Flowing Wells and Sahuarita are the latest Tucson school districts to announce a return to remote learning due to rising COVID-19 numbers.
Both districts will remain in hybrid mode next week to finish out the semester.
The districts cited three public health measures โ the number of viral infections in the community, percent positivity, and the number of COVID-like symptoms seen in hospital โ all being in substantial transmission in the county as the reason why they are temporarily stopping in-person learning.
Both districts will offer fully remote learning starting Jan. 4, with the hope of returning to hybrid on Jan. 19 if the situation improves.
โWe will work in consultation with the Pima County Health Department in making the decision, and we will try to provide as much advance notice as possible,โ Flowing Wells Superintendent David Baker wrote in a Dec. 11 letter to families.
Sunnyside School District returned to remote-only after Thanksgiving.
The sixth-ranked Arizona Wildcats women's basketball team routed rival Arizona State 65-37 Thursday night at McKale Center. Arizona has now won three straight over the Sun Devils for the first time since 1999-2000.
Sahuarita Unified shut down in-person learning at its high schools on Dec. 4. TUSD announced it would be staying in remote-only as the second semester begins in January. And numerous other district schools and charter schools have recently been forced to close due to COVID-19 cases and related staffing issues.
The pause of in-person learning is also intended to provide a buffer for the post-holiday surge of positive cases predicted by health experts and to support management of local cases, said a news release from Sahuarita Unified.
Both districts will continue to offer on-site services during the remote learning period.
โEntering the holiday weeks, I know we had to reconsider activities to protect against COVID-19 spread in our homes and community,โ Baker said. โUnfortunately, the pandemic has required us all to modify time with family and friends to create a safer environment. Still, the spread continues and requires us to be vigilant in our efforts to reduce transmission and exposure.โ
Photographer Kelly Presnell's Fave Five of 2020
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With the shut down early in the year, high school sports were canceled. In a series of stories I helped spotlight many of the athletes who had their seasons cut short, including Canyon del Oro senior pitcher Amya Legarra, from April 30, 2020.
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Nationwide, protesters took to the streets to demonstrate against law enforcement abuses, and Tucson was no exception. And on the second night of demonstrations, a protestor dares Tucson Police to hit him with pepper bullets as a few hundred confront law enforcement along 7th Street between 5th and 6th in the early morning hours on May 31, 2020.
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The Bighorn wildfire became the largest blaze to sweep the Santa Catalinas and entailed more than month of fire fighting, including scores of aerial retardant drops like this nape-of-the-earth run by a DC-10 VLAT over Catalina State Park, June 11, 2020.
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The lock-down and subsequent restrictions led to the resurgence of drive in theaters like a showing of Grease at theย Cactus Drive-In at Medella Vina Ranch, May 28, 2020, andย nearly a dozen girls from the North and Sabel families piled into the bed of a borrowed pick-up with rented headsets used to hear the audio from the night's feature.
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Sports gradually, and fitfully, returned to the fields and the University of Arizona finally got back on the field November 14, 2020, in a loss to USC where UA defensive back Lorenzo Burns (2) took wide USC receiver Drake London (15) out of mid-air after he tried to leap for extra yardage at Arizona Stadium.
