Despite the surge of 265 district-wide cases in the first week of the semester and 300 cases so far in the second, largely attributed to the Omicron variant, all five schools in FUHSD remained open. FUHSD reports that “only public health departments have the legal authority to close a school or a district and move it to distance learning.” As a district, its focus has been on staying in person.

At the onset of second semester, when cases were doubling rates on a weekly basis, 52.1% of MVHS students would have opted for a remote learning option, either in a fully remote setting or a hybrid one. Now, four weeks into the school year with cases on the downturn, 58.8% of students don’t anticipate remote learning in the next months, specifically after the upcoming breaks in February and April. Click through to read about the variety of opinions and proposed plans as the MVHS community handles the Omicron variant.