As Virginia school district prepares to reopen, educators and families balance Covid precautions and normal education

He says the Biden administration’s goal of Kindergarten to Grade 8 to return five days a week to the end of the president’s first 100 days in office is “unrealistic.”

The biggest obstacle is the six foot desk spacing.

“Practically it means the difference between two days a week and five days a week,” he said. “And so we need a clearer national discussion. Every superintendent in this country wants even clearer advice from the CDC on social distancing, with universal masks, with other schools mitigation strategies . Can we come in less than six feet? “

When CNN spoke to Brabrand last summer when they planned school to start in the fall, he said it would take “five pentagons of extra space if six feet is the norm” for that to happen. students are safely in school five days a week.

Now he says if the CDC revised its recommendations for social distancing to just three feet away, along with other Covid mitigation strategies like wearing a mask, only then would he feel comfortable having enough. space to bring the whole student body back to full time.

“To get to five days a week, we need to be able to have data that helps us inform us that under six feet and other mitigation strategies can allow students to return to school safely . Not only in person, but in person for five days, “he said.

Preparing for Covid Safe Schools

First-grade math teacher Leon Riddick can’t wait to finally meet the students in person. Like most teachers during the coronavirus crisis, he spent much of that difficult school year acting as a part-time counselor to frustrated students.

“I’m trying to get them to calm down and say, ‘Hey, it’s not going to be long when we can get back to class and everything will be back to normal.’ “

Riddick is fully vaccinated which he says makes his family more comfortable with returning to school.

Margaret Barnes, principal of Holmes, says that due to HIPAA laws, she doesn’t know how many of her teachers have received the vaccine, but admits some are still concerned.

“Before we talk about anything, we talk about safety. We’re tightening up the procedures even more. That’s what keeps me awake at night, is how are we going to keep the kids at bay when they get off the bus. ? ” Barnes said.

This coming week, 80 eighth graders will be in school per day. As sixth and seventh graders return in the coming weeks, that number will increase to 240 students in school each day.

In order to limit contact while students change classes, the hours will be shifted.

Yellow tape now runs down the middle of each lane like the lines in the center of the road to keep pedestrian traffic orderly, like a two-way street.

The principal’s biggest concern, however, is the cafeteria. This is the only place where the masks are removed so that the students can eat.

Giant X’s made of masking tape adorn most of the stools at each table, blocking out space to ensure students sit six feet apart. They will now be in assigned seats, to help with the tracing of Covid-19 contacts if there are any positive cases.

“I can’t just come to the cafeteria and sit with my friend who’s in another class. She could be assigned to the conference room. She could be assigned to a table across the cafeteria. So that changes. definitely that dynamic, ”Barnes said.

More than half of the students chose not to return

Despite the frustrations and drawbacks of virtual learning, there is a divide here on whether to turn back the clock. Only 45% of students chose to return to school, according to Barnes. The remaining 55% will stay at home full time.

“It surprises me, but I also think they are concerned that the numbers are still high. We are still in that red zone for the numbers per hundred thousand for the infection, but we do not have a vaccination for the students yet. .. “

This split runs through the Porter family, whose sixth-year twins have made different decisions. Elizabeth will be returning to school for a blended learning.

“I want to socialize with more people and I made friends on the online school, and I want to meet them,” said Elizabeth Porter, 12.

But her twin sister Katharine wants to stay home and learn almost full time.

“We are a classic example of strong and divided opinions,” said their mother Jennifer Porter.

“I don’t want my child to be in a position at school where he spends more time worrying about his exposure risks than focusing on the education he is attending for”, a- she added, referring to her daughter Katharine. , which is much more careful with Covid-19.

Before CNN visited her family in Alexandria, Va., Jennifer Porter did some of her own reporting – asking neighborhood parents in an online chat room what they thought about sending their kids back to school now even a few days a week.

“I got a lot of answers, a lot of answers,” she said with a knowing smile.

“They were everywhere. And some people messaged me privately because they want it to be anonymous. They didn’t want to be judged by their neighbors, for their opinion. Some people were very succinct, saying: ‘ I’m for I’m against. And other people had a lot of opinions and they really explained the context of their opinions, ”she said.

Porter has a third daughter in high school and said she was so inundated with emails from school that it was difficult to sort them out. Her eldest daughter couldn’t understand why her Spanish teacher had stopped showing up for online classes until she realized that she had missed an email telling her that the teacher is gone and that the schedule had changed.

A lawyer at the demanding job, Porter said she took time out of her schedule to join the Holmes Middle School PTA in hopes of learning more about the decision-making process related to Covid from school that affects her sixth-grade twins.

“I have really found that being on the PTA board has helped me a lot to know what’s going on at school,” Porter said.

“The virtual school as a whole, I think it’s (bad) for our kids. My approach and my thinking about this year is that we’re doing it and making the most of it. also have the feeling that we “I’m just dumping it,” she said.

“ Being ashamed of going back to school is not a strategy ”

Last summer, then Education Secretary Betsy DeVos named Fairfax County, Va., As a county she said was not doing enough to open schools.

Brabrand said that – along with other pressures at the national and local level – made an already difficult decision-making process even more difficult.

“Every superintendent in the country has been under pressure from everyone. This is possibly the most politically intense moment any principal or even principal has felt in their life, ”said Brabrand.

“Being ashamed of going back to school is not a strategy to send children and staff back safely,” he said, referring to overt pressure from the Trump administration.

He said he and other superintendents feel they have more of a partner in the current president, but that the political divide and mixed messages about school reopens persist and make it harder to find consensus.

“We have turned back to school in person into a political issue rather than an educational issue. And if we stick to an educational problem, and if we stay on it based on science and health, we’re ‘I’m going to come to the right place. But we have received many messages from many different places that have confused our community instead of bringing unity to our community and dividing our community. And it’s time to really step away from the politics of fear and talk about the politics of inclusion and bring back all of our kids and families, ”Brabrand said.