Teachers rally for stronger plan to reopen schools, push for ‘science-based metrics’
Carey Gerdes said children can tell when they’re being lied to.
So if she ends up back in her sixth grade science classroom this fall, with students asking her if she feels safe, she said she won’t shy away from telling them the truth.
Gerdes, who teaches sixth grade science at Truesdell Middle School, said she’s terrified about a return to in-person classes this fall.
“I’m not okay with death,” Gerdes said. “I want to be in school, I do. But I want to hug my daughter safely too.”
As a science teacher, Gerdes said she wants to see the science and facts about COVID-19 better factored into the discussion on reopening.
Gerdes joined around 50 other teachers and supporters at a rally outside Wichita North High School on Thursday, while the Wichita Board of Education held a meeting to discuss its reopening plans.
Local educators attended the rally to call for a delayed start to the in-person school year and a better plan for what instruction will look like in the coming school year if cases continue to rise in Sedgwick County. Nearly all attendees of the rally wore face masks and maintained some form of social distance as they listened to speakers under the shade offered by large trees in front of the high school.
Wichita school board members at their Thursday meeting decided to delay the start of school until after Labor Day, falling in line with a recommendation from Gov. Laura Kelly. The board unanimously voted to start the school year on Sept. 8 or 9.
The choice comes a day after the state Board of Education declined to delay the start of the school year in a five-to-five vote, meaning Kelly’s order would not be enforced across the state. It left local districts the choice to reopen as they see fit, leaving students across Kansas to see a patchwork of different start dates and educational approaches.
The Wichita school board also voted to offer two online alternatives for families who aren’t comfortable returning their children to school in the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic.
As of Thursday afternoon, there were 3,114 cumulative cases of COVID-19 in Sedgwick County and 1,950 active cases. More than 30 people have died in relation to the virus as of Thursday.
The decision on whether to open school buildings or start the year online will be made Aug. 20 and will be based on coronavirus conditions in Wichita on that day, said Assistant Superintendent Tiffinie Irving.
Gerdes and other local teachers said they expected to see a more organized plan for reopening schools by now. Instead, they say, they’ve been locked out of the conversation and don’t feel heard by school board members or district administration.
Olivia Sumner helped organize the Thursday rally after receiving concerned messages from other teachers. Sumner will teach sixth grade English Language Arts at Truesdell Middle School this fall, after teaching elsewhere in the Wichita district. She said the rally wasn’t organized against the schools, but was an attempt to unify the community and ensure teachers’ voices are heard.
“Teachers’ voices have gotten lost in the shuffle,” Sumner said. “We just want to make sure we’re heard.”
What’s really missing, Gerdes said, is a plan. As a science teacher, she typically uses group work or hands-on experiments to teach children. That won’t be possible in a pandemic school, she said.
“We could have spent the last month training” for online learning, Gerdes said. “Instead, they left us in limbo.”
Even if the online learning isn’t needed at the beginning of the school year, the training wouldn’t have gone to waste, Gerdes said, because they need to be prepared to best serve students if another shutdown is needed later in the year.
Sumner agreed.
“In the spring, there was zero planning time, so virtual learning was a big disservice,” Sumner said. “It wouldn’t look like that this fall if we had a plan.”
Teachers, parents and students across the Wichita School District likely are not all on the same page about how they’d like to see officials approach reopening plans this fall.
Administration and school board members are left balancing the desire to get children back in school with the safety of teachers and the community. The effort to achieve both can feel like conflicting messages, Gerdes said.
Gabriel Costilla, an English and debate teacher at West High School and the vice president of the United Teachers of Wichita union, said most educators want to see science-based metrics for reopening. Costilla said he can’t say with certainty how long he’d like to see in-person education delayed, because he would rather that length be based on current COVID-19 data in Sedgwick County.
“We want science-based metrics for when to reopen based on local COVID-19 data,” Costilla said. “It could be gradual, or hybrid. Going back to school doesn’t have to be a light switch we flip on or off.”
At the same time he has concerns, Costilla said he’s hopeful for the best. He believes Dr. Garold Minns, the county’s health officer, should be involved in the decision about how and when to reopen schools. He was also glad to be out at North High School on Thursday.
“We wanted to give space for teachers to express concern that isn’t a data point,” Costilla said of the rally.
Virtual learning in the spring was a “trainwreck,” Costilla said. But teachers and students alike learned from the difficulties and could come back with better goals in place this fall.
After school let out last spring, Sumner said she and other teachers were hopeful there could be a more normal return to classes in the fall. But now it just doesn’t make sense, she said.
Even with a delayed start to the school year, Gerdes isn’t convinced an additional few weeks is enough time to get in-person school prepared safely. She’d rather see a 14-day decline in new cases and of the percent of positive COVID-19 cases before returning to the classroom for instruction. She’d be more comfortable waiting until a vaccine is developed to treat the virus, too.
So, how would teachers cope if they’re back in the classroom before they feel comfortable with it? Gerdes said it’s important to have a strong group of teachers as friends, and to be honest with yourself and others.
“We want to be with our kids, but we understand it’s not safe right now,” Sumner said.
This story was originally published July 23, 2020 at 5:09 PM.
