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Monday, September 14, 2020
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Volume 169 • Issue 107 | 75¢
Learning at a distance
Mountain Democrat photo by Kevin Christensen
El Dorado County families send a message from the courthouse steps Sept. 8, calling for a return to the classroom.
Rally held to reopen schools Kevin Christensen Staff writer Families gathered at the steps of the El Dorado County Superior Courthouse in downtown Placerville Sept. 8 to rally for a reopening of California schools. The demonstration, organized by a group on Facebook called Rally to Reopen California Schools, was one of approximately 10 protests organized in counties statewide — at 4:30 p.m. simultaneously calling for students to be given the choice to return to the classroom. El Dorado County schools shifted to distance learning in the spring of 2020 due to the COVID-19 health crisis; in fall education resumed in varying ways including hybrid models, homeschooling and distance learning. Parents and students at the rally said they have had enough and want the option for children to return to school campuses full time. “I believe in this cause to open all schools statewide and we want choice,” said Tara Yurkovic of Pollock Pines, the protest’s lead organizer. “By closing all public schools the governor has deprived almost 10 million children of their constitutionally guaranteed right to an education. Not a Zoom call but a real education. It is a violation of human and constitutional rights. No state of emergency justifies violating those rights.” Yurkovic is the mother of two boys, ages 6 and 10, attending school in the Pollock Pines School District where distance learning is in place. She said the risks of the pandemic do not outweigh the rewards of returning students to classrooms. “I have many more concerns about the kids being forced into distance learning and social isolation,” Yurkovic said. Sarah Stowe, a mother of three from Pollock Pines, was also on hand for the n
See Rally, page A3
Courtesy photos
Placerville mom Anna Marie Murdock homeschools her 6-year-old son Elijah at the family computer while holding her 2-year-old daughter Joy.
Families take on
COVID-19 in education challenges
Kevin Christensen Staff writer
“Coordinating everything virtually does not always go as planned.”
D
istance learning brings both challenges and triumphs for students and their families since school — Ivy Larson, campuses in spring closed at Placerville mother the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. of four “I have had to accept that I am between a rock and hard place with this, as are hundreds of thousands of other families,” said Anna Marie Murdock, a Placerville mother of 11, six of whom are school-aged and enrolled in El Dorado County school districts. “I am 8-year-old David Murdock, left, helps his siblings Mark, 4, Elijah, 6, just taking it day by day and doing my best. I have and Joy, 2, left to right, sort M&Ms as part of a lesson from their found a lot of good in this challenge.” mother. Murdock has three children currently being pandemic, in-person, classroom instruction has been educated through distance learning. Megan a shifted to Zoom. seventh-grader, Mary a freshman and Timothy Murdock said distance learning full-time (five days a junior, attend Charter University Prep on the Charles Brown Elementary School campus in El a week) has gone well because her kids’ school was Dorado. There, in a regular, non-pandemic school already operating with students partially studying year, students learn in a hybrid model where they from home — but they are also ready for normalcy attend classes on campus two to four days a week; again. Anna Marie said her understanding is they non-classroom days are spent completing home should be able to return to normal, with precautions, assignments, pursuing electives, community college n See Education challenges, page A6 courses, physical education and more. Now, amid the
Fire crews getting edge on Fork Fire with 7% containment Kevin Christensen Staff writer The Fork Fire that ignited Sept. 8 off Wentworth Springs Road near Gerle Creek continues to burn in the Eldorado National Forest. The wildfire on Thursday night was estimated to have burned approximately 2,200 acres with fire crews attaining 7% containment of the blaze. Located about 15 miles northeast of Pollock Pines the bulk of the fire is burning in a steep and remote area the King Fire razed in 2014 — the Rubicon River drainage. The fire has moderate to rapid rates of spread, spotting and running in dense timber and dead and downed trees left by the King Fire, according to reports, but firefighters hope forecasts of lighter winds will slow the fire. A Type 2 incident management team is now leading the fire fight with U.S. Forest Service Operations Section Chief Buck Wickham at the helm. “(Firefighters) did a lot of really good work to contain this fire to as small as it is with the resources they have,” Wickham said in a Friday morning briefing. Operational goals are to keep the fire west and north of Courtesy photo Firefighters cut back fuels on the perimeter of the Fork Fire burning east of Hell Hole Reservoir in the Eldorado National Forest. n See Fork Fire, page A5
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