Editor,
Concerning the provided District Learning Model for the 2020/2021 school year, I believe that as our children’s educators, it would be wise to provide parents and guardians with a more clear view of what doing “our best to follow ADH and CDC guidelines” will actually look like on a day-to-day basis in the classroom. More information is needed for parents and guardians to make an educated decision on behalf of the children’s wellbeing.
I am concerned not just with protection from Covid-19, but also with the mental and emotional health of the children if they will be required to sit six feet apart in plastic cubicles, if they will be restricted to one classroom all day every day without the opportunity to visit the library, go to recess, be involved in music, or missing any other electives that are so essential to overall education.
In the request for parents and guardians to choose between the Traditional Method and the Virtual Method, more than twice as much information was given as to what the requirements from students would be for the Virtual Method. I am interested in learning much more than twice the information provided about the requirements of the school district for the Traditional Method, such as how the school plans to physically protect and educate our children in this unprecedented time. If that information is not yet available to the school, or not yet available for public release, perhaps parents and guardians might be allowed to wait and make an educated decision based in fact rather than conjecture.
Tavi Ellis, mother of two
Because there is no viable plan for the traditional method but hoping for the best. Word is masks aren’t required for elementary and suggested distancing isn’t possible, at least not without constant teacher attention to space and little else. And plans for tracking? Alerting parents? What about active shooter drills? Should they huddle together? Not gonna work. Keep them home. Superintendent Pruitt not equipped to keep students safe.