Reopening: 'Time to wipe down'

By Ed Piper

My neighbor, who teaches in the San Diego Unified School District (see previous entry), said, "I will need more time between periods to wipe down the room."

That's assuming students will go to multiple classrooms when they return to school come August 18 or so for the fall semester. (One idea is to keep them in one "homeroom", with one teacher, to diminish mixing of kids and more exposure to the coronavirus.)

That's also assuming they go to classes in person, which is what teachers and staff are being told will likely happen when the 2020-2021 school year starts.

Another neighbor, who is a specialist working for City Schools, said yesterday (June 10) that she is being told that half an elementary class could attend in-room lessons in the morning, with the other half in "Prime Time" care. Then, the two halves will switch places.

I told her, as my wife and I talked with her over our patio wall late on a very hot (90 degrees) weekday, that I was seeing high school would probably employ a hybrid setup, with part-Zoom meeting, part-in school. She said, yeah, "But not in elementary school." That doesn't work for younger students like it does (sort of) for older students.

(Talking over the wall: how's that for a metaphor? Having to keep your distance from neighbors and others, masks in place if within six feet, in this age of the virus.)

Another late news flash is that San Diego City College's league just rescheduled the basketball season to next spring. Wow. At least they're making plans and adapting.

It's going to be better to adapt and go with the "whims" of the coronavirus situation, than to be left without any plan--or season--at all.

Look at Major League Baseball (MLB). The players and the owners are fighting over compensation. Finally, yesterday, Commissioner Rob Manfred asserted in comments before the annual amateur draft, "There will be a season in 2020." Fine for him to say. He hasn't been part of the solution so far.

It would be a shame if there isn't an MLB season at all this year. The owners floated the idea of a 50-game season. That's a joke. That's no season. Crown a championship after full (even expanded) postseason competition, with only 50 games in the season? Come on.

Other baseball fans and I hope the players union and owners (millionaires and billionaires) can get it together to work something out. (70 or 80 games sounds a lot more reasonable.)

How about this? And this idea is worth a column in itself. If high school football were to start in January, as has been floated, and basketball in February, how about a combined Homecoming in February, when the two seasons overlap for the first time ever?

Diego Solis could walk out and be crowned King of the Court, since he plays on both teams, Viking football and basketball. That would be a gas. A lot of fun.