MESSAGE
| DATE | 2021-02-16 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
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| SUBJECT | Subject: [Hangout - NYLXS] Schools are for students or teachers?
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wsj.com
School Reopening Pits Parents Against Teachers: “Is There a Word Beyond
‘Frustrating’?”
Kris Maher and Jennifer Calfas
18-22 minutes
MT. LEBANON, Pa.—Patrick Cozzens had never spoken up at a school board
meeting until he stood in front of a crowd of angry parents earlier this
month to read a statement his 16-year-old daughter helped him to write.
“I’ve watched her go from a child that has loved school, thrived at
school her entire life, to one now, using her own words, who just
doesn’t care anymore,” he said, his voice breaking. “What are you
focused on? Get our children back!”
Dozens of parents who live in the affluent community outside Pittsburgh
erupted in applause, and the president of the school board rapped his
gavel for order. Other parents, some via Zoom, and at least one teacher
opposed a plan introduced by the superintendent to return the town’s
5,300 students to classrooms full-time in March, up from two days a week
at most currently.
“The thought of returning to a full in-person day amid a global pandemic
is so overwhelming that it could honestly bring me to tears,” said Emily
Rindels, a fifth grade teacher in Mt. Lebanon, who teaches about half of
her students at a time in the classroom, under the district’s hybrid model.
Nearly a year ago, the coronavirus pandemic shut down school districts
and sent more than 50 million school children home to learn remotely,
setting many students back and straining families. Now, the reopening
debate has reached a fever pitch, polarizing communities across the country.
Members of the Chicago Teachers Union last month protest Mayor Lori
Lightfoot's plan to reopen schools.
Photo: Dominic Gwinn/Zuma Press
Parents and officials who favor reopening for in-person education say
their own experiences confirm research showing that children are being
harmed academically, emotionally and physically by the isolation of
remote learning. Kids, they argue, need to be back in classrooms as soon
as possible. They point to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention recent urging of schools to reopen under new safety
guidelines, and research that shows low transmission in schools when
safety protocols are followed.
On the other side, teachers and union officials—often joined by another
cohort of parents—say reopening too soon could risk the lives of
teachers and students, and increase community spread of the virus. They
argue some schools lack the resources to reopen safely, such as proper
ventilation, and that it’s difficult to enforce mask-wearing and social
distancing among children. They say vaccines are pivotal to reopening
schools, but say districts and teachers face hurdles to getting shots
amid the bumpy rollout.
Meanwhile some parents, particularly in Black and Hispanic communities,
remain hesitant to send their children back due to safety concerns and
mistrust in school districts. A CDC study said non-white parents,
including Black and Hispanic families, were less likely to support
schools reopening for all students than white parents. Black parents
worried more than white parents about how strictly safety protocols
would be followed, and were more concerned about the risk that their
children could contract the virus and bring it home, the study said.
City officials and school districts who also want students back in
classrooms are increasingly facing off against teachers’ unions slowing
reopening.
After a months-long battle, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the Chicago
Teachers Union reached an agreement to reopen more schools that averted
a strike, but left educators frustrated.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, center, observes a classroom last week at
the William H. Brown Elementary School. In-person learning for some
students began Thursday.
Photo: Shafkat Anowar/Press Pool
The school district in Montclair, N.J., sued its teacher’s union this
month to force teachers to return to school full-time. The lawsuit is
pending.
San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera sued the city’s school
district earlier this month, arguing the district was violating
students’ state constitutional rights to attend public school. The
district and teachers union recently announced an agreement that would
allow schools to reopen under certain community spread thresholds. The
San Francisco mayor said even with an agreement in place, classrooms
could remain closed the rest of the school year.
Frustrated parents said the situation shows they have little power in
decisions that impact the health and well-being of their children.
“What this has really unveiled, this pandemic and how this situation has
gone with schools reopening around the country, there’s a bit of a power
imbalance in terms of parents. We don’t have representation in the
bargaining room,” said Meredith Willa Dodson, executive member of
Decreasing the Distance, a group of San Francisco Unified School
District parents who organized last year to reopen schools. “It not only
impacts teachers, but it also impacts our children. First and foremost
our children’s education is what we’re talking about here.”
The toughest fights are often in districts where classes have remained
fully remote since last spring. Others districts have allowed students
to attend in-person two days a week, and some districts have given
parents the option to return full-time or stay remote.
“As this goes on and on and on and the more that students are not back
in the classroom, I think this is going to continue to elevate,” said
Don Grotting, the superintendent of Beaverton School District in the
Portland, Ore., metro area.
