Rural California schools have been open for months. It's taken a learning curve
WEAVERVILLE, Calif. – Tabatha Plew quit her good-paying construction job in August, pulled her kids out of a Central Valley school they loved and moved seven hours north to this tiny town in Trinity County.
Like a lot of rural communities, Weaverville in recent years has seen more people leaving than arriving, but it had a golden commodity Plew couldn't find at home in Fresno County for her three children: open classrooms that promised a desk in front of a teacher.
"I packed them up, and I told my husband, 'We love you. See you on the weekends,'" said Plew, who moved into her in-laws' home in Weaverville. "This was the highest-paying job I've ever had, and, you know, the money didn't mean anything when my kids were struggling."
As schools in Los Angeles and elsewhere debate the particulars of bringing students and teachers back to classrooms after a year of distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, numerous public school campuses have been open for months in rural Northern
