Summer vacation’s over! Students, teachers head back to campuses for new school year
School is back in session.
Thousands of students returned to their classrooms and hundreds logged into their virtual classes across Newport Beach and Costa Mesa full time Monday for the start of the new school year. It was the first “back to school” that bears any resemblance to the days before the pandemic, though students still wore masks as required by current state health guidelines established in July, along with all their first-day finery.
Masks will be required indoors for the start of the school year, though state officials said that may change as more information becomes available about the prevalence of the virus and its more dangerous variants.
District officials said they are allowing medical exemptions to students who need them, but they have not stated how they will handle non-compliant students other than offering the option to attend the district’s virtual Cloud Campus.
About 320 students are enrolled in the Cloud Campus, wrapped into about 18,500 students districtwide.
A spokeswoman for the district said that as of Monday there is no clear number of how many students applied for or were granted exemptions but confirmed schools didn’t report any issues with mask compliance during the first day of classes.
Parents have argued back and forth in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District in equal measures of support and rejection of the mask requirement, mirroring trends across California.
Dissenters have argued in favor of mask choice, with some rejecting concerns about transmission of COVID-19 between children, though area pediatricians have raised the alarm about an increase in infections and hospitalizations of children in recent weeks.
Others argue in favor of masks, fearing the Delta variant puts kids at greater risk of contracting the deadly virus.
On Monday, the Orange County Health Care Agency reported 1,855 new cases of infection with the virus, including data reported over the weekend. Of those cases, 304 are children under 18.
About 570 COVID-19 patients are currently hospitalized in Orange County, and 116 are being cared for in intensive care units. An estimated 258,702 have recovered since the agency began tracking data, and 5,178 residents have died from the disease.
The Laguna Beach Unified School District also began its school year on Monday. Others will begin their first days in the coming weeks:
- Huntington Beach City School District: Sept. 9
- Ocean View School District: Sept. 8
- Huntington Beach Union High School District: Sept. 1
- Fountain Valley School District: Sept. 8
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