• California is considering a plan to re-open schools earlier than usual — in late July or early August — to make up for the loss of classroom instruction due to the COVID-19 pandemic, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said.
  • In California — and across the country — schools have been closed for more than a month to stem COVID-19 infections.
  • California students are not expected to return to the classroom for the remainder of the academic year.
  • Newsom said if students return to schools in the fall, they should expect changes to day-to-day operations.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday that schools could start the upcoming academic year earlier than usual in order to account for the loss of in-person classroom instruction due to the coronavirus pandemic.

"One of the things is we socialized the idea of starting the next school year earlier in the state of California to address the issue of learning loss," he told NBC News' Savannah Guthrie in an interview aired on "Today."

Newsom, who has served as California's governor since last year, also said he planned to modify the state's stay-at-home order in a matter of weeks to allow for some business sectors currently closed by the mandate to re-open.

He said Tuesday the start of the upcoming school year for California students could be moved to either the end of July or at the beginning of August, according to Politico. At the beginning of April, Newsom announced schools in California would be closed for the remainder of the current academic year. Leaders in other parts of the country have made similar announcements.

Guthrie retorted that the governor's suggestion would appease parents worried state leaders might announce the upcoming year school year would be canceled or delayed — not started early.

"We're hopeful," he said of getting students back in the classroom. "The data will make the determination for us. it's not back to normal — it's modified," he told Guthrie.

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When schools re-open, it's not going to be business as usual

Parents and students could expect staggered school times for "different cohorts of kids" in order to reduce the number of students together at one time, Newsom said, and school cafeterias would likely remain closed, predicting students would eat lunch in classrooms instead. There would be a "radically modified" recess period for students, in addition to changes to ventilation systems and ramped up cleaning efforts.

"It's very difficult, but we've got to do that if we're ever going to get the economy moving again," he told Guthrie, adding that the re-opening of schools would allow parents who can't afford child care to go back to work.

"We have to do it in a way that keeps our kids safe, our teachers safe, and ultimately our community safe," Newsom said.

For now, Newsom urged residents to continue social distancing, calling recent photos that showed crowds of people at California beaches a "real concern and point of caution."

"I'm worried about erasing all the gains in a short period of time," he said, as warmer weather brings people outdoors.

Newsom said other state leaders who have decided to relax or eliminate stay-at-home orders have increased the pressure on him from Californias to re-open the state. Even so, Newsom told Guthrie he did not plan to cave to pressure and protests to relax social distancing.

"I don't dismiss any of those protests or any of those points of criticism," Newsom said, before adding "it will be data and health that guide" his decision when to re-open schools and other businesses.

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