As cases of the novel coronavirus COVID-19 continue to rise in the Central Valley, the Clovis Unified School District voted unanimously to extend its closure of all schools until at least May 4.
The vote was made Wednesday evening at the CUSD Governing board meeting, the first to be held online.
Clovis officials, however, acknowledged that school might not resume until the fall, but aren’t ready to commit to definitively closing schools for that long as of yet, particularly with seniors scheduled to graduate.
“We’re supposed to have eight graduations,” CUSD Superintendent Eimear O’Farrell said. “We don’t want to misrepresent the reality of the situation, but we want our kids to know that we feel it’s a little premature to make that decision at this point.”
The current school closure began on March 16 and was originally scheduled to continue until April 16.
The decision comes in the wake of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and state school Superintendent Tony Thurmond’s statements from earlier this week that said over six million students across the state likely will not return to on-site instruction until the fall.
In the interim, CUSD will continue with its social distance learning operation as students take instruction and do school work remotely via online.
Fresno Unified School District made the same decision to close all schools, but for the rest of the year.