Reopening School Buildings
I am interested in your thoughts about school building reopenings.
1) How has it been for your child to be back in their school buildings, even in a limited way?
2) Do you see safety protocols being enforced?
3) Do expect/want school buildings to be fully reopened on a regular school schedule in the fall?
Here’s an article from The Atlantic that says that right now, some of the concern over COVID appears to be performative, either thru habit or fear or both.
Alex Goldstein, a progressive PR consultant who was a senior adviser to Representative Ayanna Pressley’s 2018 campaign, told me. “Either you believe that you have a responsibility to take action to protect a person you don’t know OR you believe you have no responsibility to anybody who isn’t in your immediate family.”
My take is the former because I choose to live in a society. On a day-to-day basis, sure, my family comes first for me. But we do live in a society.
I don’t have a problem being outdoors and not wearing a mask (and by that I mean being outdoors for a period of time, not just walking from your car/bike to the door to a business).
But I choose to wear a mask indoors because even if I am now vaccinated, others are not. I could get COVID and not really be affected but I sure could pass it to someone who is not vaccinated.
As you may have heard in the news, we are reaching a point where there is a surplus of vaccines with not as many people coming in to get vaccinated. So here’s another question - are you going to allow your teen to get vaccinated when that comes online?
Following news of school districts and their challenges, one interesting fact seems to be the norm - white parents loudly want schools reopened but black/brown families less so. (I note that data does not come from any research but rather, many news stories.)
Most of these stories also share a compelling reason: students’ mental health.
Here’s a good story from Mother Jones:
According to a December report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 62 percent of white parents strongly or somewhat agreed that school should reopen this fall, while less than half of Black parents agreed. In a Pew Research survey conducted in mid-February, Black adults were the most likely of all racial groups to worry about the health risks of reopening—80 percent of Black adults wanted kids to stay remote until teachers were vaccinated, for example, while only 51 percent of white adults felt the same.
And no wonder: The pandemic has dealt a disproportionately heavy blow to Black Americans. According to CDC data published in September, Black youth accounted for 29 percent of COVID-19 deaths among people under 21, twice the percentage for white youth. The federal agency also found Black children under 18 at a significantly higher risk of hospitalization—almost four times higher than white children and teens.
But the white families fear their students are so depressed about the cutoff of activities/friends/classes, that some students might want to commit suicide. The research I read on that says that more pediatricians are hearing from their school-aged patients that the child is thinking about it but there is no uptick in teen suicides since the pandemic.
But black/brown families fear for their student’s mental health probably for the same reasons as white students but with the added concern of going back to a school environment where their child is fearful about other students’ behavior towards them as well as teachers/principals treatment of them.
However, there is also the worry about learning dropoff and that it will turn out to be more acute for black/brown students.
According to Pew’s findings, a majority of white adults say the prospect of students falling behind academically and the negative impact of school closures on students’ emotional well-being should weigh heavily in reopening decisions.
I would add that many black/brown parents also do not believe in the health of the school building where their child attends school. Former Superintendent Juneau told the Board that every building’s HVAC system had been assessed and issues “addressed.” I wish I could say that I trusted the district to make sure the air circulation is good and cleanliness measures will be followed but, in the past, the district has made many claims about school buildings that were not true.
Another issue? Not enough nurses or counselors. From my reading, I’ll say the overwhelming majority of parents are worried about their child having anxiety at school after the reopenings and who will address that with their child.
Yet another issue? Continuing remote learning. My understanding is that teachers are finding it incredibly difficult to teach in a building as well as teaching remotely. In the paragraph below, you can see what concerns some parents:
Where will the staff come from to give us that individual attention when our children are not understanding the work?” she asked. “Will the message be that in-person is the norm, we gave you an option, and you could’ve gotten better service if you came into the building?”
So another question: do you want to continue remote? How long should the district continue remote service before then directing those students to an online school?
Comments
This partial day / partial week hybrid model with no proper transportation or time for transportation is crushing for me as a single working parent. The endless hours of screen time is crushing for my kids. Some teachers are using the in-person hours as "study hours" with the at home kids being mandatory on the class meeting. They are sitting in silence on their computers doing homework assignments.
There was a great article in the NYT over the weekend about families being hesitant to return for other reasons, including that some students were now working full time jobs to support families, and students watching siblings. How did we let remote school exploit students for labor to the detriment of their education? These are like 19th Century problems dressed up in 2021 circumstances.
Appreciate the attention to racial dynamics here, but leaders need to lead and ask WHY and HOW can we make you feel safer to return? Perhaps a grace year with a remote option is acceptable until vaccinations and public health stabilizes, but our Board is just signaling to the community that no, schools are not safe, and that is not true.
There is a Seattle Times article reporting that Bellevue, Highline, Tacoma and others have announced a plan. They all have standalone remote academies available. Most of the country has already moved on to these approaches. That Seattle is still sorting through this is negligence, harmful, and will have political and financial consequences.
