FOR PARENTS, TEACHERS, AN INCREASE IN ANXIETY
As COVID-19 cases surge in US, talk of schools reopening met with apprehension
As a longtime teacher in public schools and the mother of four sons, Gladys Marquez was hopeful that all of her kids — her students at Eisenhower High School in Blue Island and her youngest child still under her roof — would be heading back to the classroom this fall.
But Marquez said her early optimism has been replaced with fear and apprehension in recent weeks, as a surge in COVID-19 cases nationwide — especially among young adults — underscores the potential dangers of a premature return to school as “normal” when the virus continues to rage.
“I’ve lost two family members to COVID, my cousin and my great uncle, so I’m frustrated by those who are taking this situation very lightly, because they just don’t understand the risks,” Marquez said. “I have asthma, and one of my sons, who’s also a teacher, has diabetes. If we’re back in the classroom, I’ll be exposed to 1,800 students, and could bring COVID home to my own family. This is not time to be getting students back together, as having their lives at risk is just not an option.”
As Chicago-area school districts begin to unveil their back-to-schools plans — in many cases still tentative — they are under pressure both to reopen their buildings and to keep them closed. And anxiety is running high for parents, teachers and administrators.
In Chicago Public Schools, the situation appears headed for a show
down between the city and the teachers union, mere months after the pre-pandemic, 11-day teachers strike. On Friday, CPS unveiled a preliminary plan that would combine in-class and virtual learning, but the powerful Chicago Teachers Union had already said it wants virtual learning to continue in the fall, unconvinced that schools can reopen safely.
Many Chicago-area parents and educators seem to share that concern. While nearly 90% of parents who responded to a spring survey in one North Shore district said they wanted their kids back in the classroom this fall, many teachers — especially those whose students are from economically disadvantaged communities of color — say bringing kids together as the virus is spiking across the world would be reckless, especially for families who have elderly relatives and those with preexisting conditions in their households.
In fact, Evanston Township High School reversed course on Friday and announced that virtual learning will continue in the fall until further notice. Just days before, officials had unveiled plans for a hybrid approach.
Now, with the start of the new school year just weeks away, the wariness among teachers and parents is amplified by escalating politicization of the coronavirus response, playing out both on a national stage and closer to home in heated virtual debates on Nextdoor and Facebook.
Among those championing the return of all students to the classroom is President Donald Trump, whose press secretary said Thursday that “science should not stand in the way” of a full school reopening.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recently stated that if precautions are taken to ensure the health and safety of children and teachers, it “strongly advocates that all policy considerations for the coming school year should start with a goal of having students physically present in school.”
But on Wednesday, the National Education Association, which represents more than 3 million union members, warned that with the pandemic causing budget shortfalls at school districts nationwide, more funding is needed to reopen schools safely this fall.
“No one wants to be back in the classroom with our students more than educators,” NEA President Lily Eskelsen García said in a statement. “We love our students, our public schools, and our communities, and that is why we need to do this right. We must ensure students have the best possible learning experience this fall. This means all students, whether they are Black, brown or white, have the tools and resources necessary to succeed.”
The Illinois State Board of Education’s 63-page playbook for navigating the reopening of schools, closed since a statewide coronavirus shutdown in March, calls for the use of face coverings and suggests social distancing “as much as possible.” The guidelines also limit gatherings to fewer than 50 people and call for increased school cleaning and disinfection, as well as symptom screening and temperature checks for people entering school buildings.
But Chicago-area school systems are putting forth an array of approaches for the fall: A few plan for a full return, but most are looking at a continuation of remote learning or, like CPS, a hybrid of in-class and virtual instruction to keep the numbers of students in buildings low at any given time.
New Trier High School in Winnetka and Northfield anticipates such a hybrid for fall.
“We plan to ‘start smart’ with a gradual return to school for teachers and students to get used to new safety protocols and a new way of teaching and learning,” New Trier Superintendent Paul Sally wrote Tuesday in a letter to parents. “As much as we would like to bring back all students every day, we have determined that at this time there is no way to do that safely with the size of our student population.”
Families will also have an opportunity at the beginning of each quarter “to opt out of any in-school learning scenario and to learn remotely,” Sally said.
At Schaumburg-based School District 54, which enrolls about 15,300 students in pre-K through eighth grade at 28 schools, Superintendent Andy DuRoss released a Reopening District 54 Plan this month that offers families two options for the school year: in-person instruction five days a week, or a new Virtual Learning Academy, where students will be taught entirely online.
Friday’s deadline to choose an option loomed large for parent Traci Morris of Hoffman Estates, whose two daughters, ages 6 and 10, attend District 54.
