From: lubbockonline.com
By: Matt Dotray
As of now, school districts in Lubbock are moving forward with in-person classes beginning next month.
While it hasn’t been the case for most policies related to COVID-19, this is a local decision. Prompted by the increasing spread of the coronavirus across the state, the Texas Education Agency issued guidelines allowing school districts to teach remotely for the first four weeks of the 2020-21 school year.
After that, school districts can request an additional four weeks, meaning the first eight weeks of the school year could be online only. Classes at Lubbock ISD begin August 17, so they could be taught online until October.
The state’s more urban districts have already taken advantage of this option. According to the Dallas Morning News, school districts in the cities of Garland, Grand Prairie, Mesquite and Richardson, as well as in Tarrant, Harris and Travis Counties, will begin the year virtual-only.
Dallas’ school board voted to push back the school year three weeks, telling the Dallas Morning News the district needed additional time to hone its plans for offering virtual-only instruction.
On Thursday, LISD Superintendent Dr. Kathy Rollo told the school board they’re moving ahead with the normal schedule. Lubbock-Cooper and Frenship ISDs are also scheduled to begin classes in August. Frenship will begin classes August 17, just like LISD, and Lubbock-Cooper is scheduled to start classes on August 19.
Rollo said school districts in other parts of the state that have been asking for an extension haven’t had summer classes to prepare their new safety measures, which LISD has. She said LISD is ahead of the curve.
Rollo told the school board the summer program has given the district a chance to practice and refine their safety protocols, including the screening stations, hallway traffic and social distancing in classrooms.
“We feel really good about what we have in place,” Rollo said. “And we’re continuing to perfect those things and make them even better, as we know we’re going to have more students in the fall.”
A petition asking the school board to delay in-person classes has been gaining some momentum, and as of Saturday, it had received 340 signatures. It’s been signed by parents, teachers and concerned citizens.
Laura Deurmyer, whose son attends Lubbock High School, started the petition along with a group of other mothers. She said they’re concerned, and starting a petition was the only thing they felt they could do.
“With the statistics right now, with the rate of cases that we have, and the positivity percentage that we have, it just seems like a huge gamble to put hundreds of kids into a building with multiple adults for eight hours a day,” Deurmyer said. “If you have hundreds of people together in a building, and spread begins, we’ve seen what happens in nursing homes and prisons.”
Deurmyer said she understands school is best taught in person, said she understands that schools want kids back to make sure they’re fed and to make sure they’re learning. Deurmyer said it’s just a big risk when lives are at stake.
Deurmyer said schools have the ability to create such a broad outbreak because everyone leaves at the end of the day. She said most people in Lubbock come into contact with a student, or a parent of a student, or a teacher.
Deurmyer spoke highly to what the Lubbock school district did by providing meals for pick-up, internet hotspots and online instructions.
She said it seems like such a big risk to open up schools, especially when community spread cases reached an all time high in Lubbock this month.
Some people left comments on the petition. One signee said parents are agonizing over the decision to send their children back to school. The commenter said it’s a decision parents shouldn’t have to make.
Another warned that with Texas Tech students returning and school districts opening up classrooms next month, Lubbock is headed toward a more severe public health crisis.
Morgan Kirkpatrick teaches at Hutchinson Middle School, and she’s one of the 340 people who’s signed the petition to keep schools closed. She teaches English language and literature for seventh-graders.
Kirkpatrick said every teacher wants to be back in the classrooms with their students, but she said all signs point to the fact that it’s not safe yet.
“We want to be back in the classroom when it’s safe for teachers and for students,” Kirkpatrick said. “Our district is doing everything they can, but it’s still a danger. Classrooms weren’t built to be socially distanced.”
Kirkpatrick said cases are ballooning in Lubbock, and she wishes schools would wait until cases at least go down to a manageable level. But she understands the situation the district is in, so her biggest wish is that state lawmakers or the TEA would jump in and delay schools across the state until it’s safer.
