By Ashley McCarty
The Manchester Board of Education held their first meeting of 2021 on Jan. 14 to discuss the possibility of students returning to school five days a week, and handle organizational duties.
Board Member Rick Foster was re-appointed as Board President. Board Member Thatcher was appointed to Board Vice-President.
A motion by McFarland to appoint the following individuals (Thatcher, Joel Hanson, Ma’ry’e Kinhalt, Brie Haag, Bill Wickerham, and Lori McCartney) as Directors of the Karen K. Ballengee Educational Foundation for calendar year 2021 was seconded by Foster, the board agreed.
Discussion then began on the possibility of students returning to school full-time.
“First and foremost, our top priority has, and always will be, the safety and well-being of our students and staff. We have stated this time and time again. In fact, one of our Educational philosophies reads, “The physical and emotional health, safety, and welfare of our students will not be jeopardized.” My issue with both statements rests with the realism that we cannot provide both. Do we choose safety over well-being or do we choose well-being over safety? Which is more important? Safety includes remaining in our hybrid model, which does nothing to support the whole child, including their well-being. By contrast, well-being, including mental health, includes returning our students to school, which could be detrimental to their safety. You can see clearly the conundrum of this decision of whether to return to school or remain in a hybrid model,” said Rau.
“The expectation of Governor DeWine is for schools to return to in-person instruction (defined as full in-person or hybrid) on March 1. I confirmed this clarifying definition with our BASA legislative liaison this morning. The current quarantine guidelines reduce classroom quarantines to zero, as long as students and teachers are wearing masks and remain at a minimum of three feet apart, as per the approval of the Adams County Health Department. It is important to note that county health departments statewide differ in their guidance to districts. Some are holding firm with the six feet guidance, while many others are opting for the three-foot guidance. Furthermore, these guidelines apply to the classroom environment only. School buses and cafeteria are still subject to the six-foot quarantine guidance,” said Rau.
Rau had previously sent board members a copy of the Ohio School COVID-19 Evaluation (OSCE).
“The results state, “The percentages across three groups (close contacts, in-class comparison, and other class comparison) were comparable. Taken together, we do not identify any differences in the groups that would imply a mandatory, at-home quarantine was necessary for students who were close contacts with appropriate mask usage. We must re-emphasize that these results are preliminary, and the evaluation was a pilot meant to inform (return to) school…considerations. The evaluation was not designed or of a scale to answer school attendance questions definitively,” said Rau.
Before opening the floor for b oard discussion, Rau shared what he has heard from stakeholders and other superintendents from around the state.
“I have had conversations with numerous individuals regarding our students returning to school. My first question is when do you bring back our students? I receive the same ‘deer in the headlights’ look each time. Their response, ‘I don’t know.’ Board members, I am telling you that I do not know either. I have never been so uncertain of a decision in my time as superintendent. The responses that I have received range from one extreme (bring them back now) to the other (remain hybrid) and anywhere in-between. One could argue that our school-related incidences have remained low, which include our diligence in sanitizing and cleaning to our hybrid model reducing the proximity of our students and staff,” said Rau.
Once the health department administers the vaccines, they need to be asking themselves several questions, he said.
“What would occur if we changed our model? Would we see spread in the schools? Would we see more positive cases? Do we implement a more aggressive approach to returning our students and return to hybrid if needed? Do we bring back our elementary students 4 days a week and remain hybrid with our Junior High and HS? Or a combination of approaches? How can we validate that athletics are okay to continue with student-athletes coming within an inch of one another, unmasked, and throwing sweat everywhere, but insisting that our structured classrooms (students facing the same direction, remaining 3 feet or further apart, wearing masks) are not be safe enough?” said Rau.
The conversations that he has had with parents indicate that their children need the in-person instruction, he said.
“However, in their next breath the are praising our decision to keep everyone safe. Overall, they are pleased with our approach in maintaining a safe environment. Therefore, they would support remaining in a hybrid model. By contrast, another parent emailed and stated, “As opposed to people facing COVID-19 with fear, can’t we agree that as adults, who understand better how to rationalize fear, what we should be telling ourselves is, ‘Hey, I know how to protect myself. I can do this for the sake of the students.’ That is, after all, what we are here for, the kids!” So, as you can, our stakeholders share various opinions,” said Rau.
