Attached is a letter that I sent to my Board colleagues asking they consider my request to reopen our schools. This will be discussed and up for a vote on Tuesday, Dec 1. If you believe our option 1 students should be back in school, please email and call the Board. The only way this will be possible is if the community speaks up. The group email is: vbcpsschoolboard@googlegroups.com and the phone numbers can be found here. You may sign up to speak at this link or call the clerk on Monday: 757-263-1016. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdMBT94omFTrkIDZlOn1q_wp_I8f4fONlb_go6_UCRG0wvuIg/viewform Sign up in the box next to this blog to receive updates. *user comments on blog posts must have a valid full name and email address or it will not be approved
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Thank you to Kerry Dougherty for publishing my article: https://www.kerrydougherty.com/allposts/2020/11/19/reopen-public-schools-or-provide-school-vouchers
I may not be able to respond to all of the emails and calls that I’m receiving, so I thought I would share my response here regarding the decision to return all students to virtual learning. It is the prerogative of the Superintendent to make this decision. The Board voted on a reopening plan that included metrics. I did not agree with that plan nor the metrics to be used but it did pass on an 8-3 vote by your elected representatives. My opinion based upon research, including talking with physicians and mental health providers, is that keeping students out of school has more negative impacts than returning them for in-person learning. According to the CDC, compared with 2019, the proportion of mental health–related emergency department visits during the pandemic for children aged 5–11 and 12–17 years increased approximately 24% and 31%, respectively. I fear for the mental health well-being of all students. I am also concerned that students with special needs and students whose parents aren’t able to be home with their children will fall farther behind. Additionally, our students who have hands-on learning courses such as the Career and Technical Center, Advanced Technology Center, SECEP, Environmental Studies, courses with labs, etc are being further left behind. I would like to note that even though we did enter the “Red” metric today for total cases, the VDH did report that their elevated case case count reported today, November 16 is due to a catch-up from the VDH data system being down for upgrades. While I believe any death is a tragedy, we did flatten the curve and hospitalizations and deaths remain low. The graphs shows hospitalizations and deaths for the Eastern Region. I continue to believe that the cure should not be worse than the disease. Fortunately, we will be sticking with the plan to return our older students 2 days per week beginning this Thursday. Thank you to Dr Spence and his staff for making the recommendation to stick with the plan.
I brought up the mental health issues that are negatively impacting our community and this must be factored into our decisions. My colleague Kim Melnyk attacked me and said that I should not be using mental health issues as a reason to return our students to school since mental health has always been a problem. I will continue to advocate for our students, especially those suffering from anxiety and depression!!!! I will be communicating matters related to the school board here on my blog. If you wish to receive an email notification when a new post has been made, just sign up for the newsletter to the right of this post. It is my goal to keep the public informed regarding issues being discussed by the School Board. |
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