County delays call on schools
Staff, families now have untilMonday to pick from online or in-class models
Anne Arundel County schools staff members and families now have until Monday to choose between continued online learning or a return toclassrooms, giving more time to weigh a decision during the coronavirus pandemic.
School officials pushed the deadline back from Thursday just days after County Executive Steuart Pittman expressed doubts about reopening elementary schools under a rotating schedule of small groups of students.
“This is a complex issue and I realize these decisions are very difficult ones for our families and our employees,” Superintendent George Arlotto said in a statement released by his office.
“We are continuing to add more information and answers to frequently asked questions to our websites and I want our families and employees to have the time necessary to process that information.”
The county Board of Education approved the plan last week. Families now have until 5 p.m. Monday.
Parents can opt for online learning through the rest of the semester or the end of the school year, begin hybrid classroom sessions in November or opt for the hybrid plan at the start of the secondsemester inJanuary, according to the school system plan.
Families who submitted a choice for their child can change their selection by Monday.
School system employees also can submit their choice as well, opting to remain as online teachers, return to school buildings onNov. 2. They also can ask for accommodations for things such as childcare, personal health conditions, health conditions of families, school spokesperson Bob Mosier wrote an email.
Staff members can also elect to take a leave of absence, retire or resign.
“We hope that people don’t use those — that’s not the intent of puttingthemon there. It is not to push people towards either one of those for sure but you have to offer people the full range of possibilities,” Mosier said.
Despite the deadline extension, teachers have many unanswered questions.
Russell Leone, the president of the Teachers Association of Anne Arundel County, said he received hundreds of questions from teachers since the board voted to support the plan lastweek.
“We are being asked to declare our intent without really having enough of the answers of what things look like,” Leone said.
The decision could impact family members and their students, he said.
Teachers want to know more about the enforcement protocols around issues like wearing face masks and making sure everyone in the school building feels safe and comfortable, he said. Teachers also are worried about the cleaning and disinfecting protocols once they return to school buildings.
When it comes to engaging students both in-person and online, as the plan calls for, elementary teachers will need to learn howto balance this type of hybrid learning — a concern that teachers have brought up.
The union is still trying towork with the school system to have a written agreement for both teachers and the school system, Leone said.
Throughout it all, he said, teacherswant to see their students but are concerned for their health and safety.
“There’s anxiety. There’s uncertainty. These are very, very big decisions and (teachers) have been given a few days to truly consider,” he said.
Some parents had fears and concerns aroundthe plan, pointing to the case rate in the county and others had issues with the plan possibly uprooting established relationships with teachers.
County Health Officer Nilesh Kalyanaraman told the board that a daily rate of 10 cases per 100,000 people calculated by averaging cases over seven days is an acceptable level to resume classroom sessions for kindergarten to fifth grade. The average on Wednesday was slightly above that.
Under the proposed plan, as long as the case rate allows, students in early childhood intervention and prekindergarten through second grade will begin thehybrid learningmodelonNov. 16. Students in third to fifth grade will be allowed to go back to schools onNov. 30.
Theschool systemwill continue towork with the county health department to view metrics regarding middle and high school students, according to the press release. At this point, the system has “a goal of beginning to bring those students into buildings beginning inmid-December,” the release stated.
Dennis Sullivan, a North County High teacher, said the current hybrid plan will notwork for high school teachers.
“I really do want to see my kids but I don’t really know how it is possible,” he said.
Sullivan pointed out that classes are already overcrowded and did not know
how splitting classes into two could still work with social distancing measures. He added that he wanted to hear more on what teachers could do if students decided to notwear amask while in the building.
As part of the school system’s plan, students who choose the hybrid plan would have two consecutive days of classroom sessions followed by three days of online learning. The system released a plan on the school website outlining how transportation would work, the hybrid schedule and health and safety guidelines.
The deadline extension comes a week after parents, teachers and school community members criticized the hybrid plan.
The night the school board approved the plan, teachers drove aroundthe school board building with signs on cars and called on Arlotto and his administration to sit down with the county teacher’s union to come up with a plan for a safe in-person learning environment.
Earlier thisweek, Pittman backed away from the hybrid plan. He released a statement urging school board members to reconsider sending elementary age students back into classrooms. To submit a response to the county school system, families should go to www.aacps.org/ oct2020familyreopening and employees should go to www.aacps.org/oct2020employeereopening.