April 8, 11 a.m. — Millions of schoolchildren have been out of classrooms for more than a year, but now most communities are working to get at least some children physically back in school before the summer. The Davis Joint Unified school district will reopen April 12.

How can we return to in-class learning without triggering another surge in infections? Alongside masks, physical distancing and weekly testing, Davis schools will use HEPA air filters in all classrooms to clean the air.  In addition, Healthy Davis Together is piloting air filter sampling and surface testing in some schools to be able to track possible infections down to the room level.

This Thursday, April 8, we’ll be talking with two people involved in these efforts getting Davis children back to school safely. 

• John Bowes is superintendent of the Davis Joint Unified School District. Before joining the district in 2016, he was assistant superintendent of human resources in the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District and spent more than 24 years in the Los Angeles Unified School District serving in teaching and administrative roles.
• David Coil is a research scientist at the UC Davis Genome Center who has been involved in local efforts to control the pandemic, including the free testing offered through UC Davis and Healthy Davis Together. He helps lead environmental sampling efforts for the virus, focusing on air filter and surface sampling.

The conversation, hosted by Soterios Johnson, will be streamed live on Facebook,  YouTube and Twitter beginning at 11 a.m. Thursday, April 8.  

Questions can be submitted via Facebook and Twitter either in advance or during the show.