Apologize in advance for the blogginess of this post.
Status as of last week:
Public school district has a plan to return to school under the following modes:
- 100% in person as normal
- Hybrid approach with 50% of students attending school at a time
- Fully remote
Which mode we would start in (and continue in) would be determined baed on current risk factors, and would be informed by the risk level of our county (Franklin), which is published by the state (Ohio). So if you elected to send your kid to school in person, they’d be either 100% in school, 50% hybrid, or fully remote depending on the circumstances. But outside of these modes, parents could also choose to commit to a fully remote mode for their kids for a full semester. This election is irrevocable.
As of right now and as of a week ago, Franklin County is in risk level 3 out of 4 (https://coronavirus.ohio.gov/wps/portal/gov/covid-19/public-health-advisory-system/). The published school district plans say that Level 3 (Red) indicates a hybrid return. However, last week the Franklin County Board of Health issued a letter to all school districts saying that they recommend, given current conditions, that all schools start the year remotely.
So that sets up a conflict: The school board plans say that they will start in person (hybrid), while the Board of Health is recommending a remote start. The Superintendent is hinting that he wants to comply with the Board of Health, while the Board of Education is signaling that they don’t want to be held hostage by the Board of Health’s recommendation. (Possibly of interest to legal nerds: The Board of Health has the ability to issue orders, which carry the weight of laws, or recommendations, which don’t. In this case, it’s a recommendation.) In particular, the President of the Board of Education has been clear in his Facebook and Twitter comments that he believes kids need to be in school, and that belief has been unchanged over the last several months.
So there’s lots of uproar among the parents in the area, with tons of people protesting that kids need to be in school and we should not be afraid of this virus, etc. The argument is, “Hey parents, if you’re scared of the virus, you already have the ability to keep your kids fully remote. Don’t take away our choice to send kids to school.”
At this point, my wife and I had landed on the following for our three kids:
- 5th grader: elect the in-person option. Elementary school kids are most in need of in-person school, plus they don’t rotate from class to class. They all stay together as a pod, and there’s no lunch or recess. So this seems like a fairly safe choice.
- 8th grader: remote option, even though it might limit the available classes he could take.
- 9th grader: remote option, even though she gets intervention services that might not be delivered online.
Fast forward to the Tuesday Board of Education meeting, where they’re presumably going to determine whether to comply with the Board of Health’s recommendations to start online, or to ignore that recommendation and start in person (hybrid). I submitted a written comment to the Board of Education, and said that I wanted that comment read aloud at the meeting. (The meeting is held virtually and broadcast over a Facebook stream. In the prior meeting, a parent letter was read out loud by a Board representative.) I got an immediate response from the Board President saying that for this meeting, they were only taking public comments in person, and if I wanted to comment I had to show up to the meeting in person.
My immediate reaction was, “Fuck this, I’m not going.” But I wavered on that and my wife pushed me over the edge by saying, “If you don’t make your case, you can’t complain about what they do.” Which isn’t entirely true, but it’s mostly true. So I went to the meeting.
I got there about 30 minutes before it started, and there were about 50-100 parents outside the building protesting with signs saying things like “My kitchen is not a classroom” and “Facts not fear”. Basically, these were all people that wanted kids in school, either hybrid or 100% return. I went into the building to sign up to make a comment and was surprised to see that I was 4th on the list; apparently people were more interested in protesting for the news cameras than speaking to the board.
I spoke into a laptop that was part of a zoom meeting that was broadcast live over Facebook to a couple of thousand people. This is what I said:
I am a Dublin resident and parent of three children in Dublin City Schools. Like many parents, I had hoped several months ago that my kids would be able to attend school in person this fall. Sadly, I no longer believe that a safe return is currently possible. Furthermore, I am disappointed that the Board of Education appears to be ignoring the Franklin County Board of Health’s recommendation to begin the year in a 100% virtual setting.
If the Board of Health were to shut down a restaurant, I would not let my kids eat there without a compelling counter-argument. Likewise, if the Board of Health recommends virtual learning, I expect a convincing argument for not complying with that recommendation. So far, the Board of Education has offered only the vague statement that decisions should be made locally based on a variety of factors. Parents want to know: What exactly are those factors? Has there been any point in the last 3 months where those factors would have led the Board to a different decision? If not, is there any point at which the Board would change its mind based on evidence?
