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S AT U R DAY, J U LY 18 , 2 0 2 0
Local schools to start with distance learning By JOSH GREGA NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
NEWS-PRESS FILE PHOTOS
Gov. Gavin Newsom
The Santa Barbara Unified School District, as well as all other public and private schools in the county, will begin the school year with 100% distance learning. Though the SBUSD Board of Education was expected to vote at its July 21 meeting between three possible scenarios for reopening, inperson, remote, hybrid learning, the vote was preempted when Gov. Gavin Newsom announced new reopening guidelines on Friday. The governor stated that California schools’ ability to reopen will be determined by COVID-19 rates and data. Under Gov.
Newsom’s guidelines, California school districts can only reopen for in-person lessons if the county they operate in has been off of the state’s monitoring list for at least 14 consecutive days. Santa Barbara County is on the watch list and has been for the past 33 days. In order for a county to get off the monitoring list, it must keep its number of new cases below 100 per 100,000 residents and have a test positivity rate of under 8%. According to a press release, Santa Barbara County’s number of new cases in the past two weeks is 310 per 100,000 people, and the test positivity rate is 9.7%. In a statement to the News-Press, SBUSD board president Laura Capps implored the Santa Barbara community to “get this
pandemic under control” so in-person schooling can resume. “As a mom, I can’t wait for the golden day when our students are safely getting the inperson education we all agree is best,” she said. She continued, “To get there, given the governor’s mandate, we all need to do our part by social distancing and making short term sacrifices and our leaders need to — at a minimum — enforce mask wearing and other basic safety measures.” The Santa Barbara County Education Office posted on Twitter that it had been working on a “variety of models” but can now shift its focus to provide “the best distance learning for Please see schools on A2
‘We are just thrilled’ Jazzercise Santa Barbara moves outdoors to stay in person
Santa Barbara Unified School District President Laura Capps
The fight against COVID-19 Supervisor Gregg Hart addresses how county is trying to help local businesses amid the pandemic By JOSH GREGA NEWS-PRESS STAFF-WRITER
The road back to what was considered normal life before COVID-19 has been in a constant state of flux. Any spike in infection rates could force Santa Barbara County to take one step back from reopening the economy just as it takes one step forward. This happened during the past week, when a spike in cases led to Gov. Gavin Newsom announcing that businesses like gyms and hair salons in many counties, including Santa Barbara, needed to close their doors again, not long after they reopened. According to Santa Barbara County 2nd District Supervisor Gregg Hart, Santa Barbara County is continuing to find ways of helping local businesses adjust to the current circumstances. The most apparent economic recovery measure taken thus far is allowing businesses like restaurants to move their operations into the public right of way. “We have streamlined the process to open businesses in the public right of way and private parking lots so that businesses can move their operations outdoors,” he said.
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Second District Supervisor Gregg Hart
Though moving seating areas outside seems to be helping many restaurants and bars on State Street, businesses like hair salons and barbershops don’t have this option. As the NewsPress reported, The Barber Shop at 1233 State St. responded to the governor’s reclosure order by putting two barber chairs in front of the business. According to shop owner Jorge Salgado, this was successful, while it lasted. After a day of cutting hair outside, a member of Please see pandemic on A2
RAFAEL MALDONADO / NEWS-PRESS PHOTOS
Suzy Cawthon, owner of Jazzercise Santa Barbara, said everybody is “just thrilled” that classes could continue in person outside.
Sundays with the Symphony By BRIAN MACKLEY NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
By JORGE MERCADO NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
The basketball courts outside the Youth Page Center probably haven’t been put to good use since the start of the pandemic, but they certainly provided the perfect workout spot for a group of women looking to get their Jazzercise on Friday morning. “I call this Jazzercise COVID 3.0,” Suzy Cawthon, owner of Jazzercise Santa Barbara, said with a laugh at the Goleta site. “First we went all Zoom, and then we went back to a hybrid where we could have class inside, and now this is the third hybrid where we’re outside and it’s been nice.”
Jazzercise Santa Barbara is holding classes outside the Youth Page Center every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 9 a.m. Cost to attend one class is $15.
Ms. Cawthon has had her work cut out for her during this pandemic, juggling how to effectively help her clientele stay fit. After Gov. Gavin Newsom’s newest order, mandating the
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closure of indoor fitness centers, Ms. Cawthon’s most recent endeavor included her braving the outdoors. “It was pretty crushing Monday. We had just gotten into our new Please see jazzercise on A3
COMING UP See Sunday’s News-Press for an overview of the economy and how fitness centers, barber shops, salons and churches are dealing with COVID-19 restrictions.
In an effort to stay engaged as well as share the stories of its members with the community, the Santa Barbara Symphony will be holding its next “Sundays with the Symphony” episode live at 3:30 p.m. Sunday. Started in April, Sundays with the Symphony is a virtual broadcast series that allows people from all over the world enjoy the wonderful musicians in the Santa Barbara Symphony. This Sunday’s episode will be the fourth episode of the series and will feature performances by individuals from the orchestra as well as some new artists. “It wasn’t created to have the orchestra play as an orchestra,” Music & Artistic Director Nir
Kabaretti said. “For me, it was more important to be sharing a particular story so that our audience can learn a little bit more about the people. It’s really to share the story of the members of this family.” Mr. Kabaretti told the NewsPress the idea for the Sundays with the Symphony came from an interest to stay connected with the Santa Barbara community amid the lockdown created by the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to its success, however, he said the audience has expanded with the series and people from around the world have been tuning in to listen. “It goes well beyond just our community,” Mr. Kabaretti said. “It’s a great opportunity to share Please see SYMPHONY on A10
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