D.C. PUBLIC SCHOOLS PUSH AHEAD WITH NOV. 9 REOPENING DESPITE WIDESPREAD CRITICISM

Jennifer Loss said the COVID-19 pandemic has changed her mind about the biggest risk in her D.C. classroom.

“Our worst fear used to be, ‘What if I die in school from a shooter while protecting my kids?’ My new fear is, ‘What if I die from getting COVID in the classroom from my kids?’” said the Key Elementary School teacher.

Concerns like that have made in-person instruction a touchy subject for the D.C. Public Schools, which is pressing ahead with a plan to welcome at least three-fourths of elementary aged children back to school starting Nov. 9.

The Washington Teachers Union, which represents approximately 4,750 D.C. teachers is fighting the plan, arguing that conditions in school buildings are still not safe enough for in-person learning. 

But D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Lewis Ferebee says that virtual learning does not meet the needs of younger students and that learning loss is occurring. The district is especially concerned about students with special education needs, English language learners and students categorized as at-risk. These students will be prioritized in the district’s lottery.

In an Oct. 22 press conference, Ferebee pointed to elementary reading data showing a drop in student achievement in beginning of the year tests.

“We have seen a 9-percentage point reduction in those students meeting or exceeding their literacy benchmarks…We’ve also seen a 22 percentage mark reduction in our Kindergarten students meeting or exceeding these benchmarks,” Ferebee said.

Ferebee highlighted the fact that students have been out of school buildings for over 7 months.

However, data aside, the Washington Teachers Union says that the school officials are looking at the wrong metrics. They argue that the health of students and staff at schools should come first.

Washington Teachers Union President Elizabeth Davis highlighted that building HVAC, social distancing signage, adequate testing protocols and personal protective equipment have yet to be implemented or guaranteed. 

“In the absence of immediate corrections to shortcomings in our school environments, it is our

belief that school buildings should be closed in order to protect our community,” she said in an

Oct. 22 statement.

While safety has remained a primary focal point for critics, a recent ruling by the Public Employees Relations Board against the district has also stated that their in-person staffing model violated their contract with the Washington Teachers Union, leading to continued questions regarding which elementary teachers can be called on to teach in-person students.

Chancellor Ferebee told the D.C. Council that returning should not be optional for teachers.

The Council of School Officers, the union representing D.C. principals has also voiced its concern for the district’s plan. Stating that the district’s lottery of students will lead to increased inequity, as well as criticizing the plan to reassign secondary non-teaching staff members to elementary schools to provide in-person supervision of students in CARES classrooms.

“The current last-minute design for staffing CARES classrooms is flawed and discriminatory and that it pits elementary and secondary schools and students against one another for resources.” said President Richard Jackson in an Oct. 27 statement.

Secondary schools are not scheduled to reopen until February, and some administrators fear that reassigning staff may lead to that being impossible with some schools losing up to 17 staff members to CARES rooms.

Some parents are also concerned. Allison Criner Brown, who lives in Southeast Washington, said at the meeting that the school system needs to prove that the plan will treat all students equally. She was concerned that the heavily African-American part of town across the Potomac, has been hit harder by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“There are a lot of health issues, particularly east of the river, both among students and their caregivers and families.” she said.