All of the Santa Clarita Valley’s public school districts are expected to remain closed until May 5, according to education officials.
The extension to the closures comes after L.A. County Superintendent of Schools Debra Duadro announced Friday the recommendation to keep schools closed in order to help contain the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus.
Each school district’s spokesperson or superintendent confirmed the closures to The Signal on Friday.
The districts include: The William S. Hart Union High School District, the Saugus Union School District, the Newhall School District, the Sulphur Springs Union School District and the Castaic Union School District.
“We are now following along with the Los Angeles County Office of Education’s (LACOE) recommendation to extend the closure for the schools in the Hart District to May 5,” said Dave Caldwell, spokesman for the Hart District.
The schools have either already begun or are in the process of transitioning to an online instructional format.
“With this extended closure, as a district, we’re continuing our progress toward implementing an online distance learning program that will be launched April 13 for all of our students in our district,” said NSD Superintendent Jeff Pelzel.
“We’re actually beginning to prepare all of our staff and teachers with ongoing professional development over the next week, week and a half, so that we’re ready to go in a Google Classroom format,” Pelzel added.
SUSD Superintendent Colleen Hawkins, SSUSD Superintendent Catherine Kawaguchi, CUSD Superintendent Steve Doyle all confirmed that their districts would be adhering to the May 5 closure date, as well.
Each school district said they had or would be contacting their respective district’s families in order to inform them about the update as it pertains to their respective district.
College of the Canyons was not impacted by this specific decision from the county, but stated on Friday that they had already taken measures to close the college’s campuses for the rest of the school year.
“We expect classes to continue in remote delivery formats for the remainder of the semester, including late-start classes, which are scheduled to begin in April,” said COC spokesman Eric Harnish.
