‘Nervous’ teachers face dilemma
Face-to-face learning is best, but also riskiest, option
Kevin Deely knows there is no easy solution to bringing students safety back to school this year. As president of the Easton Area School District’s teachers union, he’s been working with administrators to prepare for the start of school, while also fielding concerns from teachers, some of whom are older or have conditions that put them at high risk for coronavirus.
“We really do want to be back in the classroom with students. It’s what we live for,” Deely said. “But we need to make sure we’re protected.”
It’s the same worry that educators around the country have as the start of the school year approaches with no end in sight for the coronavirus pandemic. In the spring, schools abruptly switched to online learning as the coronavirus spread. But educators and advocates acknowledge that online learning has limitations, and can hurt students who live in poverty and don’t have technology resources.
The Trump administration is urging schools to fully reopen this year, but a national poll says 1 in 5 teachers might not return to the classroom if their schools reopen for inperson classes. The poll, conducted by USA Today/Ipsos, also found that nearly 9 in 10 teachers believe it would be hard to enforce social distancing guidelines at school.
In some states, teachers unions are pushing back against plans to reopen. Florida’s largest teachers union
sued top state officials Monday over an order mandating a return of in-person schooling.
Pennsylvania’s largest teachers union urged Gov. Tom Wolf to direct schools to plan for online learning.
“It is extremely important for Pennsylvania’s public schools to plan for the distinct possibility that further increases in COVID-19 cases will make it impossible to safely reopen Pennsylvania’s schools for inperson instruction,” Pennsylvania State Education Association President Rich Askey said in a letter to Wolf.
Pennsylvania is allowing each district to come up with a plan on how to reopen, including whether to have in-person classes, virtual ones or a hybrid of the two. For schools that decide to reopen, students and staff are required to wear masks and strongly encouraged to follow social distancing throughout the day, with 6 feet of separation between desks.
Deely said it’s hard to come up with a plan as the science surrounding the coronavirus evolves. He can’t imagine teachers and students wearing masks for seven hours daily.
But at the same time, Deely and most educators believe remote learning is not nearly as beneficial as in-person instruction.
“We’re never going to please everyone,” he said.
If teachers are uncomfortable with being back in the classroom, Deely said there could be alternatives, such as teaching virtually. He expects some teachers, especially those close to retirement age, will leave. That would worsen the shortage of substitute teachers, who are sometimes retired teachers looking to make some money.
In Bethlehem, teachers union President Laura Keding said there is a “small pocket” of teachers who have told her that because of health reasons, they’re uncertain if they will return.
When she surveyed teachers among the district’s 22 schools, about 70% said that as long as students and teachers all wear masks, they’re fine with being back in the classroom. The majority want to be back, Keding said, but with so many teachers who are older than 50, there are concerns, such as ensuring that all students wear masks and that classrooms have enough hand sanitizers.
“We have a lot of teachers who are nervous,” Keding said.
Bethlehem plans a mix of in-person and online classes, though that still has to be approved by the school board. Students with last names beginning with A-L will attend school on Tuesdays and Thursdays, while others learn online. Those with M-Z last names will go on Wednesdays and Fridays as the others do virtual classes. All students will learn online on Mondays.
Parents have the option of enrolling their children in just online classes. In addition to its cyberacademy, the district is launching the BASD e-classroom, which will be taught by district teachers, some of whom cannot return to the classroom because of conditions that put them at higher risk of serious complications from the coronavirus.
Online only
Allentown, the region’s largest district, decided last week it will move to online classes for at least the first few months of school.
It’s a move that many Allentown
teachers support. In Dave Peters’ fifth grade class at Lehigh Parkway Elementary, he has 28 children on the roster. With that many in a class, it doesn’t leave a lot of room to sit students 6 feet apart, as Pennsylvania’s newest guidelines recommend for reopening schools.
While Peters was eager to get back in the classroom and see his students, he worried about how it could be done safely.
It would have been difficult to socially distance the district’s 17,000 students in Allentown’s schools, many of which are at least 100 years old and don’t have air conditioning, said Mark Leibold, the teachers union president. In some classes, the windows don’t even open.
“Going back wouldn’t have been perfect,” Leibold said, adding that he supports the district’s decision.
According to a survey the district did earlier this summer, about 63% of Allentown staff members said they were comfortable returning to the classroom. But since then, teachers have raised concerns as the number of coronavirus cases haven’t gone down significantly.
Leibold said that before the district announced virtual learning, he heard from many teachers concerned about their health if they had to go back.
Melanie Christopher, a first grade teacher at Allentown’s Mosser Elementary, said she knows school is critical for working parents. and she also believes the best way for students to learn is face-to-face. But she worried that even with precautions taken, someone in school could inadvertently pass the virus on to others, who then take the virus home to their families.
“My concerns are not just for my safety but for that of my students and their families as well,” she said.
Before the board approved the plan Thursday, Allentown teacher Shawn Kerbein summed up how teachers across the country feel.
She said that all teachers want to go back to school, but they want to do it in a safe way and don’t want to put themselves, their families or students at risk.
“Right now, the safest thing is to stay home,” she said.