For the last two months, I and a group of parents have been agitating at the local school board to re-open the public schools. (Population density and transmission outside college students are both very low here.) A whole group of parents organized and coordinated letters to the school board and city council. We ran a survey about virtual learning that captured half the district's students. We made graphs and sent citations and best practices and other schools' reopening plans.
The local school board met this week and apparently- I did not listen to the meeting- ran through our Angry Letter Reasons as justification for re-opening. (To be fair, our Angry Letter reasons were from the state DOE, the CDC, the AAP, the state department of health, and prominent educational organizations.) In theory, K-2 return in 2 weeks, with everyone else coming back 1-2 weeks after. Masks will be required and there is strict cohorting. They did drop the daily temperature check after I banged on at great length about how not-useful it is.
I am simultaneously amazed and gratified. Also, I'm pretty sure the whole school administration hates me. We'll see how it goes for the older kids...
(Our kindergartener will stay in private school this year. I was mostly rabble-rousing because I thought the decision was illogical, wrong, and most harmful for the most vulnerable.)
Good luck!
ReplyDeleteWe're still in the red zone and only a third of our daily new cases are in the student demographics (18-24 year olds), and they're probably more represented among actual cases because the uni is doing contact tracing and random testing. Every day we get a new email from the high school notifying us of a new case there. The elementary school has only had one case all semester so far, and that was an after school staffer.
The pro-Trump contingent got soundly rousted from our home owners association board, losing the election 3-1. But it was CRAZY how many (older white) people who attended that meeting in person rather than virtually were unmasked, even though the law, the rules, and the instructions all said masks were mandatory. I'm glad enough people complained to get a zoom option (even if we had to vote by CAR after).
Oh my gosh, that's a lot. I looked at all the data and it really is just the college students here, mercifully.
DeleteThe high school is a separate (very conspiracy theory Republican) district and the number of anti mask loons is truly stunning.
I'm hopeful for you that fighting this fight will make some difference. So many things don't work out from a grassroots perspective and this sounds promising!
ReplyDeleteWe were REALLY annoying and persistent. And also it's the right thing to do. Before school started the whole county (24,000 people!) had 3 cases a WEEK.
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