His district, where classes are still remote with hybrid learning not
slated to begin until April, is bargaining with the teachers union, and
parents are staging protests outside school administration buildings.
“Is there a word beyond ‘frustrating’?” said Samantha Vembu, a Beaverton
School District parent who may send her kindergartener struggling with
isolation to an open private school across state lines in Vancouver,
Wash. “It just makes you want to hit your head and cry.”
Ms. Vembu says she knows school officials are in a tough position, but
that “schools are not supposed to be employers first. They’re supposed
to be teaching children. That is why they’re there. But the truth is, I
think the district acts like its only job is to be an employer.”
Sara Schmitt, president of the Beaverton Education Association, said she
understands parents’ desires to reopen sooner rather than later. But she
says even with vaccine access, the teachers union worries about spread
amongst students and the community. “It’s really a lot more questions
than answers at this point,” she said. “It feels like we’re sort of
forgetting about the pandemic in wanting to reopen schools at the risk
of spreading Covid more and prolonging the pandemic.”
When compared to adults, children and teens under 18 with Covid-19 are
less likely to show symptoms, may be infected less often and aren’t as
likely to experience severe illnesses or die, according a CDC analysis.
Some children have developed rare inflammatory syndrome. As of the end
of January, 203 children 18 years old and younger have died in the U.S.,
according to the National Center for Health Statistics. Black and
Hispanic children were at higher risk of hospitalization and admission
to intensive-care units.
In schools, transmission between staff members was more common than
between students, according to several studies.
Some school districts are reporting declining attendance and enrollment,
lower test scores and teacher shortages. Children are struggling with
depression, anxiety, and isolation, and gaining weight, prompting
parents to send their kids to private schools, switch to home-schooling,
or move to find open classrooms elsewhere.
Teacher union leaders say that educators want to be back in the
classroom but have a right to their own safety. Some union officials
have cast blame on the Trump administration’s handling of the
coronavirus pandemic and vaccine distribution delays.
President Joe Biden initially pledged to reopen the majority of K-8
schools in his first 100 days in office; the White House later clarified
that teaching classes in person one day a week would qualify.
Leaders of the American Federation of Teachers and National Education
Association, two of the nation’s most prominent teachers unions, said
they support the Biden administration’s updated aim. The unions, which
backed Mr. Biden in the election, said they also support the latest CDC
guidance and have pushed for educators to be prioritized for vaccines.
Teachers who have pushed against reopening plans say they worry about
the continuing spread of the virus and bringing it home to family members.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers.
Photo: Mark Lennihan/Associated Press
“I understand parents’ frustration,” said Randi Weingarten, president of
the American Federation of Teachers. “But the teachers and their unions
didn’t create the pandemic.”
The National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers union,
with three million members, found that 64% of its members surveyed
between late January and early February were working in school buildings
at least part-time.
During the first week of February, parent groups supporting reopening
held rallies in roughly 20 states, including Minnesota, Pennsylvania and
Colorado. Michelle Walker, of Lafayette, Ore., said that she helped
create a Facebook group called Open Schools USA in December, after she
saw her 9-year-old daughter struggling with remote learning since last
March. The group is now affiliated with similar ones in 34 states.
“We felt there wasn’t enough attention on a national level on the health
consequences that this was having on kids,” she said.
Maritza Guridy, a Philadelphia public schools parent and a bilingual
secretary at a school in the district, recently protested reopening
schools buildings as a member of the teachers union. She has worked in
her school building since August, but she says more safety measures are
needed before students return. But she worries about families struggling
with remote learning.
“I’m trying to be Switzerland here. And a lot of times, I can’t be
Switzerland,” said Ms. Guridy, a council member in the National Parents
Union, a parent advocacy organization.
People in San Francisco, Calif. demand in-person education.
Photo: Santiago Mejia/The San Francisco Chronicle/Getty Images
In Columbia, Mo., school district officials have alleged that parents
showed up at the homes of school administrators and board members,
screamed at them in public and shared personal addresses online,
prompting the district to use private security.
One parent has sent more than 1,200 emails to district officials during
the pandemic, including a message with an image showing a severely
burned child suggesting kids would suffer if kept out of classrooms.
Students returned to classrooms under a hybrid model in January
following school board decisions, after pressure from parents, at the
end of last year.
