The Manteca Unified School District issued the following statement after the school board’s Thursday emergency meeting in light of the changing COVID-19 situation:

“(Wednesday), Governor Gavin Newsom introduced a new regional stay-at-home order based on intensive care capacity in hospitals to slow the spread moving into the winter holidays. San Joaquin Office of Emergency Services explains that this does not yet apply to San Joaquin County, but they are monitoring the data and planning next steps.

“If San Joaquin County Region reaches the capacity threshold, many business sectors will be required to close or modify services. However, schools that have already opened to in-person learning when the county was in the Substantial (Red) Tier are guided to remain open following infectious disease mitigation measures.

“At any time, members of the public can view a dashboard consisting of current and confirmed COVID-19 cases involving a MUSD student or staff member and organized by location. The dashboard is updated once per week and reflects statistics for the previous 14 days, from time of posting. The last column of the dashboard calculates the current and confirmed cases as a percentage of total school population. Individual school closure may be appropriate when there are multiple cases in multiple cohorts at a school or when there are at least 5% of the total number of teachers/students/staff cases within a 14-day period. See this public notification dashboard anytime at www.mantecausd.net/covid19dashboard.

“MUSD’s comprehensive return to school plan as well as individual school site mitigation plans have been evaluated through SJCPHS (San Joaquin County Public Health Services), CDPH (California Department of Public Health) and Keenan & Associates Safe Schools third party insurance brokerage. These agencies confirm we are prepared for our intentional and controlled hybrid instructional model including closure of individual classrooms or schools as needed. Currently, several classrooms in MUSD are quarantined to mitigate for the virus and students have transitioned to distance learning for 14 days. “Our mitigation plans follow all guidelines set forth by Centers for Disease Control (CDC), CDPH and SJCPHS.

“We anticipate a regional stay-at-home order modification for San Joaquin County. We will modify, refine, and readjust as needed in response upon its release. We understand that this is not an easy time and we will monitor our school environments closely and are prepared to transition instruction if it becomes necessary. “