At webinar on school reopening, racial equity, state and county superintendents provide guidelines, not plans
Editor’s note: This webinar took place three days before the Governor’s announcement that would place all Sonoma County schools in distance learning to start the new school year. While that changes some of the discussion below, the conversation is still valuable and informs how districts will look at reopening when the county eventually comes off of the Governor’s watchlist.
At a webinar hosted by the CTE Foundation, state and local officials made it clear that school reopening plans were not going to be mandated by anything other than local decisions making, even as they admitted in-person instruction of any kind was unlikely to start the fall.
The meeting, put together by Kathy Goodacre the president and CEO of the CTE Foundation, and hosted by State Senator Mike McGuire, featured statements from Sonoma County Superintendent Dr. Steve Herrington and State Superintendent Tony Thurmond. Both superintendents then took questions from the more than 1,000 people who were watching on Zoom or Facebook live.
“The impacts of the coronavirus on our nation, the state and our community run deep,” McGuire said to start the program. “Lives have been upended and the economic fall out and impact on public education is incredibly stressful. We are most likely in a scenario where it ebbs and flows for another 12 months at least … and our goal tonight is to get as many solid answers as possible. But, if I’m honest, there won’t be any one size fits all answers for education.”
Herrington assured families in his opening statement that local school boards and superintendents “care deeply about their communities” and that they will be the ones making the final decision in regards to which plans they will finalize and how they will open in a few weeks.
Thurmond added his praise to the work of local agencies, and acknowledged that the increase in cases recently may very well change what those plans looked like two weeks ago.
“We’re grateful to our districts who are all planning how school might look,” he said. “We know it’s important for the well-being of kids and that people need to work and we have to balance that against need for safety. In last month we’ve seen an increase in cases all across the state, and tells us to move in an abundance of caution. The California Department of Education has given guidance on how to open, how to get personal protective equipment (PPE) out to schools, but even with all this have to monitor what’s happening with the incredible spike in cases. If we had to open tomorrow, I’d say we’d have to open in distance learning in most cases, but there are parts of California, rural districts, that have few cases and will be able to open.”
And that was as definitive as any answers got throughout the meeting. Multiple questions came in along the theme, such as “Is your opinion we should be better safe than sorry?” and “Bottom line, should parents prepare for distance learning this fall?” But each time and each way the question was asked it was reiterated that the decision belongs in the hands of each individual district.
Essentially, if a district was in an area without significant cases and had the ability to appropriately social distance in their school buildings, then they would likely be able to make the decision to reopen. However, in the urban and suburban districts, those criteria will likely not be able to be met, necessitating the need to start on distance learning.
“We have to respect local control, so we have to respect each district,” said Herrington. “But most will go in cautiously. The criteria the health department looks at is rate of activity, availability of hospital beds, ICU cases … and each district will be looking at that. I believe most suburban and urban districts will choose distance learnings, but those meetings are not yet set. It’s a deliberative process … but most will say they can’t meet the requirements from the health department.”
Locally, Santa Rosa and Petaluma have already announced their intentions to open on a distance learning model. Windsor, Healdsburg, Cloverdale and west county plan to make their decisions the last week of July or the first week of August.
However, Herrington was quick to point out that the watch list, which Sonoma County was recently added to has no bearing on schools.
(Editor’s note: this is no longer the case due to the governor’s recent order. As long as the county is on the watchlist, all schools must do distance learning.)
“(Schools) are an essential service, and the watch list is for not essential businesses,” he said. “Our environments are based on more stringent requirements. So just because we’re on the state watch list doesn’t mean we’re not open.
Special education students have been of special concern during the pandemic, and Thurmond took a moment to discuss the ways the state is trying to help create an equitable experience, primarily through offering extensive teachers training and professional development on how to meet the needs of those students in a remote environment.
Herrington said that Marin schools had piloted a distance learning program for students with disabilities and that that was the model Sonoma County schools would be using this fall.
Another concern is the issue of childcare, whether on distance learning or a hybrid model, for days when students are not in class. Thurmond said they state is discussing a “pod” model where a cohort of students is created in childcare environments to keep exposures limited and to provide space for distance learning even if kids are not at home. These pods may be housed in school or district areas, in day cares or other facilities, and may have support or staffing from districts to help with distance learning.
Those plans are still evolving and would depend on availability of funding and support.
On questions of equity, including lack of laptops and internet connectivity, which disproportionately effects students of color, English learners, students with disability and economically disadvantaged students, Thurmond discussed several initiatives to try to help close that gap.
