Letters From ASD Staff to the Community
"I'm a part of the Anchorage School District and work with some of the most challenging students at the elementary level. I am against the reopening of schools right now because we clearly don't have a "safe" plan and our numbers continue to increase. We have task forces (staff members) who have been creating plans for their school to the best of their ability. Many of us believed that the working groups brought in this summer had been working on reopening plans. Clearly Dr. Bishop had been lying to staff, parents and the community all summer and continues to do so.
Dr. Bishop said in the school board meeting on October 6th,that we were failing our students during the first quarter. Teachers and support have been working their butts off to provide students with the best education possible during these crazy times. When I brought this statement up during a staff meeting and how I felt about it, I was informed along with my coworkers that it had been brought to Dr. Bishop's attention. She tried to clean it up behind doors but has yet to apologize to anyone about it. Fast forward to the meeting on October 20th when Dr. Bishop brought up comments that school staff had been given misinformation about a ten-year-old student taking their own life. Well, that information had to come from somewhere for school principals to have brought that up in our staff meetings. If she had provided that information, she needs to own up to it with a lot of other things.
A number of self-contained programs have asked for scrubs to be provided by the district due to those staff members being exposed to bodily fluids on a daily basis. Doesn't seem like that will be happening so we will be ordering on our own. We have asked numerous times, "What will the district do about parents who knowingly send their child to school sick and refuse to answer the call to pick them up?" We still have no answer to that question and countless others.
How are we supposed to open safely if educators and the community can't get answers from questions asked over a month ago or more? There's so much more I can say but I know my fellow educators, parents and community members have given you a lot. I just ask that my name not be shared because this district likes to retaliate against staff.
Thank you for taking the time to read this."
"I hope this is where I submit an opinion about ASD in school classes. I am a parent of two children. One child is in middle school and the other a high school. I think the safest way is to keep the schools closed.
Anchorage currently has the highest population of positive cases. We cannot jeopardize the health and safety of all school staff. Everyone mentions teacher and child safety, yet fails to realize that bus drivers, lunch staff, noon duties, and other support staff are all at risk too.
The rise of cases in Anchorage is also putting a strain on local hospitals. Not everyone gets hospital sick with Covid-19, but hospitals are also caring for people who are there with other medical needs. The beds are filling up quickly with the threat of those numbers rising.
Lastly, I'd like to gently remind everyone that schools are for educating children. They were not intended for child care. It's not a break from your kids. They are your children and therefore your responsibility."
