Ilana Panich-Linsman / The New York Times
Children use Google Classroom to complete assignments in San Antonio, Texas, Feb. 27, 2015. The Clark County School District is working to provide students with remote-learning capabilities as the pandemic persists.
Friday, June 26, 2020 | 12:30 a.m.
A reopening plan for the Clark County School District that calls for initially splitting instructional time between live classrooms and online education has produced plenty of concerns from parents and teachers alike.
The list of questions seems to never end: How will children learn while staying safe from COVID-19, which halted in-person learning in mid-March? How will kids who don’t have a computer or reliable connectivity learn from afar? And what about testing for the virus and temperature checks before students enter campus?
Thursday, the Clark County School Board heard many of those concerns as more than 1,000 public comments were submitted about the proposal. The board will have to approve final plans during a special board meeting July 9 to send to the Nevada Department of Education for a last blessing. Schools could resume in some form Aug. 24.
Yet, there’s much work to get done — something board members and district officials repeatedly stressed during a more than five-hour meeting.
School Board Vice President Linda Cavazos said she was concerned about not having enough information to make an educated decision on the plan. “It sounds like we’re being asked to approve a plan when we don’t have the answers,” she said.
Superintendent Jesus Jara said he also didn’t have all the answers, stressing that “we have been waiting for decisions to be made that are out of our control.”
CCSD centered its plan on the state’s Phase 2 reopening guidelines — which includes maintaining 6 feet of social distance, avoiding gatherings of more than 50 individuals, wearing a face covering and staying home if an individual is sick or in a vulnerable population.
The district leaned on educators and stakeholders throughout the country to consider possible scenarios, including a spike in coronavirus cases. Even with federal and state guidance and consultation with other school districts, it will be challenging to create a plan to provide education in a healthy and safe way, Jara said.
“The plan that our team will be sharing tonight, it’s not optimal but it’s sound,” he said.
Middle and high school schedules will be decreased to two courses per day to limit the passing periods and allow for increased cleaning between classes. Students will be required to use hand sanitizer when they enter the school building. All schools may not have the same arrival and release times. For elementary schools, half of the children will attend school Monday and Tuesday; the other half Thursday and Friday. Wednesdays are cleaning days.
The rest of the learning would be done online, which was problematic to implement at the beginning of the pandemic for a handful of reasons, most notably some children losing interest and others without the means to get online. And the biggest challenge, officials said, is with child care, as many families have parents who work odd shifts in the service industry.
School Board President Lola Brooks said online learning should be more flexible so students can work at their individual pace and schedules. Additionally, many families have multiple students would who be jockeying for computer time. Jara has indicated the district will provide Chromebooks for students without devices through the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, which provided $31 billion in emergency funding for schools across the country.
“I’m not sure this is feasible, especially given the potential connectivity issues and the numerous scheduling problems that we’re about to introduce into families who have multiple children in school,” Brooks said.
All schools will be surveyed to assess how many students will choose to continue distance learning and not return to face-to-face instruction, as families do have that option. School officials said they have not seen a decline in enrollment.
As far as the physical classroom setup, desks would be separated by 6 feet and classroom capacity would be capped at 18 students. All buildings will undergo a technology, cleanliness and infrastructure assessment before school begins.
Students and staff will not be required to test for coronavirus. Students will not have their temperatures checked upon entering schools because it would be impossible with the size of the student population, CCSD officials said. They would ask for families to monitor their child’s health and to keep at home when showing signs of the illness, such as a high temperature.
“The community at large does not understand the restrictions that we are working under,” board member Deanna Wright said.
One challenge will come with the budget, where the reopening proposal calls for $84.6 million in additional funding for transportation, technology, personal protective gear and more. If CCSD finds there’s a big budget shortfall or potential loss in funding in a special session of the Nevada Legislature, the district will need to revisit the plan, Jara said.
“Urban education was already in a crisis,” Jara said. “This world ignored the harsh truth and this unfortunate pandemic pulled back the veil on the bleak and dire issues that our students face and the inequities that we face in urban education.”