Likewise, the staff members he has spoken with relay similar mixed sentiments.
“There are those who hold the opinion that we bring all students back next week. There are others who state that we should remain hybrid. One of the best responses came from a staff member who made an excellent point. If teachers provide meaningful work for the three days of remote learning, our hybrid model should be sufficient given our current circumstance. So, as you can see, our staff is of a divided opinion as well,” said Rau.
Correspondingly, approximately 60 superintendents statewide met Jan. 13 to share their insights regarding a few topics, most notably returning to school.
“You may find this hard to believe, but there was a division in opinions here as well. I spoke directly with two other superintendents (neither near our area) who have also remained in a hybrid model since the first day of school. They plan on remaining hybrid, possibly for the remainder of the school year. Although, their local health department’s decision to adhere strictly to the 6 feet guidance is one variable impacting their decision. As I spoke to the group about the uncertainty of my decision and not really knowing what to do, I noticed many heads nodding in agreement. So, we are not alone in these difficult decisions. As for the school districts in our ESC region, there are some planning to return all students on March 1, dependent on local data,” said Rau.
“There are others who will remain hybrid. Another plans to bring K-5 back four days a week and remain hybrid for grades 6-12. Again, across the spectrum. I have said it numerous times, there is no right answer. Those who are not in our seats to make these decisions agree on one thing… every decision is the wrong one.”
Before board members weighed in, guest speaker Shana Crabtree, who has children in the district, shared her perspective on the issue of returning to school full-time.
“My oldest is in seventh grade, he plays sports, he is one your athletes that is nose-to-nose. I work six days at the post office, my husband owns and operates a tri-state carpentry company, it’s impossible to try to teach a seventh grader to be adequate half of his curriculum. He is preparing for college prep courses here in a couple of years, so he’s building those foundational math skills. I haven’t seen this math in 20 years, so me trying to figure it out is insane,” said Crabtree.
Her next child is in the fifth grade.
“He is austistic. I could have opted with the IEP to send him four days a week, but I didn’t. That was a hard sell when I’ve got four other [children] that aren’t going. He is also invaluable as far as helping me with taking care of the siblings while I’m working. He was doing very well with classes, he was managing pretty well and progressing since this setback with only going two days a week. He is declining in his conversation skills, he is struggling to make passing grades. We were doing pretty well on progressing grades. So, as a special needs person, we really need all the days we can get,” said Crabtree.
Two of her children are from the foster system.
“School is very important to build self-esteem and heal. Sschool is a big deal as far as building off of where they came from,” she said.
Her youngest has missed half of his kindergarten year, she said.
“He missed a lot of those foundational skills that they were learning through kindergarten. He’s missed out on so much. If the survivability rate and our — if North Adams is going four or five days, Peebles is going four or five days, they have a similar population as us, even Hillsboro is going five days a week. If they’re able to manage, and if they’re positive tests are similar to ours, then we’re only hurting ourselves by straddling the fence, I feel,” said Crabtree.
Hanson said that he has two kids in the district.
“My junior high son — this is just one example of 50 different things that have happened going two days a week — we found out that he had an ‘F’ the other day at the end of the nine weeks. No warning, no nothing. We found out, got it rectified, and within 24-hours he had a B. Easily fixed, but, we had no inkling, no idea. There was no communication teacher to parent, no anything. In school four or five days a week, he would have never had a grade below a B. He’d never had below a B until we started the two day a week hybrid,” said Hanson.
His daughter, a straight A student, is not at all challenged by the curriculum, he said.
“She’s bored. She gets the homework done in advance when she has it and is looking for more. Just hungry for learning. I know there are kids out there just like her, and there are kids out there on the opposite end that are procrastinating and putting it off. It’s hurting both, it’s hurting all of the kids, I feel. I know it’s hard to cheer for either side on this. I recognize both sides, but I still say — as much as I’m involved with kids — they’re starving,” said Hanson.
