Parents press Hoover schools to reopen five days a week

The Hoover school system will begin offering in-person instruction for elementary students four days a week on Jan. 19, but middle and high school students will remain on a staggered instruction schedule of two days in person for now, school officials said on Monday.

Meanwhile, a group of about 70 parents came to the Hoover school board meeting Monday night, most saying they’ve had enough of the staggered instruction and want their children back in school five days a week.

Interim Hoover Superintendent Tera Simmons said she would like nothing more than to have all students return to school for in-person instruction five days a week, but she and other school officials want to do it safely and are concerned about the health implications. That means the staggered instruction schedule for middle and high school students will stay in place for now.

Elementary students who opted for in-person instruction on Jan. 19 can begin coming to school on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Instruction on Wednesdays will be done virtually, giving teachers time to prepare virtual lessons for students who chose virtual learning or were sent home for COVID-19 quarantine, Simmons said. Wednesdays also will be used as a day to clean classrooms deeply, she said.

In-person instruction can more safely be given to elementary students four days a week because elementary students are contained in the same classrooms much more than middle and high school students, Simmons said.

One high school student who has COVID-19 and nine classes would have close contact with as many as 40 other students, not counting lunch or extracurricular activities, Simmons said. There is no way to “socially distance” on a regular schedule, she said.

COVID-19 cases and positivity rates in Hoover remain relatively high, and health officials are not sure if the community has seen the end of the New Year’s surge, Simmons said.

“There is significant risk that not being prudent in our reopening strategy will lead to unwanted closing of schools,” she said.

Another factor being considered is whether there are enough adults in the schools to keep them running, Simmons said.

Since returning from winter break on Jan. 4, Hoover schools on average have been able to fill only 61 to 74% of the requests for substitutes for teachers and instructional aides, Simmons said.

Since Nov. 1, 87 people have applied to be substitutes, and 31 have completed the screening process and are subbing, she said. Still, the school system needs more substitute teachers and bus drivers, she said.

Hoover schools are following guidance from the Alabama Department of Public Health to send students and staff home for quarantine if they have been within 6 feet of someone with COVID-19 for 15 or more minutes, Simmons said. That quarantine period must last 10 to 14 days depending on whether the person has COVID-19 symptoms, she said.

PARENT COMPLAINTS

Numerous parents who spoke to the Hoover school board Monday night said they don’t understand why children in so many surrounding school districts are allowed to go to school five days a week but Hoover children are not.

Kristin Pederson, a parent with a master’s degree in teaching who taught child psychology in college before moving to Alabama about 1½ years ago, said she chose to live in Hoover because of the schools but is very disheartened by the staggered instruction.

She can’t fathom subjecting children to the mental health issues that come with being kept out of school like this, given the number of students and staff actually dealing with COVID-19, she said.

Also, the staggered schedule is affecting families’ finances, Pederson said. Parents are having to choose between keeping a job and putting food on the table and staying home to help their children with virtual school, she said.

School sports are continuing to happen five days a week, so it appears school officials are putting sports before education, Pederson said.

“If we can have sports five days a week, we can have school five days a week,” she said. “I really implore you to please open our schools and do what’s right for our children.”

Parent Arden Pathak noted comments by Dr. Robert Redfield, the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who in November said one of the safest places for children is in school. Redfield said then that schools can operate safely and responsibly with face-to-face learning.

Kari Vickers, a parent of a Spain Park student, said she is a health care worker who has taken care of COVID-19 patients and believes students need to be in school five days a week. The CDC recommendations for masks, social distancing and cleaning all work if followed, she said.

However, if students must remain on a staggered schedule, there needs to be more consistency in the virtual instruction, Vickers said. Some teachers are good about providing clear and consistent instructions for students, but others don’t provide assignments or respond to questions in a timely manner, leaving students at home disconnected and frustrated, she said.

'DERELICTION OF DUTY'

Parent Rob Moss said parents were told they would have a choice this school year about whether to send their children to school or do virtual school, and he doesn’t appreciate that choice being taken away and doesn’t feel school system leaders have provided adequate justification for their decisions.

“Four days a week is nice, but that doesn’t cut it,” Moss said. “We have to work five days a week, some of us more than that.”

In the real world, people can’t miss work because their kids aren’t in school, and it’s a dereliction of duty for Hoover schools not to educate the kids in person at school, he said.

“It is incredibly frustrating. It is unprofessional, and it’s shocking that a school system that boasts about how much quality you have can’t make a decision, can’t answer our questions here in a public forum,” Moss said. “This has got to change, and it’s got to change soon.”

Parent Cara Turner said more needs to be done to find creative solutions. Options could include: increasing substitute pay to attract more substitutes; allowing teachers to teach from home if they are in quarantine and without symptoms; giving students more time at school for core subjects and teaching art, music and physical education from home; having kids come to school during the summer to help keep them from falling behind further; allowing teachers to test out of quarantine with multiple negative tests; and identifying alternative facilities to use as classrooms to allow for more spacing between students.

“Continuing to pretend everything is OK and that this is going to be a great year and that our students aren’t suffering is no longer acceptable,” Turner said.

Jana Maynard, a teacher at Simmons Middle School, thanked the school board for taking the COVID-19 pandemic seriously, looking at the science behind it and realizing that there has to be somebody at school to teach students.

“Thank you for caring enough about the system’s teachers and students to make sure we all stay safe and healthy,” Maynard said.

DISCUSSIONS CONTINUE

Simmons, the interim superintendent, said this has been a very hard decision to make, and while other school systems may make different decisions, she is doing what she thinks is best for Hoover after consulting with a variety of people, including principals, school nurses, central office staff and state and county health officials.

School board President Deanna Bamman said the school board supports Simmons and will continue to have conversations over the next week concerning the best course of action for middle and high school students and hopefully reach a decision very soon.

“Our goal is to educate these kids and to educate them safely,” Bamman said.