Buildings or Bust
To answer your questions:
1) My kids were thrilled to be allowed to return to their school building, if even for a few hours each day. Seeing their friends and teachers in person has resulted in a huge improvement in their mood and ability to learn.
2) Safety protocols are being enforced, possibly too much. The playground was off-limits for a while, which I found very strange since the playgrounds at city parks have been open for months. I'm happy that the kids are being allowed to play on them now, especially since Covid is not likely to be transmitted by touching surfaces.
3) I certainly expect schools to be operating full-time and in-person in the fall for grades K-12. Barring a new Covid variant that renders the vaccine useless, there is absolutely no reason for schools to remain in the hybrid model. I have no problem with families being offered the option to remain remote, but full-time, in-person learning must be in place by fall for all who want it. Some families simply cannot function under remote or hybrid learning conditions; making these types of educational models even semi-permanent would be a complete disaster for most children and their parents.
2) Do you see safety protocols being enforced? Yes. I think 6 ft in the classroom is too restrictive, though, given the CDC's current guideline.
3) Do expect/want school buildings to be fully reopened on a regular school schedule in the fall? I absolutely want it, particularly after watching my child slowly lose the will to learn and become angry and withdrawn. But, do I expect it? No, which is why I am spending time and energy advocating for it to the school board, the SPS administration, and state legislators.
When it comes to the racial disparities and attitudes for returning to school buildings, I do try to continually pause to reflect on my own privilege as a white woman, with a family of two incomes, and some flexibility to make things work even though it's hard. But it does seem to me that over the past year, SPS and the board has used remote learning as a platform to conflate a lot of the issues and don't have a lot of data to back up their claims. If they had spent the last year collecting on the ground data, connecting with individual families most impacted, and then constructing a new model of school that could better serve the students most at risk...and they unveiled it in, say, January...I would have listened. But they have not spent their time trying to solve these problems and present solutions. I just can't stop thinking...if in-person school is the problem for these students, then the solution is probably improving the in-person experience not taking those kids out of school buildings and calling it solved. If keeping a remote option truly does serve these students and families better than their in-person experience, I'm all for it as an option until a better in-school experience can be offered.
1) It's been a mixed bag for my 11th grader back in person. She was/is incredibly happy to be back in person, connecting with her teachers and truly learning from them. On the first day, she reported that she learned more in one afternoon of in person math class than she had learned all year. She said something like "Imagine how great I'd be at math if I had been in person all year." So, that is both good and bittersweet. She has been a little sad that some of her friends opted not to return to in-person or are on the opposite schedule.
2) Safety protocols seem fine, as far as I know. My daughter is not reporting on any violations or concerns (at least not at Ballard HS.)
3) We absolutely both want and expect SPS schools to be open full time, in person, without computers this fall. Remote education was an acceptable solution a year ago, when we knew little about how Covid spreads. But the past year of hybrid education at SPS and reliance on screens has been entirely inadequate and actually harmful. The youth health crisis is very real. Nearly every one of my daughter's friends was seeing or seeking therapy at some point during the year, and it was not because of Covid fears or isolation. It was mostly because SPS's remote model of instruction was causing anxiety (not enough live instruction/too much reliance on independent learning/lenient attendance and grading standards reinforcing poor study habits, procrastination and allegedly cheating.)
Added comment:
It used to be that only select families understood SPS's problems (those with students in special ed, or HC or possibly caught up in a program closure or boundary move.) But now, it seems like every single parent I talk to is echoing how bad the school year was. Parents know that private schools and public schools elsewhere were open hybrid all year, and many are back full time already now. Families are largely expecting that our kids will be back full time, in-person in the fall. If this is not the case, I predict significant repercussions such as further drops in enrollment and movements to not vote for next year's school levy.
Data Matters
Data Matters
To those saying SPS should be careful in what they tell already wary parents, I say, ditto. The district is already in financial trouble and what if more parents decide to leave? That would be a disaster.
Data Matters
Vaccine hesitancy is a problem.
SV
SV
My experience is the same as RB's. It's been a godsend having my kid back in the classroom. They are clearly much happier, better adjusted, better all around. Their academic growth during remote learning was fine but that is taking off too back in the classroom. This all has conclusively shown that human beings learn from other human beings and not from screens.
As to racial equity, keeping schools closed cannot achieve equity. There is no possibility of equity by taking away something that isn't working, isn't equitable, isn't just. That would be true of every aspect of American society. We cannot just toss this all out. Instead we have to dig deep and make these institutions equitable.
SPS needs to be pushed hard to make student health and well-being the center of their work. Right now they don't carer. The bully board majority is more interested in power trips and score settling. The senior staff under Juneau were contemptuous of parents, teachers, and kids. Perhaps Brent Jones will change this, but likely not without firing the board incumbents who are up for re-election and replacing them with those who are truly committed to equity, to public education, and to the well being of every student.
Greenwoody