McFarland said he thought they had decided on going with the hybrid model because there was an issue with space.
“If that’s not an issue, and you’ve got all the other area schools in the building interacting, no alarms that I’ve heard of in Adams County schools as far as cases of COVID-19. I don’t know if there are or not, but I’m not hearing anything of an outrage. So, my perspective would be, I think they need to be in the building,” said McFarland.
Foster said he could see both sides.
“It’s a great narrative. You’re darned if you do, and darned if you don’t from an emotional perspective, from a scientific perspective, which means that you are making arrangements, making appropriations of physicality based on information we receive from the scientists. Initially, my first thoughts were, if we can illustrate that being in the hybrid model has kept our positivity rate down from the classroom, and understanding sports — correct me if I’m wrong, the preponderance of positive cases are from sports?” said Foster.
Rau said the preponderance of quarantines are from sports; any positive cases in the classroom are unrelated to the classroom and have been brought in from outside the building.
“If we can maintain the safe environment, that’s paramount to me. I agree, well-being is important. Our children not in the classroom is not going to be the Achilles heel for the change in our culture. It’s outside the school. From K-12, they’re significantly impacted, I agree. The foundation has to start there from the lower levels. If we keep them safe — if they’re unsafe, well-being is irrelevant — having that child get sick, whether they have the social skills attributed to being out of the classroom for a year or [so] is irrelevant. We have to have them safe. So, my position is keep them as safe as possible. If we can — and we have an excellent team of administrators — if we can abide by the guidelines given to us and bring them back, then I’m okay with it, because the guidelines are what we’re supposed to go with,” said Foster.
According to those guidelines, Rau believes the district will struggle in junior high.
“Our junior high classes are just large. The only way for that to happen is we’re going to have to hire a monitor. Not a teacher, but a monitor to open up another classroom. We can not nor will I have 30 kids in a class. That you cannot do,” said Rau.
Hanson said if they don’t do something, their junior high classes won’t be large because they’ll lose their students to other schools.
“We can’t have it both ways. So, the guidance right now is three feet. That’s the lowest we can go. So it’s however many we can fit at three feet. My point is, even with three feet, junior high is going to be a question. There’s no guarantee I’m going to be able to do that every single day with junior high. The overall enrollment we’ve got in junior high divided by the number of teachers we have doesn’t allow our kids to spread out which makes our class sizes very large,” said Rau.
Thornburg said there’s going to be any right or wrong answer, as it’s new to everybody.
“Everybody’s making sacrifices. I understand 100 percent what [the members are saying]. Businesses are sacrificing, schools have to sacrifice. The ultimate goal is to make everybody as safe as possible. I get it, some schools are going four or five days a week, some are going like us. I feel like we need to continue the way we are the rest of this school year just for the simple fact that’s two more months. You’re talking March 1st? A little over two more months. You’ve already sacrificed all this time. Why not sacrifice another two more months?” said Thornburg.
Rau said there are other districts doing that same thing.
“Hopefully, next year, everything will be back to normal,” said Thornburg.
“We discussed this, meaning the administrators. What I will not do is bring everybody back May 1. That’s just ludicrous. To me, that’s just a slap in everybody’s face. That’s pointless. So, the question that I have posed to people, and some of the answers I have received is ‘well, I’ll bring them back when it’s safe.’ That’s a great answer, let’s take this further. What is your definition of when it’s safe? Then, of course, I get a five-second lapse of silence, and we’re just sitting there in silence because nobody can answer that for me. I’m not getting a lot of guidance, and it’s all across the spectrum,” said Rau.
Thornburg said he’s afraid that if everybody comes back back on March 1 that two to three weeks later Governor DeWine will say they’ve acted too soon, leaving them where they started.