This is not just a question of how to begin the school year – I can choose to have my kids begin the year online. But however they start school, children will return to the physical classroom at some point, and the same questions will apply. COVID outbreaks have recently led to summer camp closures across the country, like in Colorado, Georgia, Texas, Missouri, and South Dakota. How will the Board make decisions about closing schools when these outbreaks occur in Dublin? Will the Board continue to insist “Kids need the choice to be in school” regardless of what we experience in the coming months? Will the Board of Education also ignore the Board of Health in terms of returning to a 100% classroom mode?
I know that a virtual learning requirement imposes significant costs on students and their families. But I am concerned that the Board is being influenced by the loudest among us, rather than the most qualified. (To be clear, when I say most qualified, I don’t mean random parents like me – I mean public health experts.) I am also concerned that the Board has fundamentally misunderstood parents’ desires. We want a safe return to school, not just a return at any cost.
Finally, parents sending their kids back to school need to be sure that the District will take recommended safety guidelines seriously. With that in mind, it is disappointing that the Board President spent much of the July 29th board meeting with his face mask around his chin. Why would we expect children to comply with masking expectations that our leadership cannot meet during a televised meeting?
I respectfully urge the Board of Education to comply with the Franklin County Board of Health’s recommendations.
This apparently pissed off a lot of my neighbors, who were like, “If he’s too scared to send his kids to school, he should just elect the remote option. But don’t take away our option.” But they misunderstood my point, which was that I wanted my kids to return in a safe environment.
Anyway, after I presented my comment, I felt good that I had made the case publicly. (Out of the 8 people who made comments, 7 spoke in favor of being cautious and following the Board of Health. Only 1 spoke in favor of the kids being in school. So I guess the protestors weren’t willing to speak on the record.)
Later that night, the Board voted for the following:
- 8/24 - All students begin in remote learning mode
- 9/8 - Students who did NOT elect remote learning begin orientation, where 25% of students attend school each day to become familiar with their teachers and the safety procedures
- 9/21 - Students who did NOT elect remote learning begin in a hybrid mode, which effectively means that 50% of students are there at any given time.
Running parallel to this would be the remote learning group. Students who elected remote learning would be taught by dedicated teachers in a fully remote learning environment that was designed to be remote.
So as of last night, wife and I decided that we were happy with this scenario. Older 2 kids would be in the fully dedicated remote stream, while youngest kid would be in the in-person stream. And we were happy that in-person instruction had been pushed back to a later date. (Maybe because of my comments! But probably not.)
We wake up this morning and there’s been a change:
The high school remote stream is no longer going to be distinct from the in-person stream. Instead, it’s going to work like this:
- The students who elected in person will be in A and B groups. A group will attend Monday and Thursday, B group will attend Tuesday and Friday.
- The same teacher that taught the in-person groups will also teach the remote group synchronously online, on Wednesday.
- Students who elect in person can also sit in on the Wednesday remote sessions if they want to review the material.
So now, if we’re in the remote category, we get less than 50% of the instructor time that the in-person group gets. Which seems completely inequitable. (For our kid, that potential for getting the extra Wednesday review would be especially beneficial.) And rather than having a dedicated remote learning experience, we’re getting a single day of teaching and 4 days of self-learning.
This also disrupted the schedule for our 8th grader because he was scheduled to take a couple of high school classes.
Based on this change, it seems clear that remote learning for our oldest is far less desirable than it was previously. The same is true to a lesser extent for our middle kid. So where we are right now is:
- We think there’s a high likelihood that when 9/21 rolls around, the situation in Franklin County will be extremely high risk. (This is about a month after Ohio State starts classes) If so, good chance everyone ends up remote.
- We know that if we elect the in-person option right now, we can yank our kids if it turns out that safety procedures aren’t being followed or we otherwise believe it isn’t safe. So there’s optionality here that isn’t present if we elect to start remote.
- If it turns out that things improve greatly, the school district may elect to go 100% return. If so, it means that in-person students get 4 days of instruction, while we’re only getting a single day. So the inequity is even more extreme.
Based on all these factors, we’re now deciding that we are not choosing the remote option at this point, and we’re going to act as if all 3 are going in person. I think the District basically pulled off a bait and switch, promising a remote option that turns out to be completely insufficient. If you asked me to predict what school will look like on 10/15, I would have absolutely no idea.
If anyone made it all the way throught this, congratulations. Happy to take any criticism, support, or questions.
