The AASD Board of Education met 10/26/2020. They had two presentations, one on social and emotional learning and one on the new Virtual Plus education model. The meeting started out with a Covid update and discussion which is the focus of this post.
Board President Kay Eggert opened the meeting with a statement in which she tried to clarify the Board’s role in determining when to move between learning models.
That was then followed by a Covid update. Cases were lower last week compared to the week before; however the two week case count burden is 1,14, which still places Appleton in the “very high” category. We’re also still considered “very high” for our trajectory in spite of the decrease in weekly cases.
Superintendent Baseman then gave a statement in which she tried to explain/justify the district’s choice to remain fully virtual and held out the possibility of limited in-person extras being offered.
She began her speech with the statement, “We work closely with our local health officers and rely on their health expertise to help guide us in making the best decisions for the safety of our students, staff, and community.”
[And, to editorialize, that is a fair enough statement; however health experts don’t know anything about educating children–there the AASD administration should be the experts–so when they’re falling quite flat at providing a quality education under the circumstances they should stand up and take ownership of that failure instead of hiding behind health experts.]
Leah Olson stated she was having a difficult time keeping up with all the news articles and research studies that parents were sending to her. She assured everyone that she is reading everything, but she wondered if the Board could work collaboratively to divide up those studies.
She thought it was important to go back to the source documents, and believed there were significant problems with the way the research has been presented in parents’ letters. For example, many parents have referenced the American Academy of Pediatrics but she did not believe they have read the entire set of guidelines which state that in many parts of the US the uncontrolled spread of coronavirus and widespread circulation of the virus would not let in-person schooling happen. Several letters have referenced the Great Barrington Declaration which advocates for schools reopening but also, in Leah’s opinion, seems to advocate for herd immunity, and her understanding was that the Great Barrington Declaration was roundly criticised by leaders including the Director General of the WHO and others. Parents have also referenced an article in the Atlantic claiming that schools are not super spreaders, but the data referenced in the article was all based on self-reporting. Parents have also been referencing a preliminary study from Spain that concludes school reopenings have not altered the spread of coronavirus, but the author also says that results must be viewed with caution because the study covered only a limited period of time and it happened during good weather when the schools could be amply ventilated.
Leah stated that all the details of studies don’t make it into the popular press but those details are important for decision-making and she would appreciate having more help reviewing all those studies in depth.
Jim Bowman was also interested in the various studies that were referenced and wondered if any of them were applicable to Appleton given our great burden right now.
Superintendent Baseman said they could set up a system to streamline the process of taking questions from the Board members, passing them onto the district’s medical advisor and the city health official, and getting answers back.
Deb Truymann expressed concern for the students and general frustration with the current situation. We have data from the surrounding schools, and we know what’s happening in our area. She didn’t understand why AASD wasn’t using that as more of a guide.
Gary Janke said he would like to see a task force or committee formed to poll the local schools who are in-person or hybrid and find out if they feel they are successful. He thought it was one thing to see the number of infections and quarantines at a school but another thing to get an actual feel for how things are on the ground. How are things working in schools that are in-person, then go full virtual for a few weeks, then move back to in-person.
Thus ended the opening discussion.
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