Youngest Atlanta students return to school for first time since March
“Are you waiting for perfection? Because that’s not obtainable. We have to do the very best that we can.”
— ABBY IVIE, A PARENT OF TWO ATLANTA PUBLIC SCHOOLS STUDENTS
Brooke French peered through the glass doors of E. Rivers Elementary School in Atlanta on Monday morning, hoping to catch a glimpse of her daughter as she walked into her kindergarten classroom.
During the last few days, her daughter was “excited but nervous.”
“There she is,” French said, as she waved.
A stream of parents and students toting backpacks and wearing masks made their way to the schoolhouse doors. Gold and blue balloons and a lion — the school’s mascot — greeted them for an unusual first day back.
Parents weren’t permitted in, so they posed their children for photos on the sidewalk and in front of the school sign and said their goodbyes. School staff took temperature checks before students entered.
It was a moment that some Atlanta parents and students have waited for since mid-March, when the pandemic prompted APS to switch to online learning. After more than 300 days, Atlanta Public Schools resumed in-person classes for students in prekindergarten through second grade, as well as certain special education students.
The district’s decision to give students the option to return upset some parents and teachers, who fear it’s not safe. COVID-19 is spreading faster than it was in October, when the district delayed its first attempt at reopening. Coming back now, before teachers can be vaccinated, doesn’t make sense, those critics contend.
Late Friday, Superintendent Lisa Herring announced that she would postpone the return of students in third through 12th grade. Instead of coming back next week, APS will wait one to two weeks.
In a written statement, Herring called that delay “an important and necessary step” that will give the district more time to implement safety measures, including a new surveillance testing program. The weekly tests for employees will identify cases of the coronavirus, even in those without symptoms, she said.
“The decision to return to in-person learning is not an easy one. And in my conversations with superintendents all around the country, there is no clear-cut answer that suits every school district. This has been frustrating, challenging, and yet it is our reality,” she wrote in a letter to parents.
The Friday decision failed to please people on either side of the reopening debate.
The group We Demand Safety APS announced that teachers and staff will rally Monday afternoon to urge further delays. Parents who pushed for schools to reopen more quickly saw the district’s decision as backsliding on a promise.
“I’m very disappointed that it changed. I think it kind of erodes the trust that we put into the educational system, and it doesn’t seem to be based on anything other than fear,” said Abby Ivie, a parent of two APS students.
On Monday, she sent her daughter in prekindergarten to E. Rivers. Her daughter plays school every night, and recently cut out a construction-paper mask and drew a computer and keyboard.
Her third-grade son, who had planned to go back next week, won’t be able to return until Feb. 8.
The Buckhead elementary school is one of the APS schools with the highest percentage of students who opted to return in-person. About one third of Atlanta students attending traditional, non-charter schools want to go back in-person, according to a December survey. At E. Rivers, 61% of students said they wanted to return.
Ivie, a pediatric nurse practitioner, said there’s no COVID-19 strategy that will be “100% effective, 100% of the time.” But she said students and schools can’t afford to wait until there’s zero risk.
Instead, APS should take careful steps to reopen schools as safely as possible. She said children need to be educated by professionals and spend time with their peers, and parents need to go to work.
“Are you waiting for perfection? Because that’s not obtainable. We have to do the very best that we can,” she said.