Piedmont Pool: Reopen or Remain Closed?
Alameda County Issued Revised Shelter in Place Order –
Piedmont to Consider Whether Pool Reopening is Practicable –
On Friday evening, August 21st, the Alameda County Health Official issued a revised Shelter in Place order, which, effective August 28th, allows the reopening of outdoor pools, permission for outdoor personal care services, and permission for outdoor tasting at wineries. A summary of the order is available on the County’s web site.
As this is the first guidance issued by Alameda County for the reopening of pools, the City will spend the next two weeks determining whether the conditions imposed by the order can be applied in a way that makes sense to reopen the Piedmont Community Pool. Staff had previously developed reopening frameworks based upon guidance from other health jurisdictions. The City understands the importance of the pool to the community and will examine whether reopening under the requirements imposed by the order is practicable. It is likely that a decision on whether to reopen the Piedmont Community Pool will be considered by the City Council at its meeting of September 8th. –
August 22, 2020 – Press Release
Contact: John O. Tulloch (510) 420-3041 jtulloch@piedmont.ca.gov
Please reopen the pool.
Should PUSD schools be opened?
Oh, I misread the topic of this thread. I thought it was asking about schools, not the pool. Well, I wrote about the prospect of opening Piedmont schools, in light of some school board candidates’ preference for opening the schools. So, with apologies on this thread, here is my opinion.
I no longer have children in PUSD schools, but I strongly believe that “distance learning,” virtual classes, are necessary until our county, state, and country gets COVID under control. Piedmont has been fortunate with only a small number of cases and deaths, yet the free flow of people from higher-rate areas enables the free flow of virus, and the numbers have been rising in Piedmont as well. Agglomerations of people in closed areas like classrooms is a sure way to spread the contagion to other students, staff, and to the people they live with.
While in-person learning is clearly superior to distance learning, and necessary for the socialization of our next generation, the risk of spreading the virus, and the eventual cost, is a greater danger.
How careful can PUSD’s students and staff be? I don’t believe that ALL students will keep their masks on all the time. Masks get stuffy. I get tired rebreathing in exhaled CO2. Every once in a while I take off my mask to get some breaths of fresh air. I’m sure kids are even less disciplined than I am. I see them congregating in groups with their friends and everyone is mask-off.
“Parental choice” seems to me to be an illusion. If there is no virus threat, there SHOULD be in-person learning. But so long as we are on the watchlist, there should NOT be in-person learning.
How significant and reliable is the watchlist? Many communities were off the list and now they are back on it. If Alameda County goes off the list, but adjacent counties are still on the list, are we really safe? Not really, because people can still travel between counties. A family might visit friends in Contra Costa who unbeknownst to them have the virus. Then the kids spread it in their classroom, and then into the Piedmont community. In-person classes are potential spreading sources. The watchlist is an insufficient indicator; it is too temporal and too local.
Parental “choice” is not an objective indicator of health safety; it is a personal willingness to accept risk. But the negative impacts of such risk could apply to people beyond the parent’s own children.
Does this mean that Witter Field will also open? Seems less risky than a public pool and it remains closed.