EDUCATION

Green Bay School District listening session highlights divide between parents' and teachers' reaction to proposal to start school online

Samantha West
Green Bay Press-Gazette
A sign at Washington Middle School in Green Bay displays 'Students WE miss YOU!!!' on Friday.

GREEN BAY - The school board on Sunday heard from more than 50 concerned and, at times, frustrated parents, teachers and community members, who spoke both for and against the Green Bay School District administration's recommendation to begin the school year off-site while the threat of the coronavirus pandemic remains elevated.

The virtual community engagement session on Sunday, which lasted nearly four hours, came days after the district unveiled its back-to-school plan, which calls for school buildings to remain closed to students until Brown County's COVID-19 transmission rate falls to a safe level. Currently, the state Department of Health Services ranks the county's transmission rate as "high."

Superintendent Steve Murley said he, fellow administrators and the board decided to host a listening session ahead of the school board's Monday vote because of the community's overwhelming response to the proposal. He said he responded to at least 200 "impassioned" emails, expressing a variety of views.

The majority of parents who spoke Sunday night implored administrators and board members to reopen schools, citing concerns about the difficulty of juggling work with caring for and educating their children, as well as frustrations that digital learning wasn't effective in the spring and continuing that method of instruction may negatively impact kids' development and mental health further.

Amy Albrecht, the mother of an elementary school student and high-schooler, said she believes the district should allow families the option of returning to in-person school when classes resume on Sept. 1. While some parents are able to work from home or already have child care, Albrecht said that's not the reality for all parents.

She also expressed frustration that the district didn't appear to be following survey results that 66% of parents in June said they intend to send their children to school. 

"As a community, we are not a one size fits all and I feel like we should have the opportunity to make that decision," Albrecht said. "For my children and for my family, online is not an option. Please listen to the majority of these parents and allow them to attend in person." 

Off-site learning is one of three instructional models the district may move between over the course of the school year. The district could reopen under a blended instructional model in which all students would attend school two days a week and working online the remaining three days, once 5% or less of statewide COVID-19 tests come back positive over a 14-day period.

Murley

RELATED: Green Bay schools superintendent: Decision not to open schools for start of the school year was 'stressful,' but risk is too high

RELATED: What will Brown County schools look like next fall? Green Bay School Board to vote on plan Monday; Pulaski, Ashwaubenon have finalized plans

Sunday's session at times illuminated divide between parents and educators on whether schools should reopen at the start of the school year.

Most teachers expressed support for the administration's proposal, arguing the health and safety of all should be the top priority. Teachers in support of the proposal argued reopening would be premature, and claimed that attending school during a pandemic may actually be worse for children's mental health and social emotional learning than parents would believe.

District surveys in June also reflected this divide: While about one in 10 Green Bay parents said they were "not at all comfortable" sending their child to school on Sept. 1 — even if the state Department of Public Instruction and Brown County health officials deemed it safe — nearly one in five staff members said they weren't comfortable returning to school on a normal schedule.

In follow-up interviews, teachers overwhelmingly said their answers would have been different had the survey been conducted in July, as the spread of the virus accelerated in Wisconsin. And Murley said he heard from many families that they, too, would have responded differently in later surveys.

Sean Conway, who has two elementary-aged daughters in the district, said he has come to support starting the year with virtual learning, as long as the proposal fulfills its promise of better meeting the needs of children who receive special education.

One of Conway's daughters receives special education services, he said, and her needs, guaranteed under her individualized education plan, weren't being met in the spring.

The plan specifies that exceptions to students being entirely off-site will be made to allow individuals or small groups of students, such as those who receive special education or English language learner services, to attend school for limited face-to-face hours depending on their level of need.

Conway also said he doesn't foresee younger children being able to wear a mask for eight hours five days a week. 

"Even my daughters, they can't even keep their masks on in a store for brief amounts of time," he said Sunday. "(At school), it's just not going to happen. Our kids are our future and we should do what is best for our kids and teachers."

But that sentiment didn't reflect the majority of parents' Sunday testaments.

Stacy Heim questioned why many other businesses are open, including her and her husband's work places, while schools say they can't. She's a dental hygienist and instructor, he works in corrections.

"We are essential workers," she said. "Why is our children's education and social development not essential?" 

Heim said her second-grader cries every day at the thought she may not go back to school next month, and her kindergartner, who was already quiet and shy, needs social interaction.

She also worries about the academic consequences of schools remaining closed, as she sees how many of her adult students struggle with virtual learning.

"How can we expect our younger students to handle virtual learning?" Heim asked the board.

But teachers questioned the feasibility of returning to school under the special health and safety parameters required during a pandemic.

"If we do return to on-site learning in September, I can say with absolute certainty that the 5 to 8-year-olds I work with will have an impossible time maintaining appropriate social distance, wearing PPE correctly and just making it through the day in this bizarre version of on-site learning that we've seen recommended," said Nathaniel Dorff, a teacher at Aldo Leopold Community School.

And Margarette Allen, a Preble High School teacher, wondered whether those precautions would be more harmful than parents say distance learning is. 

"The kind of school day we will be forced to endure will be nothing like that I believe our community perceives: Students will be stuck in classrooms. Movement will be extremely limited. Teachers and students will be behind masks and far away from each other," she said. "This will propagate a traumatic and negative school experience for our children that will last for years."

Educators also expressed excitement about the prospect of taking another shot at a new and improved approach to distance learning.

Dorff shared plans to start and end all live meetings with students with emotional and social support activities like sharing circles.

Said Allen: "One child or one teacher or one administrator or one staffer contracting COVID due to premature return to normal is just one too many. ... I know we will do an amazing job no matter what we decide, but let's teach them safely."

The school board will meet virtually at 5 p.m. Monday to discuss the plan and vote.

Contact reporter Samantha West at 920-996-7207 or swest@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @BySamanthaWest.