Pasco schools starting online in September after unanimous school board vote

Pasco students will be attending classes online after a unanimous vote by the school board Tuesday.

The choice follows a recommendation from the health officer for the Benton Franklin Health District and the district’s insurance provider.

While the decision was up to the local board members, they said their hand was forced by state officials. If they tried to open the doors to classes, it wouldn’t be long before they were forced to close them, they said.

“I think it’s important that people understand … the decision is being made by our state Department of Health,” board member Steve Christensen said. “While this may appear to be a local decision, that is not the case.”

Richland, Kennewick, Prosser and Finley already decided to begin the school year by teaching students online as a result of the continuing high rates of COVID-19 infection in Benton and Franklin counties.

Dr. Amy Person with the Benton-Franklin Health District made the recommendation while she was working with the Washington Department of Health on metrics for when and how to open schools to children. The infection rates in the counties are well above guidelines for a safe opening, so she made the recommendation ahead of the state’s plan.

“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.

The only exception was made for small groups of “educationally at-risk” students. Dr. Person did not say who that could include.

After the letter from the health district, Superintnendent Michelle Whitney said school leaders contacted the insurance risk pool for a recommendation. They returned with a similar message, but clarified that at-risk students include students with special needs.

Pasco plans to bring the at-risk students back to the campus in groups of five. And district leaders are still working on who else they would consider in that group.

The Washington Department of Health is working with the local health district to come up with a long-term set of metrics for deciding when it will be safe for students to return to classes in person.

Pasco has about 19,2000 students.

Whitney considers the return to normal school as more of a turning of the dial than the flip of a switch. At one end, all students are participating in classes online, and on the other, school returns to normal.

‘Blended learning’

At the moment, Pasco is starting what the district is calling “blended learning” to incorporate online and traditional classroom time.

They have been gathering feedback on how teaching went last spring, and promise to have teachers more available to help parents, a clearer set of expectations for students and a proactive training program for staff, students and families.

Another change from last spring is that students will be expected to participate in class every day. Attendance is being recorded and the schools need to have 180 days of school and average 1,027 hours of class.

While Pasco school board members agreed to the move, most of them expressed frustration that most of their students will still be learning online when classes start.

“I’m very concerned with our most at-risk students,” board member Amy Phillips said, who estimated 40 to 55 percent of the students rely on the school, and said these students are at-risk for failing classes, as well as doing poorly outside of school.

“We know that (COVID) is not a big risk for our kids, but our teachers are another story. They are critical for our district,” she said.

The board members also urged district leaders to make sure that all teachers are consistently engaged with students in online learning.

They said they heard complaints last spring that education was delivered unevenly.

This story was originally published August 4, 2020 at 8:16 PM.