Benicia, Coronavirus, Covid 19

Coronavirus – Benicia closes Senior Center and Community Center

This notice appeared around 2:30pm March 13 on Nextdoor:

City Closes Community Center and Senior Center

Based on recommendations from Solano County, we are cancelling all programming at the City Gym and Senior Center, and closing the two facilities until March 31st. The City will continue to post updates about COVID-19 on the website at www.ci.benicia.ca.us/coronavirus.

In a March 12 press release, the City of Benicia announced detailed closures and postponements:

In response to the guidelines, the City of Benicia has canceled or postponed the following:

  • All senior activities at the Benicia Senior Center will be cancelled from March 13 – March 31, 2020 except for the Meals on Wheels program on Friday, March 13. Staff is working with Solano County to provide home delivery of Meals on Wheels beginning Monday, March 16.
  • Due to the difficulty in achieving recommended social distancing, the following meetings or events have been canceled through March 31
    • Benicia Public Library:
      • After School Zone, all storytimes, all book clubs, art gallery
        receptions, board games evenings, ESL classes, GED
        classes, Great Decisions discussions, Language Lab,
        Resume & Career Counseling, Technology Help, Teen
        Advisory Board, Writers’ Salon, Writer’s Workshop
      • March 12: Arts and Culture Commission meeting
      • March 14: Friends of the Library Book Sale
      • March 15: Three Poets Welcome Spring event
      • March 16: Art Gallery Committee meeting
      • March 17: Objective Planning Standards Stakeholder
        meeting
      • March 19: Public Art Subcommittee meeting
      • March 22: Ramana Vieira and Ensemble
      • March 29: Poet Jane Hirschfield
    • City Hall Commission Room:
      • March 16: Community Sustainability Commission meeting
      • March 25: Economic Development Board meeting

City Hall, Benicia Public Library and Benicia Community Center remain open and operational with appropriate measures in place to protect the health of staff and the community.

Benicia Unified School District, Coronavirus, Covid 19, Solano County Schools

Benicia and Solano County Schools closed for 2 weeks due to coronavirus threat

BREAKING NEWS – This school closure letter just arrived:

March 13, 2020, 1:40 PM

Dear Benicia Unified Families,

In light of the ever-changing situation with COVID-19, Solano County schools will be closed ­­­­­­­­­for 2 weeks beginning Monday, March 16, 2020 through Friday, March 27, 2020.  We will make a determination at that time about any further closures.

We did not take this decision lightly and recognize that this may cause a hardship for some families.  Each school district and charter school will continue to communicate directly with families and staff with updates about re-opening, learning alternatives, and the availability of school meals.

School administrators across Solano County appreciate the proactive illness prevention steps that our families and staff have committed to. Illness prevention steps make a significant difference in safeguarding the health of our communities, and we encourage continued attention in this effort.

We will be sending follow-up communication regarding specifics for BUSD school closures.

Sincerely,
Dr. Charles Young
Superintendent
Benicia Unified School District Superintendent

Coronavirus, Covid 19, Travis Air Force Base

First person account of troubled quarantine at Travis Air Force Base

Two Crockett residents were on the cruise ship, now quarantined at Travis, can’t get tested

Here is a first-person account of bureaucratic delays and health care failures from Salli Spoon, who is quarantined at Travis AFB and wrote to Donald Zampa:

SALLI SPOON of Crocket CA, now at Travis AFB:

“I and my fellow quarantined passengers need your help.

All of us have been exposed to coronavirus. We are in federal custody at the Travis Air Force base. We have yet to be tested for coronavirus. We were first told we would be tested before we disembarked. We were not. Then we were told we would be tested upon our arrival at Travis. We were not tested. Yesterday morning I asked when we would be tested. I was told that we would be tested only if we requested testing. I requested testing. Yesterday evening, I asked when I would be tested, per my request. I was told I would be assigned a “case worker” in two or three days. This person would answer all my questions.

In the meantime, a Canadian from the Grand Princess was tested when this person arrived in Toronto. This person tested positive.

Our population at Travis is older and, many, have underlying health issues. Testing would let us know if there are any active cases and would establish a baseline to work from. This would let the government know that when they release us that we would not be carrying the virus into the general population.

Please, wherever you live, call you Senators and congresspeople let them know what is going on here. Please ask them to put pressure on get more testing kits;

Thank you for your help.”

[Mr. Zampa has sent this to Congressman Mike Thompson]

Benicia Unified School District, Coronavirus, Covid 19

Benicia Schools – March 13 9am update on coronavirus

Parents of Benicia students received this letter from Superintendent Charles Young at around 9am on March 13.  Note that later on the 13th, another letter announced a 2-week school closure throughout Solano County.

COVID-19 Update 3-13-20

Mar 13, 2020

Dear Benicia Families.

Like all school districts, we are working closely with the health department regarding the effects of the CoronaVirus. Regarding the possibility of school closure, our staff has been working to provide continuous learning opportunities during any planned school closure timeline. All students have access to an online Virtual Learning Platform through Google Classroom.

Your students will be checking today to see if they can log into their Google Classroom and will be bringing home their login information so they can access their classes from home. While we will not be able to mirror the regular classroom experience, staff is working to provide a level of ongoing learning with the goal of keeping students engaged as we navigate potential school closure timelines.

We are asking every family to complete this SHORT SURVEY [link deleted here – intended only for Benicia students’ families] about your child’s ability to access technology devices (i.e. phone, computer, iPads, etc.) and internet at home. Thank you for completing this survey as early as possible so we can plan to address any potential needs. 

We know closing schools for any duration can be a burden to families and we want to provide as many services as possible during this time. We are also working on plans to continue providing student meals at selected schools during any closure.

We will keep you updated throughout the day including additional details and information as we continue to develop plans to keep learning going in the event of school closure.

Thank you for your patience and partnership during this challenging time.

Dr. Charles Young
Superintendent