Merced Union High School District board votes to delay start of upcoming school year

The Merced Union High School District’s board of trustees voted Wednesday to delay the start of the 2020-21 school year by a week until Aug. 19.

The decision was made to provide the district additional time to program and distribute mobile internet devices to all students.

The extra time is also necessary to help prepare staff for distance learning, according to a district news release.

The district had previously hoped to give parents and students a choice of in-person classes or distance learning.

That was prior to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s announcement earlier this month prohibiting schools in counties on the state’s COVID-19 monitoring list from holding in-person classes when schools begin.

Subsequent to Newsom’s decision, the district announced all MUHSD students will learn online for the first half of the school year.

“As much as we want to get back to learning at MUHSD, we want to do it the right way and unfortunately there are some variables that are out of our hands, said MUHSD Superintendent Alan Peterson in the news release.

“In keeping with MUHSD’s commitment to providing access for all students, this was the best decision.”

The district’s board recently approved the purchase of more than 10,000 wireless devices from Verizon to provide internet access to all students and staff.

According to the district, it will be “piggybacking” broadband services at a discounted rate from an existing contract between Verizon and the Los Angeles Unified School District.

The option was provided to all California schools by the state in early June, according to the release.

This story was originally published July 30, 2020 at 12:48 PM.