Omicron variant deals rough blow to schools
Violence and virus disruptions upending districts, yet again
St. Louis Park Public Schools in suburban Minneapolis held in-person learning all semester, with no school closures for COVID-19 infections despite the spread of the delta variant.
But because of staff fatigue, and amid an oncoming wave of omicrondriven COVID-19 infections, the district finally has succumbed. It’s closed for a full two weeks ahead of the new semester starting Jan. 3.
“The overall feeling is one of exhaustion,” Superintendent Astein Osei told the school board Nov. 23, ahead of an unusual midyear vote to add two days to the holiday break.
Across the country, school districts and families are stumbling toward the finish line of a punishing semester. At some points, nearly all schools appeared back to normal with daily, inperson instruction. But disruptions abounded. COVID-19 exposures sent kids and staff home to quarantine. Teachers battled student misbehavior, from low-level defiance to more fights, threats and gun violence. Staffing shortages shot up. Parents waged their own arguments over race, public health and other issues.
And now, omicron. As the country braces for an onslaught of new infections driven by the more transmissible COVID-19 variant, schools and districts are shuttering and some are preparing to return to virtual instruction – the very mode of education this year was supposed to jettison.
“We’re going to see a return, basically, to a good portion of how things looked last year,” Dan Domenech, executive director of the School Superintendents Association, lamented on Monday.
“Everybody wants to keep the schools open,” he added. “The schools want to stay open. But it’s a logistical nightmare. Depending on the infection rate in communities, it’s going to be hard to do that.”
On Friday, Prince George’s County School District in Maryland – one of the largest districts on the East Coast – announced a shift to virtual classes starting Monday until at least Jan. 18 because of an uptick in COVID-19 infections. That leaves more than 136,000 students without classroom contact for the next month.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Rethe publican, called the move a terrible mistake. District CEO Monica Goldson said it allows school staff to deliver instruction while prioritizing their own health.
In other cities, such as Newark, New Jersey; New York City; and Erie, Pennsylvania, individual classrooms or specific schools are going virtual because of rising case counts.
The problem: Virtual learning doesn’t work well academically, socially or emotionally for many students, particularly those who lack safe, supportive households and steady internet connections.
Black and brown students, many of whom lacked robust education opportunities before the pandemic, have fallen even further behind during long bouts of virtual instruction.
“For the past year and a half, almost two years, our kids have been exposed to more trauma than ever before,” said Tunette Powell, a mother of three young children in Los Angeles and a diversity and inclusion expert.
“I work at a school that primarily serves wealthy families, and we’re not talking about shutting down at all,” Powell added. “But if I was in South Los Angeles, where there are lots of communities of color, those discussions would already be happening.”