Arizona Department Of Education Releases Plan For Reopening Schools
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STEVE GOLDSTEIN: Schools are receiving guidance on how to welcome students back to campus for the 2020-2021 school year, even as the pandemic continues.
LAUREN GILGER: The state Department of Education has compiled a detailed, but fluid, plan with guidance for education leaders as they prepare. For more on what the return to school will look like, I spoke with Superintendent of Public Instruction Kathy Hoffman earlier this morning, and I asked her first if this will apply to all schools or if the return will be more piecemeal.
KATHY HOFFMAN: This plan is meant to be very adaptable, we know across the state of Arizona that, a one size fits all model would not work for our state. We want this to be adaptable so that they can be prepared for any type of situation, whether that's having more online learning, if there happens to be an emergency closure. But of course, we know our students and teachers are, by and large, eager to return back to having a stable schedule and having that certainty back in their lives. But we also acknowledge there's still a lot of fear and anxiety on both sides, whether it's our parents and families or the teachers and staff and the school leaders. There's still a lot of unknowns. And so we just want to be prepared for all scenarios.
GILGER: So give us a few of the highlights here. What will returning look like for schools that do bring students back to campus? What will be different? This will not, it sounds like, feel the same as it has in the past for students and teachers alike.
HOFFMAN: So as I've been talking to school leaders across the state, I think, and they're already planning. They already have their own task forces and committees. And I've been hearing all different types of ideas around expanding their online options as a way to decrease the number of students in classrooms or different types of schedules. Our school leaders really want to be innovative. They also, by and large, I would say, want to offer in-person instruction as much as possible. We know that we do have many vulnerable student populations, whether it's students who may be safer being at school, that we want to make sure that they have a place to go, but also thinking about our medically fragile students who perhaps it's not as safe for them to be in school. We're all really aware that schools are a place where people convene. I think there's a lot of different things to think through of how do you, how do you mitigate having large groups of people or even large classroom sizes in the era of COVID-19?
GILGER: Yeah. So let's talk about some of the details there. I mean, how do you ensure that the safety of students and staff? It sounds like there will be things like social distancing in place. How do you do that in a school? Things like face masks, temperature checks. Walk us through it.
HOFFMAN: In our plan, we worked very closely with the Department of Health Services, then also at the Arizona School Nurse Organization. And so we've been leaning very heavily on medical experts that are here locally. And so we tried to break it down into all the different areas where screening is possible. So if it's like, for example, screening starts in the home where families can check to see if their student is not feeling well or if they need to take a temperature. It could happen at the bus stop. It could happen at the school. So there's different layers that families could be thinking through and the schools can be thinking through in terms of even that screening process before the student is in the classroom. We have included information about physical distancing, and we know that the CDC recommends six feet apart when possible. We know that's not always possible in our classrooms. So, at that point, then other mitigation types of strategies can be considered. So schools can, they can recommend wearing masks. I want to emphasize that our state plan, this roadmap is not a state mandate. These are all recommendations. These are all based on CDC recommendations and Department of Health Services recommendations. We wanted to also provide the best research based and medically based types of recommendations as recommended by our health experts here.
GILGER: The plan also notes that the budget relies in part on enrollment in the first hundred days, and that could become a real problem if parents are not willing to send their kids back to school, then, you know, schools' budgets are really going to drop. Are you going to ask for a statutory change to accommodate that possibility? Is this something you'd like the legislature to consider in a special session?
HOFFMAN: Yes, we've actually been very actively working on this. This is one of my biggest concerns going into the next academic year. What you just mentioned is one of the reasons that, if families choose to not re-enroll or if they are looking for a different type of online option, that could cause a decrease in enrollment, which would directly impact and decrease school funding. Another reason for declining enrollment that we're seeing is due to the economic downturn. So, for example, I was talking to the superintendent in Nogales and he said that they've already seen a lot of their students leave the community for various reasons, that their, oftentimes their families are seeking new employment opportunities. So we have been making recommendations to the legislature. I've been meeting with legislators regularly over the past several weeks, as well as with the governor and his team. And we are proposing that there be a floor in the budget such that schools would not have a major hit, that they would not have a significant decline in their school funding due to a declining enrollment. What, and no matter what the cause is, it's not good for Arizona if we have schools with significant budget declines and right now they can't plan. And so we think it would provide a lot of stability to the field to have something like a floor where school budgets could not decrease more than two percent so that we restore that stability and we can ensure that our schools can continue to provide all the different types of services that they always do.
GILGER: Mmhm. A recent HighGround poll showed a majority of parents are willing to send their kids back to school at this point, but it was not a significant majority. Quite a few said they didn't know. How can those parents be reassured, or do you want to reassure them? Do you think this is the right move?
HOFFMAN: I think that is a tough question. And I saw the results of that poll and there's, there was a significant portion of families who said there's absolutely no way that they're ready to send their children or their students back to school right now. And so I, when I speak with school leaders, I encourage them to be engaging their families, to have parent or family advisory councils, student advisory councils, to be working together on those plans and seeing what they need to do to help families feel comfortable and feeling comfortable might be having more online options. And so I think this is a time for our schools to be very innovative and we're going to be continuing to work with them on that.
