The Tamalpais Union High School District has postponed the return to in-person learning, superintendent Dr. Tara Taupier announced in a district-wide email on Dec. 18. 

The district planned to introduce a hybrid model beginning Jan. 6, but cited the recent spike in COVID-19 cases in Marin County as the reason for the delay. The county moved into the purple tier of California’s coronavirus monitoring system on Dec. 8 and the Bay Area’s ICU capacity fell below 15 percent prompting a regional stay-at-home order until at least Jan. 7. 

“Our greatest hope is that we will be able to open in our hybrid model some time in mid-January,” Taupier wrote in the email. 

Before the district is permitted to implement the hybrid model, Marin must be out of the purple tier for at least two weeks and the Bay Area must have an ICU capacity of at least 15 percent. “In order for those two things to occur, our COVID-19 numbers will have to improve significantly over the next several weeks,” Taupier wrote. 

Once the hybrid model is initiated, students who opted to participate will attend campus according to their respective cohorts, which were assigned on Dec. 17 according to last name. Each of the three cohorts will be on campus one day every week and two days every third week. 

The district will provide an estimated date for the return to school sites on Dec. 30. “We are ready to move forward and will reopen to in-person learning when state and local public health guidelines permit,” Taupier wrote.