Pasco to decide if students will return to classrooms. Finley expects to go online
Pasco residents may find out Tuesday whether students will be returning to class this fall.
The school board plans to meet in a special virtual board meeting at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 4, to talk more about what they’re going to do this fall. Watch the board meeting live on the district’s YouTube page.
Kennewick, Richland and Prosser school officials already have decided they will start all classes online in September.
And on Monday, the Finley School District announced that its board is expected to vote online at 3 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 5, to start all its classes online.
Remote learning in Finley would start on Sept. 1. and classes would be held remotely at least through the first quarter of the school calendar.
School districts across the state are working on plans for how they will conduct classes with the aim of keeping the spread of COVID-19 as low as possible.
Teachers surveys have shown that many educators worry about returning to teaching in person in areas where infection rates. And some parents have expressed similar concerns, while others are concerned that children need to get back to more normal routines.
While details are still being worked out in Pasco, some of the highlights include having office hours so teachers can help parents and students directly in the afternoon and having art, music and physical education in the schedule.
At the time that Pasco Superintendent Michelle Whitney was unveiling the district’s plan to her school board, Dr. Amy Person, the health officer for Benton-Franklin Health District, was releasing a letter to all Tri-City school districts saying she doesn’t believe it’s safe for children to return to class.
In an explanation posted on the health district’s website, the district said Person has been working with the state Department of Health on time frames for when it would be safe for children to return to class.
While the metrics aren’t finished, the state does define low disease activity as having fewer than 25 cases per 100,000 residents in a 14-day period. That would mean having no more than 50 new cases in two weeks and in Franklin that number would be 24.
Benton County presently has more than 360 per 100,000 residents and Franklin County was 616, during a 14-day period.
In addition, the health district is seeing more than 100 cases in school-aged children every two weeks in Benton and Franklin counties.
“Our entire community wants schools to be able to reopen safely as quickly as possible. In order to make that happen, it’s going to take a unified effort to slow the spread of this disease,” the health district said. “We’re very encouraged by the number of people wearing masks in public and we need to make sure we’re all wearing them everywhere.”
Ki-Be and Columbia school districts have come up with plans to return to class, but they haven’t made any decisions about whether they will, according to recent school board meetings.
This story was originally published August 3, 2020 at 12:59 PM.