“This is why I’ve created a task force on closing digital divide. Why wouldn’t you want every student to have a device and high-speed internet? From my standpoint it’s an embarrassment for our state that we have the riches and technology we have, and we have this gap. Our students deserve better,” he said. “We realized when we moved into distance learning, we had to address needs of students but also want to go for a moonshot, we want to close divide once and for all. Even if kids are in person, they have to have devices that allow them to take advantage of what is being offered. There’s a lot of bills to create more infrastructure and connectivity. The pandemic has called us to deal with this blemish but we won’t stop until the divide is closed.”
Community members who want to help can donate to the cause at do********@cd*.gov.
According to Thurmond it will cost approximately $500 million to get devices and hot spots in the hands of every student, but close to $4 billion to install permanent, new infrastructure around the state.
Other questions:
Will there be a move to ensure staff and faculty are wearing masks in mandatory fashion?
Herrington: The guidance says all adults on campus must wear masks, and the governor now says all students as well. Masks are mandatory, and remember visitation on campus will also be restricted. Masks will be a mandatory practice as will visitation restrictions.
How will distance learning be improved this fall based on experiences from the spring?
Herrington: We made that decision on March 13 and we had to move quickly to make a decision. We weren’t at all prepared for that, we had to develop it … Under (California Senate Bill 98) now we have structured guidelines on distance learning, and there must be in-person instruction from teachers within those guidelines, and each board has to meet instructional minutes and minutes of interaction between teachers and students, attendance must be taken, and districts must provide additional services for underrepresented students. It’s all mapped out; 120 sections were added to the education code to address distance learning.
Herrington also added SCOE had made seminars on distance learning available to teachers and paid them a stipend to attend. The course was so popular they’d had to add another section. The classes will continue through the beginning of August.
A lot of staff are concerned and fearful about coming back to school when there’s a surge in virus numbers. The county told us today out of 67 ICU beds available, 61 are filled, and we’re seeing a spike in numbers. What do you say to teachers who are fearful?
Herrington: The anxiety is real. I experienced it myself with a personal family loss. On May 1, I lost a family member to COVID, and I had to deal with that reality. But we also have a professional responsibility to our community and we are essential workers under the law, so we will be working with communities as we go forward. Starting with distance learning puts teachers at ease, but the criteria is to move back toward cohort learning, eventually.
Who will supply and pay for PPE and cleaning supplies?
Herrington: PPE for the first 60 days the California Office of Emergency Services is providing supplies of PPE (through the) county office for public school and also for charters and private schools. Thereafter, districts will be part of a statewide pool of purchasing agreements to buy supplies. But those are not subsidized unless we get the HEROES act passed.
Editor’s note: Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions Act or HEROES Act (H.R. 6800) is proposed legislation passed by the United States House Of Representatives on May 15, 2020 that is worth $3 trillion in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. After passage by the House, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other U.S. Senate Republicans have stated that it will be “dead on arrival” in the Senate.
There are concerns there are not enough substitute teachers, are you doing any contingency planning?
Thurmond: As you say, we’ve always struggled with having sufficient numbers of substitute teachers. We have a teacher shortage in this state which has been exacerbated by current conditions. The hybrid model relies on having people available, and it does require having access to subs. the availability of subs is different in every county and district and as we continue our efforts around recruiting and retention, we need to build our sub pools and teacher workforce.
Herrington: We had a sub shortage last year and a lot of our subs are seniors who are in high risk groups. If we go to a cohort model, we will want a cadre of subs for each cohort, and that divides up the resources we have. We’re going to have a very big problem with subs, and its important to remember that subs also don’t have access to the same health insurance and other support that regular teachers do.
There are a lot of questions about if a school employee tests positive, what will the protocols be?
Herrington: We have spent the last week and half working with the health officer to develop protocols and we sent out draft to local districts today. What will happen is, there is a notification process that goes through contact tracing and students and teachers are noticed and may be put on 14-day quarantine, or perhaps, (but not necessarily) close down the school. We know that we will have a protocol in place to follow, and it’s being developed in Spanish and will be disseminated to parents about what is supposed to happen in the home and the school and the health department. The protocol has gone through two vettings, one with our own legal counsel and one with county council.
What about fall sports?
Herrington: lf you look at the county road map, contact sports are restricted in the county health guide … sports with direct contact, football, wrestling will probably be tabled. What we might see is tennis or golf, but not regular contact sports. We also have to look at choir, and perhaps fine a different way of teaching music. It’s not just sports, the arts are also going to have to adapt. Of course, if we’re on distance learning, there will be no on at school for sports.
Editor’s note: The California Interscholastic Federation will be meeting on July 20 to discuss the future of fall sports.
A broadcast of the webinar is available for viewing at www.facebook.com/sonomacountyctefund.
