3-13-20 Communication

Dear SBCCD community:

We are experiencing a historic event with the evolving coronavirus pandemic. The last 48 hours alone have been precedent-setting with Governor Newsom’s Executive Order to limit large gatherings, the suspension of the NBA season, Stagecoach and Coachella music festivals, Disneyland closing for the next two weeks, and international travel restrictions.

As we grapple with rapidly-changing conditions, our hearts go out to all who have been affected by this outbreak.

You may be aware that earlier this week, we announced a series of precautionary actions that the San Bernardino Community College District is taking to help support the health and well-being of our students, faculty, and staff. This includes enhancing our cleaning and sanitation procedures for our facilities, restricting non-essential employee travel, and activating a taskforce of campus leaders and emergency operations personnel to respond swiftly to this evolving situation.

According to the latest information from the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health, there are zero cases of coronavirus in our county. But there is not a moment to lose and we must be ready.

Here are additional steps we are taking:

The San Bernardino Community College District Board of Trustees are prepared to declare a state of emergency. This action authorizes Interim Chancellor Jose F. Torres to take necessary administrative measures to ensure the health and safety of students and employees while continuing our educational mission.

After spring break (March 16-21), students will not need to report to campus from March 22 to 28 because classes will be suspended.

Crafton Hills College and San Bernardino Valley College are mobilizing resources to transition as many in-person classes as possible to remote or online education delivery.
From March 22 to 28, we will offer technical training to faculty members who need it to prepare for remote and online education delivery.

We will start remote and online education delivery of most classes on March 29 and continue until further notice.

We are supporting state and local public health guidelines and will cancel all public events on campus that may exceed 250 people.

While we take these actions and follow guidance from health experts, we reaffirm our role and responsibility to meet the basic needs of our most vulnerable students. That means keeping our campus food pantries, libraries, computer labs, and all other services up and running.

To be clear, we are not shutting down our campuses or district support operations.

To ensure a healthy environment, we encourage our employees to continue communicating with their supervisors if they need to take sick leave or vacation time and learn more about our Employee Assistance Program.

All of us should continue following the advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on travel, personal hygiene, and illness prevention.

We appreciate your patience and flexibility as our community adapts to this unfolding situation. There are no simple solutions to complex challenges like this one, but by working together and each of us doing our part, we will emerge from this experience stronger and more resilient than ever.

Sincerely,

Jose F. Torres, Interim Chancellor, San Bernardino Community College District

Dr. Kevin Horan, President, Crafton Hills College

Diana Z. Rodriguez, President, San Bernardino Valley College

 

Date	SBCCD Planned Activities
March 16 to 21	No classes per the usual spring break schedule. Campuses are open and district support operations continue.
March 22 to 28	No classes to allow faculty to prepare for remote and online education delivery. Campuses are open and district support operations continue.
March 29	Remote and online classes begin. A limited number of classes will meet in person. Faculty will communicate with students about how this will happen in their specific classes.

Any changes in this plan will be communicated as far in advance as possible.