Chicago students will have option to continue remote learning; pressure mounts to forgo a partial schools reopening

CHICAGO — Outside the Chicago Board of Education’s Loop office Wednesday, teachers taped poster boards to the backs of chairs to represent what they worry classrooms could look like if schools open in the fall.

One imaginary student had a coronavirus infection in the spring. Another didn’t have health insurance. A classmate was an asymptomatic carrier who had passed the temperature check.

“We’ve got a student here who lost a family member to COVID,” narrated Gustav Roman, an English teacher at Kelly College Prep. “We’ve got … a student in a temporary living situation, who we’re supposed to be supporting.”

The mock school, shared in a livestreamed panel on the Chicago Teachers Union Facebook page, was one of several actions designed to draw attention to two central issues as the board convened its monthly meeting Wednesday: schools reopening in the fall and police on campus.

Though votes were not scheduled on either matter, many people saw the meeting as a chance to make their voices heard by decision makers.

Last week, Chicago Public Schools released a draft plan for fall instruction — a hybrid learning model that would assign most students to “pods” that would return to campus for two consecutive days of in-person learning on a rotating basis, pending public health guidance. On Wednesdays, in between pod rotations, schools would get deep cleaning.

CPS has created a survey and scheduled five virtual meetings next week seeking feedback before finalizing a plan. CEO Janice Jackson on Wednesday stressed the importance of community input over the next 10 days.

So far, student respondents have reported feeling a lack of connection and desire for more live interaction with their teachers and classmates, she said. Families want more rigorous health protocols in schools and more transparency from CPS, and parents want to see kids back in school but are concerned with health and safety.

The district aims to release a revised plan in early August.

“We need all of our stakeholders to help us decide how we safely reenter schools in the fall,” she said. “It’s important for people to know that the plan we are putting in place is just that. Our goal is to ensure that we can cautiously reopen schools, and we will only do that if it is a safe and responsible thing to do.”

However, even with an optimistic outlook about a vaccine or treatment, Jackson doesn’t see schools returning fully to in-person instruction for the remainder of the year. And the district is prepared to switch back to remote learning if there’s a spike in cases.

“If we magically had a vaccine in the next week or so, we’re still, this entire year will be a year where we will either be in a hybrid model or an all remote model. I am certain of that,” Jackson said.

But teachers who spoke during events hosted by the CTU said in addition to the concerns about the possible spread of COVID-19 within schools, they risked endangering their own families.

“Reopening school is not the safest option,” said Yvette McCaskill, who teaches at Morrill Math and Science Elementary. She appeared in a video from a car caravan organized by the teachers union.

Marilyn Piggee, a first-grade teacher assistant at Murray Language Academy, said paraprofessionals like herself are the “first responders” within schools, yet many are over the age of 50 and at a higher risk for complications if they get the coronavirus.

“We are the first to get to work and the last to leave work. We interact with all the students,” she said. With school starting just after Labor Day, she said staff also have concerns about children returning from family vacations having not quarantined for 14 days.

“How would we know where co-workers or students have been?” she asked. “If nobody can have more than six people in their house … or bar, how can we have 16 in a classroom?”

During a morning news conference, CTU Vice President Stacy Davis Gates brought up the challenges faced by immunocompromised students and teachers. “How can you say with a straight face that this plan works for them?”

Jackson said all families should have an option that works for them. Parents will be asked to choose hybrid or remote when registering students for the upcoming school year, though if a family starts out participating in the hybrid program and decides later that they don’t feel comfortable, they can pull out and switch to at-home learning. The draft plan also has most 11th and 12th graders continuing school at home, and preschoolers entirely in-person, with Kindergarten through 10th graders in the hybrid attendance model.

“If you have preexisting health conditions or you’re uncomfortable with returning to a school setting, you can opt into the fully remote option,” Jackson said. “Similarly we heard from a lot of parents who want to see their children in school and so they will have that hybrid model.”

If a student opts for remote-only, they will have to commit to that for at least 10 weeks, the length of a quarter, to allow schools adequate planning time and to make sure they’re not breaking up the pod system, Jackson said.

“There will be a very strict process for opting back in … making sure people are quarantining,” Jackson said.

Chief Education Officer LaTanya McDade said lessons from spring remote learning are guiding the district in fall changes, including moving all schools to one platform to capture student participation; having more live virtual instruction; providing clearer expectations for educator engagement during remote learning; and increasing monitoring by principals and district leaders.

In the upcoming month, schools will have trainings on strategies for rebuilding a sense of community, whether in school or virtual classrooms. CPS is also expanding mental health interventions and supports, including grief curriculum, classroom activities for managing stress and anxiety, and more partnerships with community agencies, McDade said.

While summer sports programming is underway with COVID-19 restrictions, district leaders have not yet made a decision about prep sports.

“While we haven’t made a decision about high school sports in the fall, we know athletics are important to many of our students and we are committed to supporting their talents,” McDade said.

Separately, the Board of Education also needs to vote next month on a new contract with the Chicago Police Department for school-based officers.

During the CTU panel, Darla Wynn, an elementary teacher at Casals School of Excellence, said she’s working on the push for police-free schools because CPS is paying $33 million for the contract with Chicago police while other needs go unmet, such as full-time nurses at all schools.

“That sends a very powerful message,” she said.

As the meeting began with the board honoring Golden Apple award winners, some recipients used their platform to draw attention to similar issues.

Jenine Wehbeh, a Murphy Elementary teacher honored for excellence in teaching, recognized “the Chicago students who are leading our community and demanding justice,” particularly Miracle Boyd, a 2020 graduate who had teeth knocked out by Chicago police officers at a weekend protest “for standing up for what she believes in.” Wehbeh said as an educator, it’s unacceptable to her that CPS is sending $33 million to CPD, protecting “white supremacy instead of Black and brown youth.”

Jackson said the district is trying to meet the evolving needs stemming from COVID-19 and racial injustice in the city.

“We know that there are a variety of things going on and we know that there are communities that are disproportionately impacted,” she said. “These are also the same communities that are still reeling from the murders of George Floyd and others and also dealing with the racial injustice and violence. And so when you compound all of these things and try to put a plan together, it becomes extremely complex and complicated. But we remain committed to working through that.”

After recent virtual meetings, Wednesday’s was hybrid, with two members calling in and five in the board room, including board President Miguel del Valle and Vice President Sendhil Revuluri, along with Jackson, McDade and minimal board staff. All present sat with extra spacing and wore masks

Del Valle noted it was the first meeting since Illinois moved into phase four of its reopening plan, and CPS will announce at a later date if the August meeting will be in person or virtual. Citing technological limitations, he said public comment Wednesday remained capped at 15, but CPS is “planning to adopt systems” to increase the number of public participants for future meetings with the intention of one day getting back to the customary 60.

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