“We moved to this school district because it’s a special place, and I know how wonderful it is, but I was very disappointed to learn we had one week to decide, and they are not offering a third option, which I would have liked, which is a blended approach,” Morris said.
Morris, who works part time as a dental hygienist, said she understands it would be tough for many parents to juggle their jobs and family responsibilities without a full-time return to school. But she’d hoped for a hybrid option.
“My husband and I have been very good about our family following all of the rules during the pandemic, and we’ve slowly begun to loosen up a little, while still wearing masks and social distancing,” Morris said. “But having our kids diving back in to school full time in five weeks, well, that’s not OK.”
Of particular concern to Morris is the social emotional health of her children, one of whom has been expressing fears about what school will look like next month.
“They will be going from fully remote learning during the end of the last school year to social distancing this summer, and then full-time school,” Morris said. “My oldest daughter is already asking, ‘What happens if one of my friends get sick?‘”
Aurora-based Indian Prairie School District 204 crafted its Return to School plan with input from local parents as well as teachers like Cathy Malone, who teaches sixth grade math and social studies at Scullen Middle School in Naperville.
“Teachers want schools to be open, but we want it done safely for our families, teachers and the entire community,” Malone said. “There are differing viewpoints, but we got great feedback from teachers and parents, and that input was definitely taken into consideration.”
The District 204 plan, which was released this week, was based on more than 10,600 parent responses and 2,800 staff responses. The option of offering a weekly blend of in-person instruction and remote learning was the first or second choice for 75% of parents and 74% of staff members, according to the district’s website.
Still, despite the flurry of back-to-school plans released this week, some school district officials, including those at Harvey School District 152, are still collecting information from community surveys before making a final decision.
Karen Moore, a special education teacher at Maya Angelou Elementary School in Harvey, said she would support a decision to hold district classes online for the first semester of the new school year, and if officials can do so safely, then returning in person, giving first priority to students in special education programs and English language learners.
Above all, Moore said educators need to be paying close attention to the social emotional needs of children, many of whom have been struggling with COVID-19-related trauma during recent months.
“Some of my students have experienced death, people have lost jobs, and kids have been shipped to other states, because their caregivers are essential workers. … There have been a lot of disruptions for our students,” Moore said.
Moore is also deeply concerned that — unlike wellfunded school districts enrolling children from affluent communities — Harvey schools were already struggling before the arrival of the pandemic, which exposed deep disparities in access to technology and other student services.
“In Harvey, the bus that brings our students to school is already overcrowded, so how do you social distance?” Moore said. “We have been up and running despite a devastating lack of resources. But how are we going to have a nurse in the building all day, when we didn’t before? And our buildings already were not the cleanest.”
In Chicago Public Schools, uncertainty could continue until shortly before the start of school the day after Labor Day. Though CPS released a preliminary framework Friday, Mayor Lori Lightfoot has indicated a final plan won’t be set until August.
For Stephanie Fletcher, the thought of sending her 7-year-old son back to the classroom this fall makes her very nervous. Fletcher has two young children: a rising second grader at Stone Scholastic Academy on Chicago’s North Side and a preschooler.
This spring, the family was able to create a schedule where Fletcher could help her son with remote learning in the morning and do her own work in the afternoon. She recognizes working from home is not an option for all parents, but thought that, overall, the teachers and administrations at Stone did their best to check in with families and keep students engaged.
Looking to the fall, Fletcher says her preference is to keep her son at home for as long as possible.
“For me as a mother, I see my No. 1 job as making sure my children are healthy and safe,” Fletcher said. “And right now, I feel like … if I send my son into a school where social distancing is not possible, where sanitation supplies and hand sanitizer and soap is scarce and not available at times … I feel like that I’m putting him in a dangerous situation.”
She’s also worried about the health of teachers and school staff members.
“What happens to the teachers whose immune systems are compromised?” Fletcher said. “Are they still expected to go into a classroom with 30 kids, coming from 30 different households, who have 30 different ways of approaching the coronavirus situation? That’s on my mind too.”
She also wonders how schools are going to be able to get young children to follow rules like wearing masks, washing their hands and social distancing.
“Even though you talk to them about it, they don’t really have a sense, I think, of what the repercussions are if they take that mask off,” Fletcher said.
For Moore, the Harvey teacher, hearing recent criticism about teachers from officials in Washington who are far removed from the realities of Harvey’s families has been especially difficult.
“I just want people who are making decisions to understand what we deal with every day from the lens of the student, the lens of a parent, and the lens of a teacher,” Moore said, adding: “I’m OK with returning to school, but I think it should be done in phases, not at the same time, so we can see what’s working and what’s not, and lower some of the risk.”