Temporary resolutions have eased tensions in some communities. In
January, the schools superintendent in tiny Wyoming, Ohio, decided after
months of parent input from both sides and analyzing Covid-19 case data
to give parents of the district’s 2,000 students the option to come back
full-time. The district permitted some teachers at greater risk from
Covid-19 to teach from their homes while they are projected onto a
screen in classrooms.
Today, 75% of students in the town north of Cincinnati are back in the
classroom, while 25% are continuing with remote classes.
The state departments of health and education issued guidance on two
factors in his decision to reopen, said Tim Weber, superintendent of the
Wyoming City Schools. Students didn’t have to quarantine after being
exposed to someone Covid-19 positive, as long masks were worn in
classrooms, and it was acceptable to have less than six feet of distance
between students.
A school district spokeswoman said the new CDC guidelines will be among
topics discussed this week at a meeting of the district’s science
advisory team.
Elsewhere fights are continuing to tear at close-knit communities.
In Mt. Lebanon, some parents have been campaigning since last summer to
get students back into classrooms full-time. Tensions have been at a
boil in recent weeks and both sides were waiting in recent days for the
school board to vote on whether to fully reopen in March.
Kavita Fischer, a child psychiatrist with two sons in elementary school,
said families who support fully reopening coordinate on a Facebook group
she helps run called Open Our Schools—We Support Brick & Mortar in Mt.
Lebanon, which now has more than 1,000 members.
In October, schools reopened classrooms by offering a hybrid model that
allows middle and high school students to attend school two days a week.
Younger children have the option of attending elementary school five
half-days a week.
Patrick Cozzens, second from left, spoke at a school board meeting about
his teenage daughter’s struggle with remote learning.
Photo: Neil Strosnider
Mr. Cozzens said in an interview that under the hybrid model his
daughter has only attended school in-person four days since early
November because of snow days and other cancellations. On remote
learning days, he said, she sometimes spends 22 hours a day in her room,
coming down only for meals. He said she keeps in touch with friends
online and has a strong support network.
Joelle Schultz, a parent who opposes students returning full-time, says
teachers should have the opportunity to get vaccinated before they have
to return to the classroom fulltime. After last week’s raucous school
board meeting she said, “the community is in shambles.”
Ms. Schultz belongs to a Facebook group called Keep Our Schools Safe!
Mt. Lebanon, which has about 200 members.
The divisions are visible driving through her neighborhood, said Ms.
Schultz, whose five children take remote only classes because she and
her husband think it’s the safest option. Yards around her have signs
calling for schools to reopen, so she put a sign in her own yard with a
message thanking the district’s teachers.
Prior to a recent board meeting, Ms. Schultz said a friend texted her to
stop speaking at meetings and worry about her own family. “I won’t
consider the person a friend anymore,” she said.
Joelle Schultz favors a delay in reopening in-person school. Pictured
with her daughter, Sadie, who is in kindergarten.
Photo: Todd Schultz
Susan Uffelman, a parent who is in favor of opening schools full-time
said she thinks the divisions will take a long time to heal in the
community. She said some criticism online has insinuated that supporters
of reopening want teachers to die.
“There is a small segment of our community who is not happy about how
vocal we’ve been and how much pressure we’ve put on the school
district,” she said. “I think it will probably take a long time for this
to fade away.”
At Mt. Lebanon’s Monday night school board meeting, held on Zoom,
parents on both sides voiced opinions again during the more than
five-hour meeting, with some saying the district doesn’t currently meet
the CDC’s new guidelines for reopening.
Valerie Brown, the president of the local teachers union, suggested
postponing the vote until March 8 and then considering fully opening all
schools later that month.
A survey by the district last week found that 58% of secondary school
parents would choose four days a week in school if it were offered, and
32% would stay fully remote. The survey also showed 77% of elementary
school parents said they would choose five full days a week if offered.
Pre-kindergarten teacher Sarah McCarthy works with a student at Dawes
Elementary in Chicago.
Photo: Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Press Pool
The board passed Superintendent Timothy Steinhauer’s plan to expand
in-person classes for middle and high school students to four days a
week starting on March 1, as long as the level of community spread in
the county goes down. Those schools could move to five days a week on
March 29.
The board decided to table a vote to expand elementary schools to five
full days a week.
“I guess we’re just punting,” said parent Elyssa Wingertsahn.
--
So many immigrant groups have swept through our town
that Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological
proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir 1998
http://www.mrbrklyn.com
DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002
http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software
http://www.brooklyn-living.com
Being so tracked is for FARM ANIMALS and extermination camps,
but incompatible with living as a free human being. -RI Safir 2013
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