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As next school year looms, MLSD wrangles with reopening safely

EMRY DINMAN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 4 years, 4 months AGO
by EMRY DINMAN
Staff Writer | July 15, 2020 10:01 PM

MOSES LAKE — Though the Moses Lake School District is still in the process of finalizing a plan to safely start the new school year in late August, one thing is clear: not every student will be back in the classroom.

“We don’t have the physical space to put all of the kids in the building at the same time,” said Jay Mathers, president of the union representing Moses Lake teachers, in a Tuesday interview. “We wouldn’t have all of the students in the building at the same time unless we got to Phase 4 (of the state’s Safe Start plan), not unless things drastically change.”

Otherwise, much is still up in the air, as district committees look at how to balance the safety of employees and students with the impact that taking students out of the classroom has on their learning and on the community as a whole. Those plans also have to include contingencies if the public health situation changes, said district Superintendent Josh Meek.

“I don’t have any reason to believe that it’s realistic that we’re going to be in Phase 4 by this fall, and it’s actually trending the other way right now,” Meek said. “So we have to develop a plan for if we stay at the phase we’re at, if we progress, or — I hate to say this — if we go backwards.”

The district’s plans won’t be one-size-fits-all, either, Mathers added — some classrooms are physically smaller than others, limiting the number of students that can be in the room at any given time while maintaining six-foot distancing.

Not all students will have the same needs, either, Meek said.

“There are some students that really struggled with remote learning and needed face-to-face instruction, and some others did great,” Meek said.

Within the parameters set by state and local health authorities, the district wants to offer options to families so they can decide what’s best for their kids, Meek said. Though there are limits to what can be done, the district has fallback plans depending on what families request, he added.

“If every student in our district said ‘we want to be on-site,’ we have some plans to accommodate that,” Meek said. “It could be a series of rotating schedules or using unconventional classroom space like by converting gyms or music rooms.”

In a preliminary survey sent out to families, some families were interested in continuing online learning, Meek said. He added that some students are at high risk of complications from COVID-19, and their parents may want to keep them out of the classroom.

Some teachers have similar concerns, Mathers said.

“There are concerns from those people: ‘Will it be safe to be in the building?’” Mathers said. “If we’re doing some hybrid model, maybe we look at those teachers that aren’t comfortable coming into the building, maybe we look at them being in charge of our remote learning classrooms.”

Whatever plans are enacted at the beginning of the school year, families should expect to see changes throughout the year as circumstances change, Meek added.

Though the committee formed to explore these different options is expected to present its reopening plan to the district later this month, there may be other working conditions to negotiate between unions and the district, Mathers added. It’s too soon to know what issues may arise, he said, but he expected those negotiations would be finished well ahead of the first day of school.

Meanwhile, the district, like those across the country, faces pressure from the White House to fully reopen its classrooms, despite rising coronavirus cases in many states. In recent days, President Donald Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos have threatened to withhold federal funding if schools stay closed or pursue a hybrid model — a mix of online and in-classroom learning.

Though the overwhelming majority of school funding comes from state and local sources, federal funding does support low-income schools and special education, among other programs for the most vulnerable students.

“It is worth noting that the primary use for federal funding is for service for students with disabilities,” Meek said. “I don’t know that there’s a belief that removing that funding is beneficial to anybody.”

“We’re committed to both aligning with the science and at the same time doing what’s best for the kids and the laws that exist,” he added.

The problem isn’t a lack of desire to return to normal, Mathers said.

“Teachers as a rule would like to be back in the classroom and have things like they’ve been,” Mathers said. “The reality is that won’t happen by the beginning of the school year.”

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