It’s back to school for more Tri-Cities students. Are classrooms ready?

Guy Sanchez worries about sending his two Kennewick students back to class.

With the vaccine on the horizon, the father of a middle and high school student is frustrated with the district’s decision to start in-person classes now.

“I understand that none of this has been ideal for families or for kids affected, but this isn’t the solution,” he said. “No matter how well they try to protect the children (and by extension the their families), it’s not going to work 100 percent.”

While hundreds have come out in support of opening schools and returning students to the classroom, many like Sanchez remain uncertain the school districts are prepared.

Kennewick middle school students start back in classrooms Monday. Richland’s sixth-graders return on Tuesday.

The experience promises to be much different than when they left their school campuses 10 months ago because of the COVID-19 outbreak.

They’ll face rules on wearing masks, how many can visit the restrooms and weekly reports showing that their temperatures are taken daily.

A video of a Richland cafeteria shows individual chairs spaced 6-feet apart and all facing in the same direction.

And Benton Franklin Health District’s Dr. Amy Person believes the safety measures can be enough to prevent the spread of the disease in schools.

“Even when students and staff with COVID-19 have been present at school, their infections, through case investigation and contact tracing, have not been shown to have occurred because of attending school,” she wrote in her recommendation that middle and high schools could reopen starting next week. Tri-Cities elementary school students already have been partially attending in-person and online.

Dr. Person has cautioned repeatedly that school reopenings must follow the safety precautions or they will lead to increased infection rates of COVID-19.

While the rate of new cases in the Tri-Cities has dipped since its high in late December, 700 people per 100,000 were being infected in Benton County over a two-week period in January.

While some Richland teachers have spoken out publicly on both sides of the issue, the Richland Education Association has been quiet about reopening.

In Kennewick, teachers have been largely split on surveys, said union President Rob Woodford. Both sides remain committed to the safety of children, he said.

“What I’ve noted is the primary concern of the half of our members who want to be in the hybrid model (part in person and part online) is the mental health of kids, while the primary concern of the half of our members who want to stay in the remote model has been the physical health of kids,” he told the Herald.

As students return, the teachers will adjust to the schedules and succeed, he said.

“These are trying times but educators are extremely flexible and their concern for students will override any hurdles in their paths,” he said.

Audits and schedules

Steve Bump a consultant with Richland’s NV5, formerly known as Dade Moeller, has toured Kennewick and Richland elementary, middle and high schools and reviewed their policies and procedures.

He is expected to return to the districts for another set of tours once schools open.

“All-in-all I was very impressed with how the district and the principals had gone through the schools and set things up,” Bump told Kennewick school board members during a November meeting.

He suggested changing how the district organizes computer labs and removing some chairs from staff break rooms. He said the district was already working on those improvements.

He felt the preparations between the two districts were on par with each other. Hand sanitizer stations were set up where they needed to be, disinfecting wipes were present and all of the schools have established entry and exit points.

He also found the appropriate protective equipment was in place.

When he was reviewing the elementary school pickup, Bump noticed some parents were not wearing masks when they arrived on the grounds. Principals are responsible to talk to parents about making sure they were wearing masks at the schools.

Masks still will be required, but it’s unclear how Kennewick schools will enforce this at the middle and high schools.

Richland schools also ask parents to wear their masks when they are on school grounds. Ty Beaver, Richland School District’s communication manager, said parents normally don’t come into the buildings.

Richland and Kennewick have adjusted their schedules also.

Kennewick middle and high school students will attend either on Monday and Tuesday or on Thursday and Friday. They will go to school for half of the day, and the students who weren’t in class will have a chance to check in with their teacher in the afternoon.

All of the students will have lessons they need to work on by themselves on Wednesdays.

Richland is bringing the students back either on Monday and Tuesday or Wednesday and Thursday. On Friday all students will work on their own.

They are only bringing back sixth graders at first because the district is providing students who don’t want to return access to the same classrooms as the students who are returning.

They want the technology to roll out as smoothly as possible.

Parents concerns

The Herald reached out to parents to find out what questions they have about the safety precautions schools are taking as classes resume.

One parent wondered when schools would decide to close a classroom or school.

“What happens if the school has 10 cases? 20 cases? All of the teachers get sick?” the parent asked.

Kennewick and Richland have closed classrooms in elementary schools because of potential COVID exposures already. They receive the information as part of the contact tracing done by the Benton-Franklin Health District.

But Beaver said the district has not set a specific percentage of students or teachers who need to be sick to trigger quarantines and closures.

Dr. Person has said that they would be more likely to start with closing classrooms and schools rather than moving back to closing the district.

Most school and health leaders are reluctant to close once they open. Even during the surge in cases this fall, Dr. Person did not recommend closing any schools that were already open.

The school districts have been following guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to make those decisions, according to the Benton Franklin Health District.

The federal agency recommends people quarantine if they have been in close contact with someone who had COVID.

Robyn Chastain, the district’s executive director of communications and public relations., said at this point there hasn’t been significant spread within any Kennewick school.

“If there was a report, we would work with BFHD to determine if a classroom or school-wide closure was recommended,” she said.

Multiple parents are concerned about how the change will impact teachers. One Richland parent heard several teachers were either leaving the district or taking a leave of absence.

School district officials say they have been working with teachers who are at-risk for serious complications. The majority of the teachers in each of the districts have worked there for 20 years or more.

Richland’s personnel changes are part of the school board’s agendas, and since the beginning of the 2020-21 school year, 32 employees of taken a leave of absence. It’s unclear how many were tied to COVID-19.

Kennewick officials have previously said that there has not been a large uptick in the number of employees who have requested leave this school year.

With the move from regular Zoom classes to having limited contact with teachers for half the week left one parent wondering how they will monitor student engagement.

“The apathy and disengagement from kiddos right now is reducing their motivation to turn in assignments even with daily badgering by their teachers,” the parent said.

Beaver said teachers can track online whether students have accessed the videos and lessons they need to on a given day. Teachers can also reach out to students to check in.

Kennewick students will need to report their attendance and work when they’re learning on their own, Chastain said.

More information about Richland’s safety procedures can be found at www.rsd.edu/district/return-to-school-planning/updates.

Kennewick has more information about its safety procedures at www.ksd.org/District/Programs-and-Learning/COVID-19.

The Pasco School District has yet to vote on the return of middle and high school students to in-person classes.

This story was originally published January 24, 2021 at 5:00 AM.