Why CMS returned to all-remote learning

CMS board members explain their votes to pull elementary students from classrooms and postpone the return of middle and high school ... in their own words

A big school board meeting last night — a 6-3 vote to return to all-online learning through mid-January.

We covered that in Wednesday’s Ledger. But as a bonus to our paying subscribers, here are school board members … in their own words.

Voting in favor of all-remote learning

Carol Sawyer, district 4: Need to prioritize education

I support this motion to support the health and safety of our students. I’ve gotten lots of emails and heard lots of comments about what medical experts have said. Comparing our situation to that of Europe, there are some critical differences.

In Europe, people don’t go bankrupt over healthcare. They have nationalized health insurance and healthcare that is accessible to everyone. We are not in that condition.

While the statement is true that schools should be the last things to close, that’s assuming you close everything else. And we have not in this society prioritized education in that way. Concord Mills is open and crowded. The breweries are open and crowded. We are still supporting sports events. We have to consider the safety of students in the time that we have them, and that’s why I feel strongly that we need to be in remote learning at this time.

I wish our society had different priorities. But they don’t. So this is where we are.

Lenora Sanders Shipp, at-large: Keep our kids safe

I believe that we know that we want our children to be safe. Safety is what we are talking about. … There is an impact on the safety of our schools when our staff is not healthy, is not safe. It’s together, it’s not students vs. teachers. …

If we are at a point where our coverage and the way we look at how we teach is diminished because of cases with our adults — knowing that that can be the case, not just our children — then that coverage and lack of teachers in the classroom impacts the safety of us being able to look at how we work with our children, and how we keep them safe, when we have less staff coming into the building to support this.

I definitely know 100% our students do better when they are in-person. Can we close the gap? Can we catch them up? We hear a lot about that, that they are not doing well. What was the expectation for the first quarter, when we knew we were totally in remote, and we would have to make sure everybody adapted to remote learning? I don’t know we could have expected the grades to be different, the data to be different.

What we do know is that virtual learning is not going to go away, unfortunately, right now, during a pandemic. We will have to continue to work hard to ensure what that looks like. The hybrid model is a tough model. We know this. So that’s what we are facing — a difficult model and keeping our kids safe at the same time.

Thelma Byers-Bailey, district 2: Health is paramount

We have talked about the pros and the cons. We have talked about the health of our students, which is paramount. … That is the underpinning for everything we do during this Covid.

Jennifer De La Jara, at-large: Contradictory guidance from authorities

I do think that we should be moving to remote learning. I actually maybe would have wanted that to happen over the weekend. …

I am really troubled because I do think that for us to be concerned about that for K-12, the same logic applies to pre-K. …

I agree that they struggle in the online environment. I agree that K-3 struggles in the online environment. I agree that certain children in all [levels] struggle in the online environment . .. If I’m making my vote based off of the health and safety of students because of our rising community spread numbers, it seems like it needs to apply to pre-K.

I really appreciated the comments tonight from all of the community members. ...  They really spoke to expressing their concern ... Teachers came tonight. Did you catch how many times they also spoke about the health and safety of students? That was really powerful. They are thinking about that as well. They’re there. They’re on site. They know how it has been playing out for better or worse. …

I appreciate [the] comments just now clarifying, summing up, the contradictory statements that exist from our authorities, from our agencies, people, professionals , doctors in the national spotlight or local spotlight. Often times, they do put out dubious statements. It’s always in a context of something else. …

I’m choosing to prioritize the physical safety of our children. It does not mean I’m discounting any of the mental health concerns. …

Let’s not forget in our community which parents are pushing for more in-person learning, and which parents are not. Ironically, many parents who want increased in-person learning, often times in their messages to me … [say] that we really need to think about what we are doing to minority and/or low-income children. And I’ve heard people say, “It’s the most inequitable thing that we’re doing right now by not pushing for more in-person learning.”

We need to look at the facts to see if that argument supports that. Across the board, if we are in in-person learning, or in the remote environment, our most vulnerable kids are going to be the ones that suffer … and that is unfortunate, of course.

We actually have a disproportionate number of a African-American children who have opted into the full remote academy. I’m certainly not equating low-income directly with African-Americans. But I’m going to make this point … Many of our students of color, or low-income families from all backgrounds … they are facing challenges in our community, in not having healthcare, higher hospitalization rates and death rates. …

This whole idea that we need to rush back to in-person learning just for them doesn’t necessarily hold water. I think that’s important that we understand that and stop framing it in that context, particularly if you are not of those categories yourselves. Let those people speak for themselves. I can tell you I have had very few Latino families reach out to me pushing for a return to in-person learning. …

I think that is really important, that we understand that, and stop using that, if you will, as our reason.

