Thousands of San Diego students got one extra day of summer break. San Diego Unified School District was one of several that decided to cancel class out of an abundance of caution in Tropical Storm Hilary’s wake.
Monday would’ve been 6-year-old Phoenix Gunn’s first day of first grade.
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WATCH HERETracking Hilary
“He's been attached to me, as you can tell,” said his mom, Jacqueline Soto. “But then once he sees his teacher, he loves his teacher.”
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SIGN UP Phoenix was attached to Soto yesterday, too, as tropical storm Hilary pelted their windows.
“At first, he ignored it because he was on his tablet most of the time and playing with his puzzles and cards. But, then as the wind picked up, he started noticing it and he just like would look out the window and just be like, ‘rain, rain’ and I'm like, ‘Yeah.’”
Soto appreciates SDUSD's caution to cancel class and kindergarten teacher Lynne Pinkney appreciates the extra time to finish getting her classroom together.
“I was happy,” Pinkney said. “I was happy because, you know, like teachers want to help make sure we have the best opening for our students.”
It’s the same feedback school board president Sabrina Bazzo has been getting from teachers district-wide.
“The best decision we could make was to just wait that one day to make sure that our facilities are safe and our students are going to be happy and healthy and ready to come back to school on Tuesday instead of Monday,” she said.
She admitted some parents asked her why San Diego Unified decided to cancel class when other districts did not.
To that she said, the district is the second-largest in the state with nearly 100,000 students, 12,000 teachers and more than 170 schools to accommodate. Some classrooms across the district have significant water damage as well and they need time to sort out logistics.
“That means we're going to be moving those students out of those classrooms into another classroom on campus getting dumpsters in to take out, you know, maybe furniture or carpet and things like that that have gotten wet,” she said.
Besides these classrooms, she said the district’s facilities are in pretty good shape and will be ready to open Tuesday morning.
