Richland may wait until November to bring middle and high schoolers back to classes

Richland school leaders laid out a plan this week that would return 13,000 students to classrooms over the course of a month starting in mid-October.

School board President Rick Jansons detailed what he wants administrators to work on with teachers, staff and parents as they come up with a plan ahead of a special Oct. 1 meeting.

“We have parents who want their kids back. We have parents who don’t feel safe sending their kids back. We need to address the concerns of everyone,” Jansons said. “Board members want to bring students back as soon as possible, but we need to do it safely, deliberately and transparently.”

The Benton Franklin Health District said Benton County schools could start opening for “hybrid“ learning starting on Oct. 1. That would mean half the students could attend class at a time, while the other half was learning at home.

Richland and Pasco schools have not decided what their schedule for hybrid learning will be. Kennewick and Finley schools have released their return plans.

The plan that Jansons outlined is based on state Department of Health advice to bring back small groups of students, rather than opening all schools for all grades at the same time.

He suggested starting with kindergartners through second-graders starting in the middle of October. Many of those students have never been in a class or only attended for a few months before schools were closed by the pandemic. They need to learn the routines, he said.

A week later they would bring in the remaining elementary school students.

Middle and high school students would start back in person after Nov. 6, which is the end of the first quarter. Since those students have more complex schedules, that would give them more time to prepare for the transition.

School officials also want time to figure out how to serve parents who want students back in school and the ones who want to keep their children at home.

The district is planning on surveying parents to determine how many are in each group.

COVID cases

District leaders also have unanswered questions about what will happen if COVID cases rise again.

Right now, state health officials suggest schools should be in hybrid learning if there are more than 75 positive cases per 100,000 people during a two-week period.

Jansons pointed out they don’t know what happens if the number rises above that for a short period of time.

They also don’t want teachers trying to manage students inside their classroom and on Zoom at the same time.

“What I am looking for is that we’re moving with deliberate speed,” he said.

School board members agreed with the plan, saying it came from weeks of discussion during board meetings.

Kari Williams, who was the dissenting vote in shutting down schools in July, said the district has done a great job in offering choices for parents who wanted to keep their students at home.

“I feel that thus far we haven’t made an avenue for the parents that want their kids to be learning in person,” she said. “I think we can do a lot to make sure that this transition is smooth.”

She also urged families to reach out to the district through the surveys.

Parent reactions

Hundreds of people have sent letters to the board either warning they were moving too fast or urging them to move more quickly. Several parents spoke at the start of Tuesday’s meeting.

Some, like Michelle Robertson, said their students are struggling to adjust to learning online. In Robertson’s case, she is concerned that her high school aged daughter is not going to be ready for Advanced Placement tests.

“I just know that our kids deserve better than this,” she told the board. “We need to find a better solution. It’s just not working for them.”

Others, like Colleen Mangano, said they wanted the school district to be careful when they start bringing students back.

“We don’t want to go backwards,” she said. “I don’t want a section of the yearbook of kids and staff that have died from COVID.”

This story was originally published September 23, 2020 at 2:02 PM.