SLPS Teacher Protests and Concerns for Reopening Schools
By: Andrew Diemer
As the beginning of the new school year and the COVID-19 fall semester draw closer, school districts are beginning to release their plans for how they will protect students and staff from the virus that shut down schools nationwide last spring. Decisions and procedures for reopening are being left up to the school districts themselves as there are currently no public recommendations or directives for reopening schools from Missouri’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Recent controversial comments on student safety and health from Missouri Governor Mike Parson have fueled even more discontent in the public and, around the nation, teachers are protesting or even bringing forth lawsuits calling for greater protection for themselves and their students. Without public recommendations, concerns from teachers and parents are rising around many of the safety questions still to be answered by districts across Missouri and the rest of the nation.
Earlier this month, St. Louis Public School teachers staged a silent sit-in protest demanding options for remote instruction, hazard pay for faculty and staff, full-time nurses in each building, a 10 student-per-room cap, and postponing in-person instruction until there are no new COVID-19 cases. Moreover, teachers expressed frustration for having not been involved in the decision making process for back-to-school planning.
The SLPS reopening plan requires face masks to be worn by all students at or above 4th grade, health screenings for all essential visitors, restricting field trips to be virtual, as well as bus and classroom protocols. SLPS is offering parents and families the choice between three options for education in the upcoming school year. Parents can choose between: 1) allowing their child to return to the physical school, 2) virtual instruction through Zoom, or 3) a self-contained, self-driven instruction using the resources available through the district webpage.
Current CDC guidelines suggest making plans for how to transport students to and from school, how to provide food to students both at and away from school, and what to do when students get sick. But oftentimes districts like SLPS are limited in their response to the resources that are available. In some cases, it may be impossible for a district to follow all of the guidelines provided by the CDC. In SLPS, separating students on busses, for example, may not be practical given the number of busses and drivers available (in fact, the bus driver shortage is a problem all across Missouri). Furthermore, although the CDC recommends having meals available for pickup, around Missouri, some districts needed the assistance of the National Guard to be able to distribute meals.
SLPS argues that, despite the challenges, reopening is critical to student success. In the reopening plan, SLPS is just one of many districts around the nation citing a growing achievement gap and learning losses that are expected as a result of the school closure from this past year; gaps that may continue to grow as the impact of school closure is disproportionately felt by low-income students.
While teachers have expressed concerns regarding a return to school, Missouri parents and voters have shown they want to get back to in-person schooling this fall. The results of the recent SLU/YouGov Poll showed that 59% of those polled want school to be back in-person. Additionally, 63% of respondents with school-age children stated they want school to be in-person. What this does not tell us is the degree to which voters and parents want safety precautions implemented, which seems to be the crux of the SLPS teacher protest.
Other districts around Missouri are releasing their proposed reopening plans for the coming school year as well. St. Louis County released its own recommendations for the reopening of county school districts. In it, there are some general requirements that school districts must adhere to, such as establishing social distancing protocols and health screening procedures, though many of the ultimate decisions impacting school functions will be dependent on districts themselves and the resources that are available to them.