Q&A With an Anchorage Educator
I stumbled upon a huge social media thread where parents, teachers and Anchorage residents were having a mostly civil conversation about the Anchorage School District's plan to return children to the classroom.
The overwhelming number of comments in that thread were from parents expressing concern about their children's safety, the safety of school staff and their own safety.
One teacher I verified as a district employee wished not to be named but was comfortable enough to say that they teach at a Title 1 elementary school in Anchorage and was willing to answer a few questions.
Not everybody wants to stand up, reveal themselves and open themselves up to attack for expressing their opinion, and let's face it, in these politicized times that is a real possibility.
The Anchorage Daily News previously interviewed teachers in July in an article entitled, "Some Anchorage teachers raise concerns over district’s plans for in-person classes as virus cases multiply."
The ADN piece was written at a time when the Anchorage School District had a four-part plan that was widely reported on by the Anchorage Daily News in a piece detailing a decision to begin schools online when COVID-19 cases were rising and in another piece entitled, Anchorage School District could lose millions of dollars due to enrollment drop and uptick in home schooling."
I am told that there's no privileged or confidential information in the answers provided by the teacher and present this as one person's opinion.
Q&A time with an ASD Teacher.
Q. The school district previously said they would not send children back to the classrooms until the 14 day average of Covid-19 cases fell to 29 or lower. Given that the number of average daily cases may not be 29 or lower by October 19 do you find that concerning? Can you speak to your concerns?
A. Yes, I am concerned that ASD is rushing into this because they are feeling pressure from the community. I am concerned that although our positive case numbers are somewhat stable now, they will increase after students go back to their buildings. It seems that ASD is ignoring the idea that keeping buildings closed is playing a major role in keeping Covid-19 from spreading.
Q. Do you have any concerns for students as they’re set to return to the classroom? If yes or no, can you explain your position?
A. My concern for all students is that our classrooms are simply not large enough for students to sit six feet apart. When teachers at my school asked the administration how we are supposed to accomplish the recommended social distancing, the answer was simply, “we can’t.” Half of the school (grades 3-5) will be sharing two bathrooms. That’s roughly 230 students. And regarding younger children, how can we realistically expect and enforce 5.5 hours of mask wearing for kids as young as 5?
Q. Can you speak to how other teachers or school staff members feel about the district’s plan to return children to the classroom?
A. Just as we see in the community, some of the staff in my building are very cautious about Covid-19 while others express anti-mask sentiments. I am currently teleworking and do not go into the building often. However, when I do, I occasionally see certain staff without a mask or failing to practice the 6 foot social distancing rule. I know that some of the staff I work with are very concerned about hundreds of students returning to the building, while others think it’s ridiculous we ever shut down in the first place. At least one staff member in my building argues, “It kills less than 1% of people who catch it!”
Q. The Anchorage Education Association has reiterated their position on returning to school and online learning remains unchanged. Do you agree with that position?
A. AEA has expressed their strong concern that returning to school will encourage the spread of COVID-19 in our community. They are concerned about the health of students, teachers, and their families. I share those concerns.
Q. Has the school given teachers any guidance on how in-person teaching might be conducted in this age of COVID-19? If so, are you comfortable with that guidance?
A. We’ve been given cleaning kits for the desks, and a set of 50 disposable masks. We have been told to spread out the desks as far as possible. We will be teaching students not to touch each other, touch surfaces, or share supplies, and to wash hands often. These are good practices but we are expected to do this with children ages 5-11, and I am sure the success of hygiene practices will be uneven at best.
Q. As a teacher, do you feel you’re being asked to take on more responsibility in the classroom than you should be reasonably responsible for in the age of Covid-19?
A. This may be a little off topic but I want to bring up the arts, special education, and gifted education. I am expected to assign lessons in the areas of music, art, health, and P.E., which are normally taught by specialist teachers. However this year we have been told that we are not holding those classes because students would have to go into different classrooms, thus increasing the risk of transmission. I am not qualified to teach these subjects, yet I am expected to give grades on these subjects this year.
Normally students would go to the specialist teacher's classroom (i.e. the music room, the gym, etc.) and the specialists would teach their lessons there. However this year the specialists have been reclassified as "generalists" and are expected to help us, the classroom teachers, teach math and reading. Currently with our online format I am expected to assign self paced asynchronous lessons in those subjects.
At this time we have not been informed of how special education and gifted services will be delivered. Will special education teachers be allowed to come into my classroom? Will students who normally receive special education services be allowed to go to the special education teacher’s classroom? We just don’t know. What about the gifted children who are in our ignite program? Normally they are bussed to another school for a couple of hours a week to participate in gifted classes. I’m sure we can’t do that this year, so what will we be doing? Will the responsibility fall on me to teach special ed and gifted?
Q. Anything Else You’d Like Parents And Residents Of Anchorage To Know?
A. To parents: I want you to know that we teachers love your children. We miss your children. We are working very hard with guidance from the district that is lacking at times. We know you are struggling with mental health, child care, technology, and maybe even food. We want to help you in every way possible. Please contact ASD - we have counseling, technology, and food available for you.
To residents: We need to think outside of the box. We need to wrap around each other and support one another more than ever before. Reach out to your neighbors. Think of ways we can improve these issues without spreading Covid-19.
