SFPS delays classroom start for some to Oct. 26

Staff assignments still being determined based on school needs, labor discussions

Santa Fe Public Schools is pumping the brakes on its anticipated reopening date for elementary schools.

As district officials worked with principals on staffing for each school, they decided to push back until Oct. 26 the date some students will return to the classroom in a modified hybrid learning model, Superintendent Veronica García said Friday.

About 85 percent of staffing for schools and classrooms has been set, but the rest will take more time since it will require some teachers and staff members to be reassigned to different schools, García said.

She added that it will also take some collaboration with the National Education Association-Santa Fe, the union that represents teachers in the district, since some teachers will be displaced. Seniority also will play a role in how the district adjusts staff to accommodate schools and students.

“That’s why we’re pushing back the date, to give principals a little more time,” García said. “I would say within the next two weeks, we should firm up the staffing completely.”

Overall, 96 elementary school teachers and 69 support staff agreed to return in the modified hybrid model during the COVID-19 pandemic, as the district provided a breakdown of volunteers. While 315 employees overall agreed to return to school, that number included teachers and staff from middle and high schools.

The modified hybrid model will allow students who want in-person instruction to spend two days each week at school and the other three weekdays learning from home. The district is prioritizing students with special needs and those who lack internet access by allowing them into the classroom first.

Any remaining openings at a particular grade for each school will be determined by a lottery in which names will be drawn to determine who can return. García said she doesn’t anticipate the district will need to use the lottery system too often.

While the district breakdown identified the number of teachers and staff at each school who volunteered to return, García cautioned that those figures do not necessarily correspond to what grade levels will return and the number of classes at each school.

For example, Tesuque Elementary School did not have any volunteers, but García said the district intends to have a kindergarten instructor there. At Thursday’s school board meeting, García told board members all schools will have kindergarten instruction.

“So, you can’t look at [the numbers] and say these are the only classes we’re going to offer,” García said. “We’re going to be moving people. We may be adding an assistant who can help a teacher teaching remotely. There might be a kinder teacher [at a school], and they may show a teacher there, but if I don’t have an [education assistant], I can’t do the program.”