A single father of two students begged the Redlands Unified School District board to allow in-person learning, saying his young son struggles with reading.
Another father of two students, who is a professor of public health, reminded the board that reducing exposure is critical to reducing coronavirus infections and deaths.
The board on Tuesday, July 14, mulled the possibilities for the start of the school year after receiving 202 written comments, and hearing from 17 speakers, many of whom were parents, students and staff concerned about health and safety amid a pandemic.
Brian Speahs, the first father, said he thinks the full distance learning option is great for parents who have time to dedicate to it, but both he and his ex-wife work, and “this last year has been an incredible challenge to continue to provide what’s necessary for our children.”
The other father, Robert LaChausse, told the board “the virus doesn’t care about political ideology, or social-economic strata, gender, your personal beliefs, or geography. It’s simple: if you are around a person who is infected, even if they are asymptomatic, it’s highly likely that you are going to get this very communicable virus.”
At the meeting, officials shared details for both remote and in-person instructional models, plans to address safety and sanitation, busing, and student meals.
Much will be refined by principals at each site after the board decides on a course of action, Superintendent Mauricio Arellano said Tuesday.
After seeking community input, the majority asked for a school model for classes to return five days a week, he told the board. A smaller portion would like to keep students out of school and called for a robust distance learning program.
The in-person model, he said, addresses social distancing by “creatively rotating students from in-class learning to remote learning” to lower the number of students together at one time.
Protocols would include taking daily temperature readings of students and staff, making hand sanitizing a priority, requiring face coverings, adding custodians to disinfect commonly touched items and areas, and as much 6-foot social distancing as feasible with markings on floors and one-way flows in high traffic areas.
Arellano called the pandemic a “moving target” requiring everyone to adapt.
County public health data shows the age ranges with the most cases now are 20-29, 30-39, and 40-49, which represents about two-thirds of district employees, he said.
On June 23, there were 55 confirmed cases in school-age children in the district boundary, Arellano told the board, and as of July 13, there were 113.
Options for the board to consider are starting an in-person school year, with an option for 100% distance learning; or starting with all distance learning and shifting to an in-person model later.
“We all know, and we all agree that the best place for a student to learn is in the classroom with their teachers and their peers,” Arellano told the board. “But it cannot happen at the expense of students falling ill or our teachers falling ill, or our principals falling ill or our support staff falling ill, or the virus spreading any further or deeper into our community.”
He said the district is prepared for both models, and to move in and out of distance learning as necessary.
Ken Wagner, assistant superintendent for educational services, told the board the district is hiring more teachers.
“The ability to keep our kids safe requires classroom sizes that are much smaller,” he said.
The district is also looking at how to use all spaces from multi-use facilities to the outdoors.
“Distance learning, at this point, is a guaranteed option,” for those that want it, Wagner said, adding 17% of district students have already been enrolled in a distance learning-only option.
The district is working on developing content so distance learning “educational opportunities are the same as what our academic rigor” is in the classroom, Wagner said.
The board, he said, needs to decide what percentage of students should be allowed to come back to school.
The 50% in-person model, for example, has the youngest learners, up to third grade, in school five days a week, but older students on a one-week-on, one-week-off model to reduce class sizes. For the week at home, students would drop into their classrooms virtually.
The model could help quarantine students in case one came to school sick, Wagner said.
Another change, at least in the early stages, is elementary students would eat in class with their teachers.
For students in sixth grade and above, teachers would be teaching students in-person and at home, at the same time.
In this scenario, students who need more help, such as those in special ed, early English learners, and homeless students, would continue with a five-day week, no matter what grade level.
The proposal allows students learning remotely to join in-person if and when they feel safe to do so.
Another father, board member Alex Vara, said his mind was made up.
His son, he said, really wanted to go back to school.
He asked his son, “how would you feel if you had the responsibility along with five other people of making the decision of whether or not students go back to school, knowing that possibly one student could get the virus and die, one teacher can possibly get the virus and die, or one staff member get the virus and die?”
His son told him, “Dad, I don’t want anybody to die.”
Vara said he wanted to see the school year start with distance learning.
Board President Patty Holohan said no matter what decision is made, things will likely have to be changed and changed again.
“It’s going to be a process,” she said. “It’s going to take time.”
No decision was made Tuesday to allow time for the board to hear public responses to the plan and to analyze the most recent county public health data.
The board will vote on the options at 4 p.m. Monday, July 20.
Either way, school starts Aug. 12.
School districts across the region are rolling out their plans for the start of the 2020-21 school year. Some that planned to bring students back to campus, such as Chaffey Joint Union High School District, say they are now moving to online-only instruction given a recent surge in coronavirus cases locally. Others, such as San Bernardino City Unified, committed to distance learning from the outset.
The 39-page draft reopening plan in Redlands and video of the meeting are available on the district’s website at redlandsusd.net.