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Elyse Dashew, at-large: Health and safety are top concern

This has been a confusing time since Covid hit our shores, because the guidance from the federal authorities has continued to shift and been somewhat inconsistent. And the guidance, even the evidence — as to which groups of people, how contagious they are, how contagious they aren’t, who’s susceptible, who isn’t — has shifted. There’s a lot of language like “The best that we know right now is…”

I hear the level of concern is increasing as were are going into the holidays, as we are coming off Thanksgiving. …

Thank God we haven’t seen much transmission in our schools and no clusters yet, perhaps some transmission. But as the numbers have increased in the community, the numbers have increased in our schools. That’s just a reflection of schools as a microcosm of our community. …

We have a very heavy responsibility on our shoulders, the nine of us, together with the superintendent. Not only are we tasked with giving our kids a good education, but we are also responsibile for their health and safety and the health and safety of our 19,000 employees. …

Any decision we made about remote learning is going to come down to how we view this data, how we view this advice, and what is it that is on our shoulders to do what we need to do to keep our students safe.

➡️ Ruby Jones, who represents district 3, voted for remote learning but did not speak on the issue.

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Voting against return to all-remote

Margaret Marshall, district 5: Elementary should stay in-person

There are no easy answers. And there is probably not any right answer. It’s so much to consider. I … struggle with all the issues at hand. And see so many points of view.

This has been framed of late as everybody seems to be more and more hysterical about lots of things. If you vote one way, you’re anti-teacher, and if you vote one way, you are anti-students. …

Teaching and learning go hand in hand. We have to do it safely….

We have a responsibility to educate students, and we have to be concerned with their safety and their health, and we also have to be concerned about our staff. …

I’m not going to support this resolution for a couple reasons. I wanted us to finish out this semester. I thought we were so close. I have not been thoroughly convinced that the transmission rate in the schools is so high that it is preventing, particularly elementary, from staying the course …

I do support a pause before we enter back in middle and high schools with everyone. … We are in a tricky time right now. Folks have got to understand we have to hunker down. We know we are going to have a little bit of a cooling-off period. If we start strong after a couple weeks of a cool-down, then we’re going to stay stronger.

Rhonda Cheek, district 1: Let’s follow the science

I’m getting bombarded by parents who are telling me how badly their kids are struggling.

The thing that struck me was something that one person said. She said, “We are letting a pandemic virus potentially collapse our education system as we know it today.” We definitely are keeping kids in an environment that we are seeing … a lot of problems with kids falling behind. …

I’m really troubled that we are saying that pre-K students are so critical to have in-person, that the academic risk to them is greater than the risk of the virus. So we’re going to keep pre-K in. I don’t think kindergarten, 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade, all they way up through 5th grade, the risk to them is also extremely low, and we are not seeing the issues in our schools that would make me say we have got to shut things down.

The risk-benefit is where we’ve got to look. In our K-5s, it’s not there ….

The World Health Organization today said, “Europe is an epicenter of the pandemic, but while they are grappling with the surge, we say now with certainty that closing schools should be a measure of last resort.” …

Dr. Fauci has said repeatedly that the default position we should have is to bring children back to school. …

If we are going to follow science, if we are going to talk about the CDC, we actually have to listen to what people in these positions are saying. …

Dr. Redfield, [the head of the CDC], … he says while the spread is really high and the risks are very high with Covid, he says the data clearly supports K-12 schools are not where transmission is occurring. He recommends it would be counterproductive from a public health point of view to elect to close schools. …

I’m quoting some people that are experts. … They’re telling us we don’t need to close.

Sean Strain, district 6: Struggles with remote learning

We have had speakers, medical professionals tonight, talk about the increased risk and in fact danger our kids face with remote learning. … and across the board, we see it in reports. While we talk about the risk of Covid, there’s a risk to continuing with the remote learning as well. …

I’m a little confused by the logic … that goes straight to imposing further remote learning on our kids. …

[Speaking to Superintendent Earnest Winston] We do not have broad transmission in our schools. We don’t even have broad transmission in a classroom in order to pull that classroom out. Yet you’re recommending imposing further remote learning on our youth. …

So we recognize all of the difficulties, the struggles — whether that be social, emotional, academic, mental — struggles with our students here, and with all of those, you’re making a conscious decision to impose further remote learning on our students and staff here, in order to avoid the risk associated with Covid of in-person learning, which we have clearly stated here — there is no broad transmission, and we’ve got low transmission rates in the schools. … That’s been discussed with yourself and your staff. … Based on that, you’re recommending further imposition of remote learning, is that right?

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Executive editor: Tony Mecia; Managing editor: Cristina Bolling; Contributing editor: Tim Whitmire, CXN Advisory; Reporting intern: David Griffith