The Long Beach Health Department granted reopening waivers to three more private schools this week, bringing the number of private schools open for in-person kindergarten through second-grade classes to nine.
The three new schools that will reopen are St. Cyprian Parish School, Our Lady of Refuge School and Holy Innocents School.
Seven of the nine schools that have been granted waivers to reopen are in East Long Beach in the 90808 or 90815 zip codes, and six of the seven are parochial schools.
Here’s what classes look like at the first Long Beach school to get a reopening waiver
St. Cyprian and Holy Innocents are the third and fifth-largest schools to be given permission to reopen, with 72 and 67 students, respectively. A total of 608 students will be back on campus across all nine private schools, with modifications including social distancing and mask-wearing.
The Long Beach Unified School District, which serves 70,000 students in the city, has not applied for waivers to widely reopen its kindergarten through second-grade classes, which are currently the only classes permitted for in-person learning in Los Angeles County. The LBUSD does have more than a thousand students on campus for preschool or day care programs. The LBUSD’s plan is to reopen campuses on Jan. 28, barring a further delay in that plan.
The nine private schools that are open for in-person learning will not have to close their doors as part of the recent restrictions from the county and state health departments, which permit schools that have already reopened to remain open.