SFUSD updates fall COVID plan: PAC rollouts, testing expansion and online-program staffing challenges

At the Sept. 28 meeting the San Francisco Unified School District presented a multipart fall update on safety and learning during COVID-19 covering independent study options, ventilation, testing and vaccination efforts.

Chief Kamala Nathan said elementary classrooms had received portable air cleaners by Sept. 24 and that middle and high school deployment was on track to finish by Oct. 8. The district planned to return to the board Oct. 12 to request additional funding to provide PACs for shared spaces and central offices.

On testing, the district described multiple scenarios: weekly testing is required for unvaccinated staff under state public-health rules and the district’s health-and-safety MOU; certain student activities exempt from face coverings (wrestling, competitive cheer) must receive weekly testing; student surveillance testing is recommended. Chief Lyle Smith said the district has self-swab test kits at school sites and plans to expand availability, targeting operational rollout by Nov. 1. The district is pursuing reimbursement via insurance and Medi-Cal and preparing a FEMA grant application to cover testing costs; staff noted current reimbursement covers roughly 40% of analyzed tests because of incomplete insurance data.

Deputy Superintendent Eneka Ford Mortel described two online options: the Online Learning Program (OLP), a predominantly synchronous model for medically fragile students, and the On-Demand Learning Program (ODLP), primarily asynchronous with planned live interactions as staffing allows. Staff reported 416 students active in the OLP and 702 in the ODLP and acknowledged ODLP remained partially unstaffed — district staff reported 19 unstaffed TK–5 cohorts at one point and said they were actively recruiting and would start live interactions on a rolling basis as positions are filled.

Medical partner Dr. Elizabeth Rogers (UCSF) said SFUSD testing data showed a test-positivity rate among SFUSD tests of approximately 0.14% and that schools’ mitigation layers (masking, vaccination, testing, and improved air quality) make in-person learning comparatively safe; she and staff emphasized the importance of vaccination and testing to reduce quarantine time.

Board members pressed staff for clearer timelines and operational metrics: how many ODLP cohorts remained unstaffed, which school spaces lacked PAC coverage, and how much testing can be scaled within current resources. Staff committed to follow-up data on cohort staffing metrics, mobile-site expansion plans, and a testing-reimbursement breakdown.