Members of the William S. Hart Union High School District governing board said Wednesday that they were aiming to get students back into the classroom by the end of the month.
The Hart District’s governing board met on Wednesday to discuss schools re-opening, with a range of public comments on different sides of the issue.
“I’m grateful for all the plans that have been put in place by the district,” one person wrote in a positive comment on schools opening. “With social distancing, handwashing and masks, there should be no reason why we can’t safely start back at school once given that opportunity.”
Many of the public comments listed were less than enthusiastic, however.
“This board and some of its members have now shown that any plan in regards to pandemic preparedness or the safe return to class learning (is) woefully inadequate,” one public comment read. “Our community, our children, our teachers have been through enough.”
According to a report during the meeting, there were 94 public comments from the Hart District, over two-thirds of which were teachers asking the board to delay re-opening.
“Please do not rush the re-opening until teachers can be fully inoculated,” one person wrote in favor of delaying in-person learning. “We’re so close, but the March 22 date still puts people at risk as our vaccines will not be in full effect. We’ve waited so long to return, please do not make the mistake of putting people’s lives at risk by trying to force a re-opening a few weeks too soon.”
Addressing many of the parents and students’ concerns, the board clarified that the week of March 22 would only be the return time for staff, as opposed to March 29 for students.
The discussion moved to the concept of concurrent or blended learning for opening schools, brought up as a method of teaching both in-person and at-home students and demonstrated through a set of case studies.
The governing board also discussed the backup plan the district has created for the potential outbreak of a strain of COVID-19 should the new system not work properly, which the board added was publicly available.
“We have gone well beyond the baseline expectations to keep students safe,” said Mike Kuhlman, superintendent for the Hart District.
Kuhlman went on to show the board the COVID-19 mitigation measures in place for schools, such as HEPA filtration, masks, plexiglass barriers, sanitizers, and infrared thermometers.
For further information on the Hart District’s plans to re-open schools, click here.
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