Open schools

As a former English teacher, administrator and Virginia Department of Education consultant for 17 years, I’m now gearing up for the most important fight of my career — to open our public school buildings full time to all of our students.

In “In Virginia Beach, white students are nearly twice as likely to return for in-person classes as Black students” (March 11) a Virginia Beach School Board member “stressed that the pandemic did not create the achievement gaps, but that the virtual learning divide could help worsen them.”

I too am very concerned about the disproportionate impact of virtual learning on portions of our community. But the answer is not simply to “do more to improve the virtual experience.” LaQuiche Parrott provides the best solution on how to use our limited time and resources.

We need to “reengage families,” whose justifiable fears are keeping their children from feeling safe in the classroom. Focus on removing those understandable barriers for families who don’t feel safe, without holding the option 1 families hostage until everyone feels comfortable enough to reenter schools.

Virginia Beach City Public Schools must explore ideas focused on getting everyone back in person five days a week and begin preparing now for that inevitable shift that must occur this fall. If there is work to be done to improve the virtual experience, revisit an abandoned idea that surfaced last September: a strictly virtual program with separate teachers and administration provided to those students for whom that mode of instruction is appropriate, while concurrently preparing for five day face-to-face instruction for the others.

Courtney Graves, Virginia Beach