SELMA — Students in the Selma Unified School District will have to wait two weeks to return to the class room.

Trustees decided that all students will return to distance learning when they return from winter break on Jan. 11 because of the current COVID situation.

Traditional Kindergarten through sixth grade students had been scheduled to return to the classroom but will now wait until Jan. 25 after action by the Selma Unified School District Board of Trustees on Dec. 15.

Grades 7-12 (students at Abraham Lincoln Middle School, Heartland Alternative School and Selma High School) will remain on distance learning instead of returning to the classroom, as scheduled.

"We will continue with our small group cohorts," said retiring Superintendent Tanya A. Fisher, who attended her final scheduled board meeting that night.

Reopening the secondary schools will depend on the county health data.

"Schools will not be able to reopen if we are still in the purple or red tier," said Dr. Fisher.

The district will execute the waiver for elementary schools. "We are recommending that if we bring back elementary students that in person option would not begin until Jan. 25. Again, this is in alignment with county recommendations to give us as much time after the holidays as possible to give us a chance to look at our local data and make adjustments accordingly."

The Jan. 25 opening will be subject to the health conditions in January.

"The county health department thinks that the Jan. 25 date will be safer than Jan. 11," said Dr. Fisher.

If they return, the modified schedule for TK-sixth grade students whose parents elect to have their students to return to campus will have classes in the morning and distance learning on Tuesday through Friday.

“Our case rate and positivity rates are still considerably high,” said Dr. Fisher. “We are far beyond the metrics that we want to be.”

Trustees also heard results of the survey given to secondary parents and students.

“We did a lot of leg work speaking to parents and stakeholders,” said Dr. Fisher.

Parents of secondary parents were 58 percent in favor of bringing their students to the classroom while 42 percent wanted distance learning. Percentages for the secondary students were almost identical.

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