Durham to bring some students back to school. But it’s optional and could change.

Durham Public Schools approved a plan Thursday to bring some students back for in-person instruction next semester, but that plan could change depending on future COVID-19 trends.

Board members approved DPS Superintendent Pascal Mubenga’s new re-opening plan by a 4-3 vote — with some conditions.

Mubenga shared his recommendation for re-opening schools on Monday, The News & Observer reported. Under the plan, students in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade attend in-person instruction two days a week starting Jan. 21 through the end of the school year. Middle school and high school students stay with remote instruction through the rest of the year.

Thursday, the board voted to allow families to enroll pre-kindergarten to fifth grade students for in-person instruction, as long as the county’s rate of positive COVID-19 cases falls below 4% for two consecutive weeks.

Parents must elect for their child to attend in-person classes. Otherwise, they default to remote learning.

“We are asking our families to stay virtual, and if you do want to come in person, you have the option to opt into that,” said Bettina Umstead, chair of the board.

The board will revisit the plan at meetings on Dec. 10 and Jan. 7 to evaluate COVID-19 case data and assess the district’s outlook.

In Durham, the percentage of positive tests is 6.3%, as of Thursday, according to the state’s coronavirus dashboard. Since the pandemic began, there have been 10,512 cases and 108 deaths.

Board members Mike Lee, Jovonia Lewis, Frederick Ravin and Umstead voted to pass the motion. Alexandra Valladares, Natalie Beyer and Matt Sears voted against it.

Plan B

The district focused its plan on elementary schools because it deemed early learners the most vulnerable students who need instruction to develop fundamental skills in literacy and math, said Nakia Hardy, deputy superintendent.

Under the plan, two groups will rotate between in-person and virtual learning every week. One group will attend two days of classes in-person, on Mondays and Tuesdays, while the other watches prerecorded lessons and assignments. The groups switch places for Thursdays and Fridays, with Wednesdays remaining designated for wellness.

Students with visual and hearing impairments in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade will go to school four days a week in self-contained groups.

In July, Gov. Roy Cooper said the state’s schools could open under Plan B, a partial re-opening with social distancing, or Plan C, with online-only instruction. Under Plan B, the schools could re-open at 50% capacity with buses at 33% capacity.

DPS opted to keep all students home for online classes under Plan C.

In September, Cooper said elementary schools could reopen for daily in-person instruction starting Oct. 5, if local districts chose to. Across the state, many have still operated with hybrid schedules, or have phased in groups of students for in-person classes.

School board members weigh in on re-opening schools

The school board did not fully agree when to implement Plan B, but all expressed concern about the state’s rise in COVID-19 cases.

“I have huge unreadiness about this plan, and it is first because the metrics are not conservative enough,” said Beyer.

Beyer said she’d prefer a 3% positive case rate or lower to return to in-person classes.

“I don’t understand the rush to vote on this evening,” Beyer said. “I’d like to give our communities more time to give us feedback.”

Lee, the vice-chair, supported the plan because the district needs time to prepare in advance, he said.

“I think it’s very important for us to allow administration the opportunity to set things in motion,” Lee said. “If we come back in January and the numbers are skyrocketing, going up, I would absolutely say ‘no.’”

Lewis said she supports a hybrid model of remote and in-person instruction because the district is losing some of its students.

“There are families experiencing traumatic experiences and episodes with kids who have missed school for months,” Lewis said. “Some teachers may have 20 kids in their class but on average 12 kids a day.”

Valladares, the board’s first Latina member, said families tell her “overwhemingly” that they’re not ready to return to classes.

“A lot of families have not forgotten that we lost a student,” said Valladares, referring to 8-year-old Aurea Yolotzin Soto Morales, the first pediatric death in the state. She attended Durham’s Creekside Elementary School.

Public support and opposition

The school board received 447 public comments in advance of the meeting. A majority appealed for the board to keep all classes online.

“I am baffled that a vote to return to in-person instruction is even up for discussion right now,” wrote Kristen Wagner. “It is not safe for the staff, the students, or the families those staff and students will come home to in the evening.”

DPS teachers are anxious about returning to classrooms, said Michelle Burton, president of the Durham Association of Educators, in an interview with The News & Observer.

“It’s about making sure staff and students are safe,” Burton said. “That is the goal, that their health and safety are taken into account with this, because people can die.”

Some parents, however, expressed support for Plan B in public comments to the board.

“I urge the board to make a data-driven decision on the reopening of schools and that you please advocate for the many DPS families who wish to return to in-person learning,” wrote Erica Saleska.

Distance learning struggles

Some community members oppose remote learning in any capacity, including those who work in early child development.

Kezia Goodwin owns Kate’s Korner, a childcare center partnering with DPS that serves as a learning center for students to log into their online classrooms outside their homes. Based on what she has seen with the 65 or so children who attend daily, she thinks school should re-open five days a week for all students and follow Wake County schools’ re-opening as a model.

“I’m a business owner; it does benefit me to be operational,” Goodwin told The N&O. “But I would shut it down tomorrow if I knew that the kids that I serve were getting the in-person learning that is needed.

“Distanced learning is an epic fail for so many reasons,” she said.

Teachers are not trained to teach remotely, she said.

“There is a grave, grave amount of implicit bias that is notated by the educators and myself,” she said. “We’re in classrooms, and we’re not hearing children getting called upon.”

Many of the students who attend her center are behind by dozens of assignments, she said, and she wonders whether parents learn about missing homework.

She worries most about children with learning disabilities who have individualized education programs.

“Those children are really suffering,” she said. “It’s hurting them to not be in school and with their teachers.”

This story was originally published November 19, 2020 at 11:14 PM.