"It keeps me up at night."
And Red Clay Consolidated School District Superintendent Dr. Dorrell Green echoed comments that have been made by Governor John Carney repeatedly during the COVID-19 crisis that it was easier to close schools last March than it is to reopen them now, particularly as Delaware's COVID-19 infection rates rise.
Parents in the state's largest school district face a crucial deadline this Friday, October 9, when they must determine whether they want to send their children back into the classroom or continue with the remote learning option.
Green said the four public schools districts in Delaware, all of them downstate, that are offering a semblance of hybrid learning plan are struggling with the remote piece.
"In essence, it's requiring additional needs and supports, whether that would be through staffing...you're only using the same staff to do both," he said.
Some Red Clay parents fear they’re being forced to choose between safety and a quality education since the new online option would be largely self-guided and asynchronous.
”We're working to really look at where we can actually be flexible with staffing to provide some additional support in terms of frequency for those families that choose the Red Clay online option,” said Green.
Appoquinimink, Red Clay, Christina, Brandywine, Colonial, and New Castle County Vo-Tech districts are all planning to transition to hybrid learning and resuming some form of in-person learning, some as early as October 19, 2020.
But in Red Clay, more than 1,900 parents have signed a petition saying they want schools to remain closed if an equitable online learning option can't exist. They plan to rally outside district offices near Baltz Elementary at 2 p.m Tuesday.
On a Zoom call Sunday night, that was tense at times, many parents expressed frustration over a lack of answers and pressed for an extension on the survey. They also called for an emergency school board meeting, desiring board members to vote on the reopening of schools. That meeting will reportedly be held October 15, 2020.
"The only real-time data that we're actually gathering right now is the parent-choice, which is the fact that you're submitting what your choice is, which is informing us," he said. "No parent should feel pressured to send your child to school, and if you feel like that's the case, based on a curriculum, that shouldn't be the case. Base it on the health of your child and your family," said Green.
But in a district with 16,000 students, Green said the survey's responses are needed to help plan students' transportation needs as well.
"On a traditional 58-passenger bus, we can only get 23 students on that bus. When we have a three-tiered arrival and dismissal system, let's take a school such as HB, for example, that may have five city of Wilmington runs, well generally speaking, if we had five full bus loads of students, those five runs then get collapsed so that's almost 15."
Green also pointed out that circumstances surrounding the pandemic are constantly changing as the district seeks to find a stable, educational response to a health and economic crisis, and neither he nor anyone has all the answers.
"Three weeks ago--that was dominating my inbox--'let them play.' Prior to that, it was 'reopen our schools.' Now, it's 'keep the schools closed.'
Circumstances are very much different today than they were two weeks ago; circumstances could be very much different a month from now than they are today, and so, as we make a decision again based on education in this unfortunate environment, we're going to have to continue to adjust, and every time we make an adjustment it's disruptive to everyone in our community.
If we just say 'everyone is remote and we stay remote,' there are other issues on the other side of that, where families have the opposite viewpoint of you, and it's not just necessarily what families want as much as it is how do we look at what students' needs are.
I know many of you are going to walk away and be pissed off because I didn't have the answer that you might have been looking for, wanting to hear, or felt that I should've given you, but please know since March 13th, I can sit here and honestly tell you that there hasn't been a day that I haven't worked to try to get us back to a point, where we can reopen and reopen in a manner in which we meet all of the students' needs throughout Red Clay."
An earlier survey sent to parents received 8,592 responses, showing between 48 and 75% of individual school communities wanted to switch into hybrid learning from all-remote.
Education Secretary Susan Bunting is appearing at the governor's weekly coronavirus news conference Tuesday at 1:45 p.m., carried live on 101.7 FM/1150 AM WDEL and WDEL.com, hinting an announcement on education and school reopenings could be coming.
The Link LonkOctober 06, 2020 at 05:44AM
https://www.wdel.com/news/red-clay-parents-face-critical-deadline-on-whether-to-send-their-children-back-into-the/article_d2e304f8-074e-11eb-b2b2-c38a55fafc6f.html
Red Clay parents face critical deadline on whether to send their children back into the classroom - WDEL 1150AM
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