“I did have to submit a paper, a signed copy of intent to the state the other day. It basically said that I gave my assurance as a superintendent that we would be in-person — in-person means fully in-person or hybrid according to the definition — by March 1. The reason why I had to do that is because a lot of school districts have never set foot in a classroom this year. So, in order for their educators to be on the vaccine list, the superintendents must have made a commitment to go back to school. For us, we’ve already met that commitment because we’ve been hybrid the whole year. Like you said, a date is almost, not irrelevant, but it’s just a matter of, when can you? I don’t know that answer,” said Rau.
Thatcher queried if they would have to do dual-routing if they brought students back.
“No, I don’t think it has to be. That would also cause a bunch of confusion, but I think we can do it without having a split schedule. But, you see the dilemma that we’re all in. No matter what we choose, we’re going to be in-line with a lot of school districts,” said Rau.
Surrounding ESC schools would open back up depending on their data.
Hanson questioned if those schools had been hybrid throughout.
“That data that will be used to make that decision is based on a history of high positivity rates, correct? So if it’s working, why change it? Which is where I was before,” said Foster.
Hanson asked if the data suggests it’s safe to come back full-time March 1 as the governor told them.
“That’s the whole question that I’ve been posing, and I cannot find anybody that will give me an answer for that,” said Rau.
Thatcher queried if there was any consideration of easing the students back into full-time.
“We have talked about that that. One of our plans was to at least start out four days a week. Still leave Wednesdays open, do Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday. But, you can’t start it the very next day because it does take planning to make that transition. So, we have discussed that. We just have to go back there and double check our numbers. That’s what I said that I would like to see is some kind of progression leading up to March 1st,” said Rau.
Thatcher said as with the community, there’s differing opinions on the board.
“Moving forward, I don’t like where we’re at. To me, honestly, I’ve said this before, I just wish they’d cancel 2020. It’s unfair to these kids. My child finished her last year out online, and then she’s starting in college. It’s hard for them. So, I would like to see, instead of starting next Monday, do we have a formula — let’s set March 1 as a goal — and if we work towards that from this day on, if we have hiccups, then we know where we have to go. But, if we’re progressing toward that goal without any major hiccups, I think that’s better than not doing anything at all in regards to education. When it comes to safety, there’s no ‘this is the best way,’ and what we’re doing is trading safety for what they are or conversely not learning. But, I would be in favor of that, if we set March 1 as a goal. It gives us a month for our educators, our administrators and our students even to prepare,” said Thatcher.
Rau said they definitely have some tough decisions ahead of them.
“I’ll just be brutally honest here. There could be a possibility that some grade levels just won’t be able to do it because we can’t do three feet. It’s not the space, it’s the teachers. We don’t have enough staff. It’s not like we’re not trying to make an effort to make accommodations for this, but there’s so many variables on the inside that people just do not know unless you’re doing this day-to-day job. It’s very difficult to pull off,” said Rau.
Foster said there is also an outside variable that’s just started — vaccines.
“What is that going to do to the numbers? Does it have the potential to reduce the numbers? Yes, we’re not going to give the vaccines to the students, but we’re going to give it to staff members, community members. If we’re premature, and we make changes, and our positivity rate goes up in the classroom, I guarantee someone will say, why did you put my child in danger? That’s going to happen. But, I don’t want to discount the potential positive impact the vaccines will have. It’s an unknown, we don’t know if it’s going to impact it. If we come back right away, we’re not giving that potential positive impact a chance to happen. There’s pros and cons from both sides,” said Foster.
“I appreciate your feedback, and we’ll just make the best decision we can make based on what we can do,” said Rau.
In other business:
A motion by McFarland to accept the retirement resignation of Sheila Richards was seconded by Thorburg, the board agreed.
A motiuon by Thatcher to approve employing Keisha Hughes (Palmer) as a substitute teacher was seconded by Foster, the board agreed.
A motion by Thatcher to employ the list of coaches/advisors for the 2020-21 school year was seconded by McFarland, the board agreed.
A motion by McFarland to approve employing Adams County Sheriff Deputy Mark Brewer at $25/hr for special security details, ball games and events, and the cost of a marked patrol car if required will be paid to the Sheriff’s Office for the 2020-21 school year was seconded by Thornburg, the board agreed.
