Is it too early to open schools?
After a year of lockdown, everyone is eager to have schools reopen as soon as possible, but is it still too early? The local Vallejo school district seems to be ignoring mounting evidence that the UK and South African strains of the COVID-19 virus do affect children as well as adults and could easily be transmitted by community spread.
I empathize with parents’ frustration and anger because our schools have been shuttered for so long, and I understand the eagerness of the district to return to in-class instruction and end distance learning, as a year of no inclass instruction has thrown many families’ lives into chaos and have staggered students’ educational growth and progress. But is returning to school right now, the right thing to do?
The earliest students could return to in-class instruction under the district’s current proposal would be April 12 of this school year, with the final date of school on June 9 — but with state testing, report card testing for the lower grades, and a later start date for older students, we are actually closer to six weeks of in-class instruction in relation to the remaining two months of the school year. Is it worth risking everyone’s health for six weeks of instruction, which will then be followed by a summer slide, when students lose knowledge and skills over the course of the long summer?
These new COVID-19 strains affect children and adults. Many of our students and teachers live in multi-generational households and could bring the virus back home and infect their family and friends. The smart and safe thing to do would be to wait to return to in-class instruction in the fall so folks will have an additional four months to get vaccinated and the district would have more time to make sure all the proper safety devices and systems are in place.
The rush to reopen Vallejo schools could wind up being a public health and public relations disaster and could do profound damage to our already beleaguered district. The push to reopen schools this spring could not only end up harming students but could accelerate the virus’ spread through the Vallejo community as a whole, causing even more illness and death. The right thing to do is to wait until fall to return to in-class instruction.
— Steve Quinlan/ Vallejo teacher