The Tamalpais Union High School District has announced a plan to return to full in-person learning on April 13. The district expects all staff to be fully vaccinated by then and has collaborated with the teachers’ union regarding the decision to consolidate the current three cohorts after spring break, according to a Mar. 23 email sent to district families. 

 “By [Apr. 13], all staff will have had the opportunity to be fully vaccinated, we will have had time to add furniture back into the classrooms, and nutritional services will have had an opportunity to prepare to provide food to more students each day,” superintendent Dr. Tara Taupier wrote in the announcement.

The change comes amid updated guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) that permits a three-feet distance between students instead of the previously determined four feet. 

The first two Mondays following spring break, Apr. 12 and Apr. 19, will remain fully virtual to accommodate for state-mandated California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress testing. Students will be on campus four days a week during that time and then five days each week thereafter and the current bell schedule will be maintained for the remainder of the school year. Students will have the option to continue with distance learning, while those who opt to participate in site-based instruction will not be permitted to attend class virtually unless quarantining due to COVID-19 exposure.

The district had originally informed families of a tentative plan to merge the current three-cohort hybrid model into two cohorts after spring break, but discussions between the Tamalpais Federation of Teachers and the district led to the decision to fully reopen school sites.

The district expects to maintain preventative measures such as mask-wearing, disinfecting of surfaces, and hand-sanitizing when students return to campus at full capacity. 

“We do not anticipate students being vaccinated prior to our return to full-time in-person instruction, hence the continued need for some mitigation measures,” Taupier wrote in a Mar. 19 email to district families.