By Kayla Hunt and W. Patillo
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writers
When Baltimore County Public School Superintendent Darryl L. Williams released a plan last week that called on teachers to return to school on Oct. 19 and in-class learning to gradually resume in November, he asked the public for feedback.
He got it.
Over the past week and during a four-hour Baltimore County Board of Education meeting yesterday, dozens of parents, teachers and staff members expressed their concerns – first about the superintendent’s Sept. 16 proposal, which would have allowed a limited number of students across the system to return to the classroom, and then about a revised plan announced Friday that would limit in-class instruction to four schools that serve disabled students.
Some parents have supported the superintendent’s efforts, saying they fear that online instruction is not providing their children with enough support. But other parents and many teachers oppose efforts to open the schools in November, arguing that it is not yet safe enough for face-to-face learning.
“The people at these schools are not expendable,” Shae Savoy, a teacher at Woodlawn High school who spoke against reopening schools, told the board. “I demand real justice.”
Parents of children who receive special education said they were particularly concerned about online learning because they do not believe the school system is providing the services their kids require. Some suggested that the school system should provide special education teachers for in-house instruction.
“There is great concern being raised over going back into the buildings and great concerns being raised over not going back into the buildings,” Cindy Sexton, president of the county’s teacher’s union, said during the meeting. “There have been hundreds of questions around safety schedules, timelines, PPE, the medical fragility of students, staff who are at high risk and a plethora of other things.”
The uproar began on Sept. 16, when Williams announced that all teachers and staff members would have to return to school by Oct. 19 and that small groups of students would have the option to start attending in-person classes as early as Nov. 13.
Students who were affected included those with disabilities who attend separate public day schools and self-contained regional programs, as well as students in preschool, pre-kindergarten, and kindergarten.
The plan was praised by Gov. Larry Hogan, who commended Baltimore County schools in a tweet for pushing forward with reopening plans. But the announcement caught teachers off guard because the original phase-in plan drafted this summer called for virtual learning until the end of January 2021.
As teachers and some parents began to complain about the revised timeline, Williams changed course again.
In a letter last Friday, the superintendent said that staff and teachers at Battle Monument, Maiden Choice, Ridge Ruxton, and White Oak – which all serve students with disabilities who receive special education and related services – will return to those buildings on Nov. 2. Families with students in those schools will be surveyed between Oct. 2 and Oct. 9 to see who wants to return and who wants to continue online instruction. Students at those schools will have the option to resume in-class learning as of Nov. 16.
The new plan no longer requires staff and faculty to return to all school buildings in October, and it no longer calls for identified preschool, pre-K, and kindergarten students to resume face-to-face instruction in November.
In addition to the public comments made yesterday, the school board and administration have received numerous emails from teachers voicing their concerns on the previous and updated reopening plans.
“I have a son who is in 7th grade. He is expected to be home alone and maintain his classes while I am teaching in an empty classroom?” wrote Heather Hylock, a third-grade teacher at Oakleigh Elementary School. “I can do the exact same job from my home as the classroom without the added risk to mine and my family’s health.”
Teachers were also upset by how they received the news that they would have to return to school buildings in October.
“Digital learning has been so much work for educators, and receiving the email update today was a shock to myself and my coworkers,” wrote Natalie Topper, a fourth-grade teacher at Deep Creek Elementary School. “The lack of respect towards educators in regards to the time that the email was sent and the lack of information for educators is disheartening and frustrating.”
School officials have been trying to monitor the sentiment of parents. At the end of the 2019-2020 school year, county school officials released a reopening survey in which 42.3 percent of students preferred learning to be fully in person and 42.9 percent of school staff preferred to work fully virtual.
“Experiences are varied. One group of students is engaged in virtual learning and a few even prefer online classes. Another group consists of students who cannot engage at all,” said Megan Stewart-Sicking, chairperson of the Special Education Citizens Advisory Committee.
Stewart-Sicking said the third group of special education students are being largely ignored. She said these students could learn virtually if they had the proper support.
“These students don’t have to experience intense frustrations in growing learning gaps,” she told the board. “They could make progress, but the barriers in distance learning are too many and the solutions and supports provided are too few.”
She said some parents are “at their breaking point” because they believe their children are regressing. Others say their children are frustrated and demoralized by remote learning.
“We have heard about kids begging for this to stop, or to slow down,” Stewart-Sicking said.
The board said the school system is making progress in getting technology devices such as laptops and tablets out to students in need. However, the board said the schools have only about 857 devices left and are having difficulty fixing damaged devices. It was stated that devices are being repaired daily but at a slower rate due to the types of repairs required.
The board will continue the discussion on the school reopening plan at its next meeting on Oct.13.
“We all know that at some point our students will need to go back to a physical building and our staff will need to return too,” Sexton said. “We support a safe, sustained reopening. We ask, as we have done and will continue to do, for clear consistent communication around us with our voices at the table when plans are being developed.”