GILGER: How can, as you move forward, how can you, as a State Department, how can schools individually, ensure equity? Because there are lots of students across the state for whom distance learning has been a significant challenge because of lack of access to technology, reliable Internet, etc. Unstable home environments is a big factor in this. How do you make sure that this is available to every student on an equal basis?
HOFFMAN: That's definitely going to continue to be a high priority for us in the department. And we're looking at that as we determine how to allocate state funds through the CARES Act. So, as we've already been examining that, we can see right away that the hardest hit communities have often been our Native American communities. And so we're taking that very seriously as we think about how we can supplement and allocate additional funding to make it more equitable. This is not going to be an issue that's solved overnight. It's going to be a long-term issue. I think we need to look at it like a long-term issue. But I also think it's really important that our state agencies continue to work together to be thinking about solutions for expanding Internet access. Those types of things can be addressed at the local level, but it works better when we all pool together and create types of consortiums to pool resources together to really make a big impact.
GILGER: Alright. That's all we have time for this morning. That is Superintendent of Public Instruction Kathy Hoffman. Thank you so much for joining us.
HOFFMAN: Thank you, appreciate it.
GILGER: Now we're joined by Lily Altavena, who covers education for the Arizona Republic. Good morning, Lily.
LILY ALTAVENA: Good morning. Thanks for having me.
GILGER: Thank you for coming on. So this guidance was just released in full this morning, but the governor did announce schools could resume in-classroom teaching last week. So what are you hearing so far from teachers and school leaders in reaction to the reopening and these potential plans?
ALTAVENA: You know, I think the most pressing thing so far that I've heard from educators and parents is about class sizes. One piece of guidance in the document is to reduce class sizes as much as possible. But there's not necessarily a suggestion that says, okay, this is how you do that. And it's a really hard question in Arizona. You know, our student-to-teacher ratios are some of the highest in the nation. And, you know, teachers are telling me they teach 30 to 35 kids in portable classrooms, which are trailers, you know, with no water. And so I think that will be a major challenge as, for schools as they reconsider opening.
GILGER: Along the same lines, right, Arizona has been dealing with a longstanding teacher shortage. Do you get the sense that this could exacerbate that? Are you hearing from teachers who are saying they're not feeling safe to return, they don't want to go back?
ALTAVENA: You know, I've heard that from a couple teachers, but I actually did check with Arizona's retirement system on whether they're seeing, you know, maybe an increase in retirements, and I haven't seen that. You know, I've started to kind of look through to see if there are more resignations than last year. That's something I'll be keeping an eye on. Nothing too huge. I think, what I hear from a lot of teachers right now so far is just that they're nervous and that they're worried about funding levels.
GILGER: Funding levels is definitely another issue here. We heard Kathy Hoffman say there that she's advocating for legislation in an upcoming session to kind of create a floor for school funding. Do you think there'd be support there among teachers or what are they asking for when you speak to them?
ALTAVENA: Yeah. Well, a lot of people have mentioned that, you know, sort of hold harmless legislation that would give schools more flexibility in their budgets. School superintendents are actually really pushing for this legislation. And I know they've had discussions with the superintendent, worried that, you know, if there isn't any kind of hold harmless budget, there won't be, or hold harmless legislation, you know, they will be plunged into some financial crisis. It all ends up on whether there's a special session or not that, you know, we're still waiting on details on that.
GILGER: I want to ask about parents and students as well. Are you talking to them? What are you hearing from them in terms of concerns? Does that poll we mentioned in the interview with Kathy Hoffman seem still like it's standing? There are a significant number of parents who aren't ready to send their kids back.
ALTAVENA: You know, absolutely. I've heard from parents who feel a lot of different ways. You know, some have said, "totally ready to send my kid back to school. It's going to be okay." And some parents have said, "you know, my child is, you know, has a autoimmune illness or has a chronic illness. And we just want to see details at least before we figure out if we're going to send our child to school or not." So I think some parents are still hesitant. You know, I've heard from district leaders who are hearing from parents, too, who, you know, are worried that as many as 20 percent of those kids won't show up on the first day of school.
GILGER: Yeah, the plan from ADE also notes that the department is not here providing legal advice. This is not required of schools. These are all suggestions, guidance, etc. Are they expecting legal trouble ahead for districts that are maybe, you know, perceived to not be safe enough or are being too restrictive on students?
ALTAVENA: You know, I am not sure on that one whether, you know, there is a legal concern. I think there are legal concerns over students with disabilities and what learning may have been lost or services that may have been lost during this closure. So there are definitely legal questions around a lot of this.
GILGER: Alright. That is Lily Altavena, who covers education for the Arizona Republic. Lily, thanks so much for joining us.
ALTAVENA: Thank you.
