Chair Larry Simmons Demands Respect for City School Families at Public Board of Commissioner's Meeting
The following statement was shared by Chair Larry Simmons during January 11, 2022's Public Board of Commissioners Meeting:
Baltimore’s Board of School Commissioners, City Schools leadership, and elected officials have informed us that their priority is maximizing access for students to in-person learning. We at the Parent and Community Advisory Board agree that many students suffer learning loss and mental health detriments during extended periods of virtual instruction.
However, this is not March of 2020, we now have access to vaccines and layered mitigation strategies that make our schools and our cities safer but another key difference between now and March of 2020 is the current surge is BOTH leading to peak hospitalization rates, including pediatric hospitalizations, far beyond what we saw two years ago AND is also widely expected to peak and to subside in a matter of weeks. Those of us who asked for students and staff to go remote for 1-2 weeks did not ask for an indefinite closure, but a temporary pause for in-person in light of a surge that is unlike anything we’ve seen.
Unfortunately, the district’s actions to maximize access to in-person learning also take agency away from family members to protect their children from harm. In the words of one high school parent who voiced their concerns to PCAB - “You are in your offices while you expose thousands of teachers and students and their families to a dangerous virus. Many students are around elderly people and those with compromised immune systems and you seem not to care. You offer no options, just in person.”
The lack of options are particularly troublesome in its equity implications for families - those privileged few with work flexibility and emergency child care resources are already enjoying options many of our families have no access to. Rather than taking a one- or two-week pause to focus on planning an equitable and safe in-person return for all students, we are hearing instead of well-resourced schools in Baltimore’s more affluent neighborhoods unsurprisingly being able to quickly navigate to ensure better outcomes for their students. For example, by being extended a virtual option at their school level even though the district does not offer it so families in those schools could opt to keep their child safe at home. We have also heard of students at one well-resourced elementary school being offered individual PCR testing instead of pooled testing, which if done district-wide would have spared countless COVID-negative students from missing even more school after a wave of positive pool tests threw one-third of Baltimore’s schools back to virtual after one day of in-person instruction and sent many more students home to await individual PCR results even if their school itself remained open. How many of our students who would most benefit from in-person instruction are at home under these circumstances while our most privileged continue to have greater access to testing and virtual learning thanks to this mad dash to open school during an unprecedented surge?
On December 31, PCAB sent Baltimore City Public Schools Leadership the following recommendations as we prepared for school reopening after winter break. While the district has made commitments to families that include “additional ways for families to submit COVID-19 consent forms,” PCAB is requesting engagement and discussion around the remaining recommendations:
- While the Mayor’s office has made efforts to ensure students are provided with KN94, KN95, or N95 masks, parents demand a level of transparency on how those masks will be distributed to schools and when. We ask that the district provide a count of how many high-infiltration masks were obtained for the entire district post-winter break and inventory details on which schools received what number of masks and future distribution plans.
- While our recommendation was to return to school on Monday, January 10 giving ample time to receive COVID test results, students and staff returned to school for one day to then be told late on January 9 that over 60 schools would need to go virtual. Given the quarantine numbers we are now seeing in our district, we request the district to determine which testing types are most effective at identifying contagious individuals, including students, teachers, staff, and others, and report back to this Board.
- There are questions around the reporting accuracy of the COVID-19 Case Tracker Dashboard. PCAB asks that leadership guarantees no more than a 24 hour lag between a case reported and when it is updated to the Dashboard. We also ask for a detailed, written account of how test positivity and quarantine information are communicated to staff and families, including any internal auditing procedures to ensure these critical communications are timely to prevent further spread and encourage early treatment. We will work to share this information with families.
- As we prepare for the break ahead, we ask for a strategy on equitable COVID-19 testing protocols that include a testing strategy for the following calendar academic break periods that exceed four business days: Spring Break, Summer Break, Thanksgiving, and Winter Break. We again ask that the District not only test faculty, staff, and students but require all faculty, staff, and students to provide a negative result before entering for in-person learning. We ask that we have this presented strategy by Friday, February 4.
City Schools’ families aren’t asking for miracles. They are asking for respect - effective communication, options that allow all students to receive an education during all facets of this pandemic, and COVID protocols that include a testing strategy that evolves as variants evolve. Our families deserve to feel like partners in their student’s education. They deserve respect.
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