School Board Comments June 29, 2020
Good afternoon Members of the Board,
I want you to know that I understand the difficult situation that all of you are in today with the decision that you must make concerning the reopening of the schools. I do not believe that the three options sitting in front of you should be your only choices. These options are not innovative or creative and some schools or levels may need additional flexibility.
I first spoke to the board in early February about the importance of preparing our schools for the coming pandemic. I believe that it was prior to Mr. Moroski going on his paternity leave. That warning was ignored, and I was looked at like I had 5 heads. We were closed 5-6 weeks later and never returned. During those weeks No planning took place to prepare for a school closure. I believe that we were even told during a board meeting that CPS would be staying open and following the NYC Model and we all saw how that worked out for NYC. Over 65 educators died of COVID. I was glad that our Governor and State Health Commissioner took action and did not allow Ohioans to follow that pathway. I just want to remind everyone that Hamilton County is currently in a spike and the numbers are replicating the death traps of the nursing homes and prisons earlier in this pandemic.
LET ME SHARE the data from a survey we sent out to teachers on Friday afternoon. This survey closed this morning. These results are very different than what your survey reflected in your plans. I do believe that the teachers who responded did so based on your presentation last week.
Let me begin….
• 971 members responded
• 98% of members said that they reviewed the district’s plan for reopening schools
• 71% supported Blended Learning with 6ft of social distancing
• 29% supported In-Person Learning with 3 ft of social distancing
• Of the 5 Plans
o Plan 1 -Blended had 54% support
o Plan 2 -Blended had 10% support
o Plan 3 -Blended had 6% support
o Plan 4 -In Person had 10% support
o Plan 5 -In Person had 20% support
• 40% of teachers are considered high–risk for exposure to Covid
• 60% of teachers are not considered high-risk for exposure
How will there be enough teachers if 40% of teachers are in the medically high-risk category? Hopefully, teachers’ safety and well-being will be taken into consideration:
• Examples: Diabetes, Pregnancy, Asthma, Immunity Difficulties, Cancer Treatment, etc.
I’m glad that your resolution references looking at other districts, hopefully you looked at urban districts in areas with high infection rates. Thankfully, we are NOT looking to Warren County who is opening irresponsibility. We have different needs for our students and families, and I believe that we should be looking at scientific data as the district makes their decision.
I was recently given data from a colleague in England about Covid and schools. The United Kingdom schools reopened on a limited basis (many remained closed) at the beginning of June with similar precautions to those proposed by administration - distance to the extent allowed by building constraints, masks and reduced class size. In a short period of time there has been a doubling of the national Covid-19 infection rates due to outbreaks in the few schools that were opened.
Many CPS teachers have concerns regarding the possibility of teaching both in a blended learning environment, 5 days per week, without additional planning time for the creating/uploading online content. While the majority, as our survey reflects, supports Plan 1 with blended learning with 6 feet of social distancing and smaller class sizes, many teachers are very concerned about having a full class size. I’m not sure where the 2/3-day rotational plan came from because this eliminates time for teachers to plan the online learning and also eliminates the additional time necessary to sanitize schools between student groups.
There other area of concern is how services will be provided to students with IEPs, LEPs, and WEPs. All of these groups need to be able to attend school based on their plans for instruction and should be in school receiving their minutes of instruction based on their individual plans. There has been no communication in any plan or with CFT, teachers or parents about these services.
Based on the Co-Hear report:
• Parents want consistent and reliable communications!
o Employees agree that they also need consistent and reliable communications to support them as we begin to prepare for the difficult 2020-21 school year.
• Parents want to be partners during every step of the reopening process and are eager to work with CPS to ensure that their children have the BEST and SAFEST possible return to school in August.
o This is also what teachers want. Employees should not have to risk their lives or the lives of their families to do their jobs.
o We all saw how Nurses and Doctors who worked with COVID patients were social distancing from their families. They did this for 2-3 months tops. We can NOT expect teachers to have to socially distance from their families in order to do their jobs for an entire year.
o We have many classrooms throughout the district without windows and without adequate ventilation systems for fresh air flow. This impacts students and teachers.
Consistent district communication for parents and employees:
• We need clearly written procedures concerning cleaning and sanitizing protocol and a reporting process when this is not done.
• We also need written expectations for masks, symptom screening, guidelines for social distancing, testing, screening and tracing and guidelines and communication for contact tracing and/or school exclusion or school closures.
• ALL families MUST have all communication in multiple languages. This was a real problem in the spring.
• Until these details are communicated many teachers and families do not have the necessary information to make an educated decision on whether they will return, or not.
• Teachers and families need to know ASAP so that they can make family decisions and the district can insure proper staffing.
The district needs to address the mental health of the staff. The personal impact on educators must be recognized! The same way students will need support to effectively return to school and to be prepared to be ready to learn, teachers can’t be expected to be successful at teaching children without having their needs addressed. The strain on teachers this year as they have been asked to teach differently while they support their own needs and those of their families has been significant and they will bring that stress back to schools as schools reopen. Resources will be needed to provide support – that needs to be established now to build trust that they will be returning to a safe environment. The individual needs of and concerns of faculty and staffs should be addressed with accommodations made as needed. Classroom educators who are pregnant, in treatment for cancer, with chronic asthma, or diabetes. During a crisis, people benefit from clear and regular communication from a trusted source of information and the opportunity to discuss their concerns and needs. Change is more difficult in the context of crisis and when predictability is already severely compromised.
• Employees must be given their options for leave or remote teaching ASAP.
• Families must be given the options for remote learning ASAP
• Without these 2 sets of numbers plans will not be able to move forward.
o As always, CFT and our members are willing to assist the district moving forward to a successful 2020-21 school year.
• Schools also need to know their budgets and staffing so that they can properly plan for a successful 2020-21 school year.
Thank you for your time, Julie Sellers
Download the .pdf version of President Sellers' comments to the Board here