By Samuel Strait, Reporter At Large – September 2, 2021 For a couple of weeks now we've been asked by the Del Norte Unified School District to prepare for in-school learning. During the course of the the previous local school year the disaster became evident to even the most ardent supporters of on-line-learning that it was failing miserably to educate our youth. In the run up to this year's anticipated school openings, parents have been greeted with the convoluted requirements the District is requiring just to get in the school house doors. More masking, social distancing and now testing and quarantining over fears of Covid-19's Delta Variant. While it has long been understood that if you were young and healthy there was little to fear for a vast majority of the local students while attending school. It is unfortunate, that the local school district has made it harder than it really has to be. As we are still at a time where many students are recommended by vaccination restrictions to avoid vaccination until they reach the age of twelve, the notion that the school district has injected themselves in the idea that those unvaccinated must endure regular testing when few are in any danger from Covid-19. It seems a bridge too far. When faced with a bewildering array of potential quarantine situations, it might be difficult for most parents and students to function in the local in-school setting for the coming year. The school district was already facing the loss of a large portion of their student population in 2020-2021 due to school policies and was looking to rebound in this coming school year, so much so, that the projected enrollment, at least according to the Covid tracker revealed by the district in several local publications was to be 4103. While granted this number 4103 was a "projected" number of students returning to school for the 2021-2022 year it is important to note that projected numbers do not reflect the amount of money the District will receive in future years. That number is from actual attendance and it has been reported as near 3600 students on the first day of classes. The school district at the beginning of 2021 was bemoaning the numbers then and forecasting loss of millions of dollars of ADA money should the school population numbers fail to rebound. They have not. There can be many reasons for why this is the case, shrinking County population, home schooling, private school enrollment, and dropouts. Those reasons do little to help the District with its shrinking student population and with its potential shrinking bottom line. What is striking about the current chaos at the local District with student population is that the revelation of the abysmal job the District had been doing in the delivery of education. It is currently ranked 3/10 or in the lower 50% of all California's school districts. While this has been the case for some time now, on-line learning revealed to many parents just how poor of a job was being done. It shouldn't be much of a surprise that parents who actually care about their child's education just might be searching around for alternatives. There is the distinct possibility of continued shrinkage if the District's current ham handed approach to in class learning continues to be the norm for this school year. It is not as though the District has a stellar record delivering education. With other alternatives available, the trickle of defections from public schools could very well become a flood. If the District's decisions to spend money unwisely, the $47 million bond proposal, the purchase of the the medical offices to serve as a district version of social services for homeless students, and the questionable expenditure of a previous $25 million bond with little to show for it being among them. That coupled with the announcement of deferred maintenance and neglect of school buildings to the tune of millions more dollars for what has to be many years of neglect, it should be understandable that more parents are done with supporting an obviously broken system and wish for their children to escape this growing train wreck.