Rollo told the school board on Thursday the district has the blessing of the mayor and health director, who could order the school districts to go remote, per the TEA’s guidelines.
“As of right now we still believe we’re ready to start school August 17,” Rollo said this week. “Right now, (the mayor and health director) are supporting the reopening of our schools with the safety protocols in place, following TEA’s guidance.”
During the past week, the Lubbock Health Department has been confirming about 100 new cases of COVID-19 a day. On Saturday there were 1,965 active cases of COVID-19 in Lubbock County. July appears to be trending in a better direction after there were some days in the beginning of the month where the health department was announcing close to 200 new cases a day.
Of the 5,014 total confirmed cases as of Friday, 161 were in children younger than 10 years old, and 533 were in people ages 10 to 19.
All the school districts in Texas are allowing students the option to take classes online or in-person for the fall semester.
As of Thursday morning, Rollo said about 4,100 guardians or students have filled out the school district’s survey asking whether or not they’ll take in-person classes. About 32% of respondents have said they’ll be taking classes online, which Rollo said is higher than the district anticipated. However, this is a small sample size.
Rollo said this is also a higher percentage that school districts are seeing in the more rural areas. She said it appears more students in urban districts are opting to take classes online.
Frenship ISD published a “Reopening Frenship Parent Guide” on Friday that featured 20 pages detailing changes to safety and health protocols, enhanced cleaning procedures, and operational and instructional adjustments.
“We really do understand that every family has a different situation,” said Dr. Michelle McCord, superintendent of Frenship ISD, before suggesting that parents or guardians read the reopening report so they can make a decision on what’s best for their child, whether it’s virtual or in-person.
LISD also outlines its safety procedures on their website. Registration at LISD for the 2020-21 school year is open. Rollo said on the final page there will be boxes for guardians to check if their child will be taking classes online or in person.
If a student opts to take classes online, LISD is allowing the student to participate in in-person UIL activities, extracurricular activities and elective courses that cannot be taught virtually.
Lubbock-Cooper isn’t allowing this option. Lubbock-Cooper’s school board voted so that a student taking in-person extracurricular activities needs to be in all in-person classes.
Lauren Smith, president of the Lubbock Educators Association, said teachers have differing opinions about returning to classrooms. Smith said it seems to boil down to whether or not they believe social distancing, sanitization and face coverings will work in a classroom with children.
Smith, who teaches second-graders, has been in a classroom for the past few weeks during the summer session. She’s been pleasantly surprised by how well the students have been following guidelines. However, she’s only teaching six children in the classroom right now, and it’ll be more than that in the fall semester.
″(The Lubbock Educators Association) stance is we want schools to do what they can, but we want it to be when it’s safe,” Smith said. “So we’re really encouraging looking at the data, looking at the number of cases, and then making the best decision you can. We want the district to make the best choice they can.”
When schools open back up, Smith said teachers will be more susceptible to the virus. She said teachers have serious concerns if they’re at high risk, or if one of their family members is high risk. LISD said virtual students will have assigned teachers, and if teachers request it, they can be a virtual teacher.
“I feel like Lubbock ISD, for what they’re having to do, which is super unprecedented and has never been done before, has done a really good job of thinking through procedures and processes and things like that,” Smith said. “I feel like we’re in a good place as a district, but as for how people feel about that, it’s hard because everybody feels differently based on their personal situation.
Rollo said schools and teachers are facing a challenge they’ve never faced before, and she’s grateful for everybody’s understanding. She said guidelines are constantly changing, and they’re warning teachers to be prepared for changes at any given time.
The district is working with the health department for testing and contact tracing, and they have plans for deep cleaning procedures. Teachers are preparing to go remote immediately when there’s a positive case.
Rollo said she believes LISD schools can be a safe place. She also believes there’s students that need to come back to school.
“Our kids have been out of school for five-plus months, and 3/4 of our students are students living in poverty,” Rollo said. “We’ve kept them fed and we had some remote learning, but a lot of those students don’t have the resources and support at home to help them with their academic learning. Having these kids back at school is crucial.”