- April 25, 2024
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Flagler County teachers headed back to brick-and-mortar campuses on Aug. 12, a first since the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated local schools’ closure in April.
"A lot of what you're reading in that document is, 'When feasible.' Well, when is it feasible?"
— CHRISTINE PATTERSON, Flagler for a Safe Return organizer, on what she called a lack of clarity in the school district's return to school guide
Many have done so with trepidation as communities in state after state have reopened schools, then seen rapid closures as school staff found that a staff member or student had tested positive, requiring quarantine of dozens of children and staff members.
An organization calling itself Flagler for a Safe Return, organized over Facebook and consisting of teachers, other school staff, local parents and concerned community members, has pressed the district for more specific plans and procedures on returning, and pushed the district to add remote-work options for staff members who are immune-compromised or who live with someone who is.
They’ve been disappointed with what they called a lack of clarity in the district’s answers.
“My concern is that there is no measurement for opening ... and there’s no closing measurement; they still haven’t come up with that,” said Christine Patterson, an organizer for Flagler for a Safe Return.
The district published a Return to School Guide on its website on Aug. 7, replacing a less detailed earlier version of the same document.
But Patterson noted the latitude provided by the document’s language: Hallway traffic in schools will be one-way “where feasible,” restroom breaks will be managed to limit the number of students in a restroom at a time “when possible,” face coverings are to be worn “when social distancing is not feasible,” schools will reduce intermingling of students from different classes “when possible.”
“A lot of what you’re reading in that document is, ‘When feasible,’” she said. “Well, when is it feasible?”
Local parent Randy Bertrand said his son, an FPC student, wants to return to school in person in the fall. But the district’s behavior makes Bertrand wary.
“It’s that ambiguity,” he said. “I really want it spelled out; I really want one-plus-one-equals-two,” especially on such issues as when things are unsafe enough that schools should close, he said. “So, who makes that call, and when do we make that call?”
Staff members’ anxiety has been heightened by a concern that they won’t necessarily be told when fellow staff members or students might have tested positive or been exposed to the virus.
The district’s return to school guide states that if a student or staff member tests positive, the district “will communicate its next steps with families and staff who may be directly impacted” — i.e., not necessarily the school community as a whole — and also that it “will NOT communicate if a family member of a student or staff member has tested positive,” though it will take appropriate quarantining steps per CDC guidelines.
“Due to laws protecting student and staff privacy, no identifying information about the student or staff member testing positive will be released to the public,” the Return to School Guide states. “Any Flagler Schools students or staff who are identified as having been in close contact (as defined by the CDC) with the individual will be notified as part of the contact tracing process and instructed on what steps to take.”
Responding to a question about whether staff members at district schools have tested positive, district paralegal Erica Lovelette said that there have been 10 positive test results throughout the district since March, on- and off-campus.
Patterson, a former teacher, also worried about the feasibility of the district’s “remote-live” instruction option, in which teachers who are instructing an in-person class will also simultaneously be teaching, over a webcam, students who are watching from their homes.
At FPC, she said, one arrangement she knew of involved a camera pointed at the front of the room, so a teacher would move out of the frame if they walked around the classroom. That would make it hard to organize opportunities for small group learning, she said.
“There’s a lot of teacher accountability, for research-based teaching strategies,” she said. “So if we are not delivering research-based instruction … will [students] be held harmless for their grades? And will teachers be held harmless for their teacher evaluation? Those are two things we have asked and that nobody has addressed.”
Lovelette said that the web cameras teachers use will be mounted on lightweight tripods. "Teachers will set up a web camera and microphone to best fit the needs of their instruction," she said. "It is lightweight and easily moveable."
As of Aug. 12, no additional School Board meetings have been scheduled that would precede students’ return to campus on Aug. 24.
