Return to school must be both careful and gradual

Two days after the announcement by the governor allowing schools to reopen, we at Turquoise Trail Charter School convened our broader school community virtually and offered the same question we presented to our faculty and staff regarding their feelings about returning to in-person schooling.

Given the volume of text messages and emails I had received from parents and guardians, I anticipated a result opposite to the faculty and staff. As it turned out, 56% shared the same position.

Our town hall-style Zoom meeting revealed the general sentiment that we should do everything that we can to serve our most vulnerable students in person, but also ensure that school personnel have access to vaccinations to ensure the safest school environment possible for our students and adults.

For nearly a year now, New Mexicans have been told to be careful, to stay at home, to suspect that the virus is all around us, and may even be living among our friends and neighbors. Governor Lujan Grisham has been poised, tough and confident on the issue, leading the charge to protect one another and, in our school community, we have honored that charge. Never before had our motto “Protect the Pack” been so relevant and clear.

But here we are now, able to make out a return to life as we once knew it together, with the option to stay the course or attempt a shortcut over uncertain, cliff-lined terrain being offered by the person we have followed all along. That shortcut would be much less dangerous if we were offered additional protection that we could count on. Yet, only some of us have it and many are afraid to admit that they do. Questions mount and suspicions grow.

Many have criticized teachers and schools for their hesitancy in returning to in-person schooling when organizations such as the Centers for Disease Control and The New York Times have reported that evidence suggests that schools do not actively promote the spread of COVID-19. However, unlike many states around the country, we have largely not returned to school, and are therefore conditioned to be at home and get used to shifting information that we will ride out.

This is not something that new findings can simply compel people out of. A large-scale return will have to be as careful as the lockdowns were and gradual enough to build trust back.

CHRISTOPHER EIDE, Head Administrator, Turquoise Trails Charter School SANTA FE