The Denair Unified School District will begin the 2020-21 school year on Wed., Aug. 12 using distance learning to educate our 1,300 K-12 students. This decision follows the recommendation of Stanislaus County public health officials and consultation with other local school leaders, and is based upon a significant increase recently in COVID-19 health cases in our county.

The timetable for distance learning is indefinite. We will continue to follow the guidance of local health officials during the pandemic. When local health conditions improve, we will evaluate our ability to move to either a hybrid model that combines distance learning with face-to-face classroom instruction or a full-time return to classroom learning.

Here are other important things for students, parents and staff to know:

• High school and middle school students all will have Chromebook computers checked out to them and will participate in online learning. Elementary students will receive packets prepared by teachers combined with computer lessons.
• As of July 14, all sports conditioning and any extracurricular activities (cheer, band, sports, drama, etc.) are suspended until further notice.

For more information, including answers in English and Spanish to Frequently Asked Questions, please visit our website.

We recognize the challenges that our students and their families may be facing, but it is very important that we follow the directions given by local health experts. While we are eager to see everyone in person, we are ready to provide high-quality instruction to our students at all levels while they are learning from their homes.

We continue to work with the Stanislaus County Office of Education and county Public Health Department to put in place reasonable guidelines that allow us to educate our students while keeping them, our staff and the community safe. We will host a parent/community information session on Tues., July 21, 2020 via Zoom. A Spanish session will be held at 5 p.m. and an English session at 6 p.m. Directions on how to access Zoom are posted on the main page of the district website. We will continue to provide updates to our plan as health conditions change or new information becomes available.