As a school district in Virginia prepares to reopen, educators and families balance Covid’s precautions with normal instruction

He says the Biden administration’s goal of returning from kindergarten to eighth grade five days a week by the end of the president’s first 100 days in office “is unrealistic.”

The biggest obstacle is the spacing between the six-foot tables.

“Practically, it means the difference between two days a week and five days a week,” he said. “And therefore, we need a clearer national discussion. Each superintendent in this country wants an even clearer orientation from the CDC on social distance, with the use of universal masks, with other school mitigation strategies. We can reach less than one meter and eighty? “

When CNN spoke to Brabrand last summer, while planning to start classes in the fall, he said that “five Pentagons of additional space if six feet were the standard” would be needed for students to be at school safely five days a week.

Now he says that if the CDC revised its social distance recommendations for just one meter away, along with other Covid mitigation strategies like wearing a mask, only then would it feel comfortable having enough space to bring the entire student body back in full time.

“To get to five days a week, we need to be able to have data that helps us to inform us that less than six feet, along with other mitigation strategies, can take students back to school safely. Not just in person. , but personally for five days, “he said.

Covid Safe School Preparation

First-year math teacher Leon Riddick says he is looking forward to finally getting to know the students in person. Like most teachers during the coronavirus crisis, he spent much of that difficult school year acting as a part-time counselor for frustrated students.

“I try to calm them down and say, ‘Hey, it won’t be long before we can go back to the classroom and everything will be back to normal.’ “

Riddick is fully vaccinated, which, he says, makes his family more comfortable with his return to school.

Margaret Barnes, director of Holmes, says that because of HIPAA laws, she is unsure how many of her teachers received the vaccine, but admits that some are still concerned.

“Before we talk about anything, we talk about security. We are still tightening up procedures. This is what keeps me up at night: how are we going to keep the kids away when they get off the bus?” Barnes said.

Next week, 80 eighth graders will be in school each day. With the return of sixth and seventh graders in the coming weeks, this will increase to 240 students at school on any given day.

To limit contact while students change classes, times will be staggered.

The yellow ribbon now runs in the middle of each corridor like the lines in the center of the road to keep pedestrian traffic in order, like a two-way street.

The principal’s greatest concern, however, is the cafeteria. It is the only place where masks are removed so that students can eat.

Giant Xs made of duct tape adorn most benches on each table, blocking the space to ensure that students sit two meters away. They will now be in assigned seats to help track Covid-19’s contact if there are positive cases.

“I can’t just go to the cafeteria and sit with my friend who is in another class. She can be assigned to the classroom. She can be assigned to a table across the cafeteria. So that definitely changes this dynamic, “said Barnes.

More than half of the students chose not to return

Despite the frustrations and disadvantages of virtual learning, there is a division here about whether we should go back or not. Only 45% of students chose to return to school, according to Barnes. The other 55% will stay at home full time.

“It surprises me, but I also think they are concerned that the numbers are still high. We are still in that red zone for numbers per hundred thousand for infection, but we also don’t have vaccinations for students yet. “

This division occurs directly in the Porter family, whose sixth-grade twin girls made different decisions. Elizabeth will return to school for hybrid learning.

“I want to connect with more people and I made some friends at the online school and I want to meet them,” said 12-year-old Elizabeth Porter.

But his twin sister Katharine wants to stay at home virtually learning full time.

“We are a classic example of strong and contradictory opinions,” said his mother, Jennifer Porter.

“I don’t want my son to be in a position at school where he spends more time worrying about the risks of exposure than actually focusing on the education he is taking,” she added, referring to daughter Katharine, who is much more cautious about Covid-19.

Before CNN visited her family in Alexandria, Virginia, Jennifer Porter did some of her own reporting – asking neighborhood parents on an online chat forum how they felt about sending their kids back to school now, even if only a few days a week.

“I received many responses, many responses,” she emphasized with a knowing smile.

“They were totally sincere. And some people send me messages in private because they want it to be anonymous. They didn’t want to be judged by the neighbors, for their opinion. Some people were really succinct in saying, ‘I am for I am against it.’ And other people had a lot of opinions and really explained the background of their opinions, “she said.

Porter has a third daughter in high school and said that she received so many emails from the school that it was difficult to sort them. Her eldest daughter couldn’t find out why her Spanish teacher stopped showing up for online classes until she realized she missed an email saying the teacher had left and the schedule had changed.

Lawyer with a demanding job, Porter said she made time on her schedule to join the school’s PTA at Holmes Middle School in the hope of learning more about the school’s Covid-related decision-making process that affects her sixth twin students series.

“I really found that being on the PTA board was very helpful for me to know what the hell is going on at school,” said Porter.

“The virtual school as a whole, I think it is (bad) for our children. My approach and thinking about this year is that we are going through and getting the best out of it. But I also feel that we are just gutting it” , she said.

‘Being ashamed of going back to school is not a strategy’

Last summer, then Education Secretary Betsy DeVos pointed to Fairfax County, Virginia, as one she said was not doing enough to open schools.

Brabrand said that – in addition to other pressures at the state and local level – it makes an already difficult decision-making process even more difficult.

“Every superintendent in the country has been under pressure from everyone. It is probably the most politically intense moment that any school superintendent or even school principal has ever felt in life, ”said Brabrand.

“Being ashamed of going back to school is not a strategy to safely return children and staff,” he said, referring to open pressure from the Trump administration.

He said he and other superintendents feel that they have one more partner in the current president, but the political divide and mixed messages about the reopening of schools still persist and make consensus more difficult to find.

“We make returning to school personally a political issue rather than an educational issue. And if we continue with this around being an educational issue, and if we stick to it based on science and health, we’re going to get to the right place. But we received many messages from many different places that confused our community instead of bringing unity to our community and dividing our community. And it’s time to really step away from the politics of fear and talk about the policy of inclusion and bring all of our children and our families back, “said Brabrand.