Alameda County said on Tuesday, Sept. 22, that decreasing numbers of COVID-19 cases could lead to a cautious reopening of schools.

At the Board of Education meeting Wednesday, Sept. 23, the Board voted to apply for a waiver to allow Piedmont’s K-6 schools to open as early as November. The measure passed 3-2, and the application for the waiver must be submitted by Friday, Oct. 2, for public schools.

In order to reopen, schools need a reopening plan that addresses measures like sanitation, social distancing, and staff testing, according to an email to parents from Superintendent Randall Booker.

Booker said that the approval of the waiver would allow school districts to operate independently from the state’s tier system. He opposed the motion and said that the district should instead focus on bringing special education students back to in-person learning.

A decrease in county COVID-19 cases is reflected by the new reduction to Red Tier on the state four-tiered color scale for coronavirus reopening, according to the Alameda County Public Health Department (ACPHD) website. Previously, Alameda County was on the purple tier, the worst level.

County health officials will wait two weeks to ensure the cases numbers are stable before allowing more non-essential businesses to reopen and implement other virus mitigation measures, according to ACPHD. Currently, no changes have been made to opening businesses.

After two weeks in Red Tier, schools can begin reopening per state guidelines, but the county will continue to use its discretion in permitting individual schools to do so, according to ACPHD.

“There’s still work to be done [before PUSD can open schools] but I would say the two biggest pieces of work are the health screening tools for the students and the testing of staff,” Booker said at the meeting. “We’re well under way and I think both of those could be secured by the end of next week.”