Hi there,
I want to make sure you and I are in touch before the SB makes a decision to reopen. Read on for details about the School Board vote to remain virtual/reopen, local indicators, and recent news.
There’s a lot to unpack but here’s what I think:
- Reasonable people can and will disagree about when/how to reopen
- It is important to listen and uplift perspectives of Black and Brown communities that are disproportionately impacted by COVID
- The impact of school closures on mental health is not to be underestimated
- Chesterfield and Henrico have made decisions to reopen and then delayed these decisions
- We have to do our best to avoid confirmation bias and take politics out of decision making
- We should have prioritized opening schools before bars
With love and gratitude,
Liz
The Vote: The School Board is expected to vote on reopening for the spring semester on Monday, December 7th. To email a public comment about reopening to be read aloud at the meeting, submit your comment to speakers@rvaschools.net by 1pm on Monday. To view a livestream of the meeting visit our Facebook Page at 6pm on Monday.
Indicators: We are in the high risk zone for new cases but still green for percent positivity. Experts are forecasting a rise in percent positivity following the Thanksgiving holiday.
Chesterfield and Henrico are Delaying Reopening:
Henrico Delays School Reopening: “Due to the rise in COVID-19 cases across the region, Henrico County Public Schools will be delaying the expansion of optional in-person learning for students. On Nov. 30 more students in grades PreK through second grade were expected to return to in-person learning but will now be delayed until Jan. 11, 2021.”
Chesterfield Returns to Virtual Through the Semester: “Chesterfield County students will return to virtual learning today after an increase in COVID-19 cases before Thanksgiving prompted a sudden change. The return will last at least through the end of the first semester which ends January 29.”
A Tale of Two Cities
Districts have different opinions on whether to reopen. For example based on RPS survey results, 96% of families at Woodville Elementary in the East End (>85% families of color) have chosen all virtual while only 33% of families at Mary Munford (<85% families of color) have chosen all virtual. When we see opinion disparities across socioeconomic status and race, I feel it is important to dig into these perspectives.
Interesting Articles You Sent Me
UNICEF warns of a ‘lost generation’ and finds school closures are ineffective. NY Times
“One of the small mercies of the coronavirus is that the risk of serious illness in children has so far been relatively small. But that does not mean that the toll has not been devastating. Even with the promise of a vaccine on the horizon, a new report by UNICEF, the United Nations agency for children, warned that “the future of an entire generation is at risk,” with the threat to children ‘increasing, not decreasing’ as the world deals with the economic fallout of the pandemic.”
Largest COVID-19 contact tracing study to date finds children key to spread, evidence of superspreaders Princeton University
“A study of more than a half-million people in India who were exposed to the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 suggests that the virus’ continued spread is driven by only a small percentage of those who become infected. Furthermore, children and young adults were found to be potentially much more important to transmitting the virus — especially within households — than previous studies have identified, according to a paper by researchers from the United States and India published Sept. 30 in the journal Science.”
We’re Thinking About School Closings and Reopenings Wrong Slate
“The thinking that matters most when it comes to school decision-making is that of policymakers. In most states and cities, policymakers also have some control over parks, schools, dining and bars, gyms, and store capacity. (They can make statements about private gathering sizes, too, although it’s hard to control what people do.) And as schools are given hard lines for shutdowns, businesses are often treated differently. Frustration has bubbled up, especially in (relatively) low-prevalence areas when restaurants and gyms are open but not schools. “Schools before bars” (or before indoor dining, or before gyms) has become a rallying cry among those who want schools open.”
Pandemic Takes Toll On Children’s Mental Health NPR
“Even before the coronavirus hit, mental health problems such as depression and anxiety were on the rise in children ages 6 to 17, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Research shows social isolation can make these symptoms worse. Currently, there’s little hard data about how the pandemic is affecting children’s mental health, mostly because the outbreak is still unfolding and research takes time. The little that scientists have measured is worrisome. A national survey conducted in the spring of 3,300 high school students found nearly a third reporting they were unhappy and depressed “much more than usual” in the past month. Almost 51% said they felt a lot more uncertainty about the future as well.”
What determined if schools reopened? How many Trump voters were in a district.Union power also played a role. But covid-19 rates didn’t. Washington Post
“But a new study we conducted, examining some 10,000 school districts across the country — some 75 percent of the total — remarkably finds essentially no connection between covid-19 case rates and decisions regarding schools. Rather, politics is shaping the decisions: The two main factors that determined whether a school district opened in-person were the level of support in the district for Donald Trump in 2016 and the strength of teachers’ unions. A third factor, with a much smaller impact, was the amount of competition a school district faces from private schools, in particular Catholic schools.”
