Impact of looming school shutdown weighed
GOP senator calls for governor to hold off on order on nixing term
With a statewide shutdown of schools for the rest of the school year seemingly imminent, Michigan State Sen. Pete Luicido asks the question, what’s the hurry?
Last week, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer told WWJAM (950) it was “very unlikely” schools would reopen before the end of the school year in June. Then Monday, citing unnamed sources in Lansing, Bridge Magazine published a report that both private and public K-12 schools would be closed for the remainder of the school year due to the coronavirus pandemic. In an interview with MLive.com Tuesday, Whitmer said a final decision has not been made. She expects to discuss the issue publicly Thursday.
Currently, as part of Whitmer’s “Stay Home, Stay Safe” executive order, all non-essential businesses and schools will remain closed through April 13. In Macomb County, students are in the third week of being sidelined while next week was scheduled to be spring break.
There is some discussion that the closure would also include the shutdown of online learning taking place in many Michigan
school districts, although it is unclear if that would be part of the plan.
“If the plan is to close, why do that right now? What’s the hurry?” said Peter Lucido (R-Shelby Township) said Tuesday morning.
Lucido represents the 8th District, which includes Mount Clemens, St. Clair Shores, the village of Grosse Pointe Shores, Bruce, Chesterfield, Harrison, Lenox, Ray, Shelby and Washington townships and New Haven and Romeo in Macomb County.
“There’s no reason not to wait until April 14 to see credible data (on the spread of the virus) and see if we can’t get this going. The buildings are independent of the lessons. Lessons can still be taught outside of the buildings,” he said.
The state legislature was to return to session Wednesday, April 1. But that has been pushed back to April 7. Lucido suggested waiting until the order is up and then discussing the issue at the Capitol Building in Lansing.
“Before we prematurely lock down the schools, we should revisit online schooling at least until the lock down ends. Let’s see how many cases (of the virus) there are,” he said. “We still have to educate kids for 180 days if we don’t get to that by way of online. We need to revisit, because the lock down doesn’t mean school has to end.”
Lucido suggested more self testing for the virus should be coming, in which residents could do nose swab tests and then self report to a state site. He said the state has a duty to provide data on how many people have been tested and how many are male, female, how old they are, and how many are children. He said that would give the state better direction on its next moves.
If online learning becomes the primary component to deliver instruction after schools are shuttered for the rest of the school year, that remains an inequitable solution. Lucido said statewide, only approximately 430 of the state’s 553 school districts have the ability to provide instruction online.
“If you can’t provide instruction in the 120 or so other school districts, what do you do with those students to fulfill the law?” Lucido said. “That’s just one of the many discussions that need to be had.”
The senator recently participated in a conference call last week with Macomb’s school superintendents and the Macomb Intermediate School District to get a consensus on what would make the best policy and appropriations going forward. The plan was to come to complete agreement on what is in the best interests of students and the school districts and supply that information to the Macomb County legislative delegation to take back to Lansing.
Late Tuesday, a spokesman from Lucido’s office said that information would be made available Wednesday morning. Those suggestions may include waiving the 180-day requirement for instruction and including online learning as instruction time counted toward the school year. Both would require changes in state law. Lucido said there is no precedent on Whitmer’s executive orders regarding her ability to modifying the laws for seat-time requirements and if online can be counted as instructional time. But legally, she has what’s called parent authority. The question is how far can she go with it?
Eastpointe Community Schools Superintendent Ryan McLeod said his district did plenty of preparation for the possibility of schools being closed, but it was still caught off guard with some of the inequity challenges. They were made more difficult with shelter in place orders that forced parents to start working from home.
“We understood the need for electronic devices and a connection to the internet, but we didn’t anticipate if there is a home with a single computer and now the parents are working from home and the computer becomes overused by the family and students are having trouble fitting in time,” he said. “And it goes deeper than that with the availability during (the) school day and enough devices and enough bandwidth. So there have been unexpected challenges.”
McLeod said before schools closed, the district sent out a survey asking the district community how many students had access to a computer device and internet access, and the response was 95%. But some percentage of those students used the public library, which is now closed, as their access point. Another concern was some students were sheltering in place somewhere other than home, such as with a grandparent who may not have a computer and internet access.
He praised district teachers for regularly reaching out to their students to maintain connections and learn more about equity issues. He said teachers are tracking students via computer, phone and email, and anything they do online is also made available in hard copy, either to be picked up during free food distribution or in home mailings. He said some students are taking pictures of their completed work and sending them back digitally and others are even writing full papers on their phones.
According to educators Lucido said he has spoken to, most seniors set to graduate in June have completed the core courses required for graduation and were taking elective courses in their final semester. But those who were still taking core courses or were receiving failing grades prior to schools being closed will face issues regarding the necessary requirements for graduation. But accommodations are being made for that as well.
Liza Parkinson, the president of the Utica Education Association, which represents teachers in the Utica Community Schools district, said online credit recovery is being offered in the district.
Another aspect being discussed is the possibility of shuttering schools now, as well as online learning, while the cases of COVID-19 flattens and then have some sort of summer school to complete the year. Parkinson said that would require negotiations on behalf of the teachers, but once more information is provided by the governor, those talks could start for issues like wages and troubleshooting issues teachers are having online delivering instruction. The introduction of new material may also be part of the equation, but in order for the days to count as instructional, all students must be accommodated for, including special needs students, ELS students and low SES (low socio-economic students).
“We’ll do whatever we need to do for our students,” Parkinson said. “We have about 80-90% of our students engaged, but we have no children to spare. All have to be engaged for it to count. We’re probably going to need waivers from the state for things like special education students and seat time. But I do know the Michigan Education Association is fully engaged and at the table in the decision making. No one size fits all for all the school districts in the state of Michigan. We’re not shying away from the challenge. It’s amazing what our teachers are doing.”
As far as Parkinson is concerned, the school closure is appropriate. She said the COVID-19 is the classic model of an epidemic. From a math standpoint, she said the curve is deep and not flattening, adding the sooner schools know the plan moving forward, the better.
“You have to look at this from the standpoint of what will matter 5-10 years from now,” she said. “Will the second semester of the 2019-20 school year matter or will the fact that you’re still here and alive matter?”