DISTRICTS MULL SCHOOL REOPENING
Localities rush to figure out how — or if — to follow Gov. Northam’s guidelines
The state’s guide for how schools can reopen — “Rediscover. Redesign. Restart 2020” — is 136 pages long.
It includes dozens of pages of questions to guide decisions, sample schedules, models for blended remote and in-person instructions, suggestions for how art teachers can teach and advice to keep students 6 feet apart.
But what the state’s guidance has in detail, it lacks in rules. Besides mandating that schools submit instructional and reopening plans and teach new material this fall, most decisions about how to implement the guidelines are left to local school leaders.
The state also has left the door open for schools to ignore guidelines entirely so long as they notify the state Department of Education.
“I want to be clear that these phases provide our schools with options for consideration, not mandates to open their buildings for summer school,” Gov. Ralph Northam said when announcing the guidelines on June 9.
Chief of Staff Clark Mercer reinforced the lack of a mandate in a news conference Thursday after backlash from parents, as well as some school and Republican leaders who have said that Northam didn’t have the authority to tell schools how to reopen. While Northam used an emergency executive order to close schools March 13 to stop the spread of the coronavirus, he hasn’t used those powers for reopening.
“Guidance is not law,” Mercer said. “This is up to your local school boards to decide how they’re going to open responsibly.”
Some rural districts, particularly
in southwest Virginia where reported COVID-19 cases have been few, have expressed interest in not following the guidelines. Hampton Roads districts haven’t laid out detailed plans on how they will or will not comply. Most are still surveying parents on options, with fuller plans expected to come next month.
“To be very clear, we all want a return to normalcy,” Virginia Beach Superintendent Aaron Spence wrote to parents last week, before explaining that will be difficult.
The Tazewell County School Board considered suing Northam over the guidelines, with the superintendent saying in a news release they “are exploring all options.” Several boards in that region passed resolutions calling on Northam to let schools reopen on their own terms, in consultation with their local health departments.
State Sen. Bill DeSteph, R-Virginia Beach, sent an open letter to Northam calling the guidelines “gubernatorial overreach.” House Republican leader Todd Gilbert, R-Woodstock, called them “woefully short of being realistic” in a statement after Thursday’s news conference and that “school divisions are rightfully angry.”
Officials have spent several weeks clarifying the guidelines, during which time parents have organized to press for a normal reopening. A Facebook group where organizers post daily action items for parents boasts nearly 20,000 members.
In the week after Northam’s announcement, state Superintendent James Lane gave a number of virtual presentations to groups, including the Virginia Parent Teacher Association and the Virginia Education Association, the professional group that represents teachers.
Lane brought up the counties in southwest Virginia with fewer COVID-19 cases in his presentation to VEA members.
“All we require is, if they do deviate from our guidance in a way that is less restrictive than our guidance, they have to report that to us,” Lane told VEA members.
The department of education posted a lengthy frequentlyasked-questions page which has been updated several times since the guidelines were announced. It’s also posted a Google Form on its website for districts to submit their plans to vary from guidelines.
Questions include whether they’ve consulted their local health department and if they plan to offer athletics or other extracurricular activities.
But even in the smallest Tidewater school districts, leaders are hesitant to vary from the guidelines or the considerations for school reopening issued by the Centers for Disease Control.
“With the considerations and guidelines, they’re asking us to do the 6-feet degree of separation, so that’s what we’re going to try to do,” said Nancy Welch, superintendent of Mathews County Public Schools. “It is definitely not ideal, I can promise you that — for anyone.”
The county had only five reported COVID-19 cases as of Thursday.
Following the state and federal recommendations poses challenges for the district. Welch said that they’re pretty confident that they can keep 6 feet of distance in classrooms, thanks to relatively small class sizes.
But the county doesn’t have any licensed child-care providers. If the district implements a staggered schedule — the most likely scenario — where will the children of staff go on days they don’t have school but their parents are working?
Welch said that there has been chatter about skipping out on parts of the guidelines in the county. After consulting with the School Board though, Welch said they’re unlikely to do that.
“If you vary from the CDC considerations and the state guidelines, you are actually creating a liability, and you may be putting your faculty, staff and students at risk,” Welch said. “The true question is, is your insurance company going to support you if, God forbid, something happens and then you end up having a lawsuit?”
Most districts have established internal task forces to come up with the required plans for moving into the next phase of reopening and new instructional plans for the next year. Districts are also using surveys to collect feedback from families and staff.
The Virginia Beach School Board heard in depth from district staff about how it’s approaching fall reopening in a workshop Tuesday.
Virginia Beach put their survey out soon after the initial guidelines came out, planning for a staggered schedule based on the guidelines. Options that the district had been considering ranged from only the highest need students attending four days a week to alternating groups of students attending two days a week.
Spence told the School Board that their survey went out before the state clarified on June 12 that districts could vary from the guidelines, which has affected their planning.
The district is continuing to plan for three scenarios — allremote instruction, schools reopening with no physical distancing measures or schools reopening with a mix of social distancing and other precautions. However, Spence said a final decision is still weeks away.
“We certainly think there is merit to the idea of opening schools to all children,” Spence said. “We will not and cannot make that decision hastily.”
“We certainly think there is merit to the idea of opening schools to all children.”
— Virginia Beach Superintendent Aaron Spence