Rural California schools have been open for months. It's taken a learning curve

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."