.

California’s updated mask requirements differ somewhat from the guidance issued recently by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), which stipulated that only unvaccinated students and staff would be required to wear masks. The CDC added that the states do have discretion to impose additional protections as conditions warrant.

Lemoore High School plans to welcome students back to class on August 11.

Lemoore High School’s website states that students are no longer required to socially distance, but students will be seated three feet apart in classrooms or as practicable for health reasons.

Students will also find strict guidelines when boarding their early-morning bus bound for school. All students will be required to wear masks while on the bus and encouraged to use hand sanitizer (don’t have to use but is available) when entering and departing the bus. Drivers will wear masks and have been trained to notice any symptoms among bus riders.

Once on-campus, students and staff may visit hand sanitizing locations throughout the school’s large campus.

California Department of Health Guidance

Parents are asked to screen their children each morning before leaving for school if they exhibit any symptoms.

Superintendent Debbie Muro remains optimistic that the school year will go smoothly, despite the requirements place on California’s schools. “It’s not going to be difficult the more we get back to normal, and school then begins to feel normal for the kids,” she said.

She can also understand how parents and kids may feel as school opens. “What’s hard on everyone, the parents, and the kids, is that the rules change all the time. It’s hard to follow them.”

However, the longtime Lemoore High School District superintendent remains optimistic that things will go well this year. “I hope so. It’s going to be a lot better than last year. I’m hoping.”

Muro also told The Leader that Lemoore’s Rite Aid Drug Store would be at the school’s orientation days on Monday, August 2, from 9 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. for 11th and 12th-grade students who want a COVID-19 vaccination. The students’ families are also welcomed to receive vaccinations.

Both orientation days begin at 8 a.m. and conclude by 4 p.m.

Rite Aid will be there again on Tuesday, August 3, as well (the second day of orientation for first-year students and sophomores) from 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. Students and parents are welcome to get their shots. The Lemoore District Office sent out a sign-up link.

Lemoore’s local schools are certainly not taking the COVID-19 virus lightly, even though vaccinations during the winter, spring, and early summer reduced the number of infections, prompting state and federal health officials to allow businesses, including restaurants and movie theaters, to reopen.

Lemoore Elementary School District Superintendent Cheryl Hunt told The Leader that school would begin on August 9. As of that date, students will indeed adhere to the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) mandates on schools Coronavirus, which will require masks.

“We will be following the CDPH state guidelines or state recommendations and mandates for wearing a mask indoors, but our students will not have to wear masks outdoors at this time,” said Hunt. “We will just keep up to date on what the guidelines and mandates are that come our way, but we will be following the mandate, unfortunately,” she added.

Other local schools and their opening days include the Central Union School District, opening on August 11, and Island School, opening its doors on August 10.

As of late July, nearly 164 million Americans were fully vaccinated, representing about 50 percent of the U.S. population, and while 343 million vaccine doses have been administered, it hasn’t been enough. A hefty number of the population seems to have declined vaccinations.

However, a more resilient Delta-variant has hit the unvaccinated hard, raising infections among mostly those who refused the shots. Many health officials insist that hospitalizations – due to COVID-19 – have risen dramatically in the past few weeks. They insist that approximately 98-99 percent of those hospitalizations for the Coronavirus were from the unvaccinated.

Medical experts have estimated that 70-80 percent of the total population – adults and children – need to acquire resistance to the coronavirus to reach herd immunity when transmission of the virus slows because enough people have been protected through infection of vaccination.

Kings County’s COVID-19 website listed roughly 23,500 COVID-19 cases since the outbreak started. The Kings County figures include 7,209 inmates incarcerated in Kings County’s Avenal and Corcoran state prisons.

Kings County health officials also report 233 total deaths since the outbreak started. Kings County’s prisons have accounted for 18 deaths since the pandemic began.

For more information regarding the Lemoore High School District and parent resources visit the district's website at: https://www.luhsd.k12.ca.us/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=2141930&type=d&pREC_ID=2164133