Baltimore’s Public Schools shoulder the burden of supporting students, yet should reconsider opening now.

As a parent of an 8 year-old 3rd grader in Baltimore City Schools, I know how hard virtual learning has been. It is nearly impossible to help our children stay on task, and still work hard for our employers. I know of parents who have their children with them at work, or students who are alone during the day doing virtual learning. I can only imagine how hard it is to do this without reliable internet, which so many families in the city lack due to the digital divide. In our Op-ed a few months ago (click here for that Op-ed), my colleagues and I called for more supports for working families during virtual learning, including flexible hours for essential employees, federal stimulus, high speed internet, and extension of the eviction moratorium. We knew that students would only succeed if their families had the support of our state they needed.

Now, the Baltimore City Public School System has announced the reopening of grades K-5, 9th and 12th, giving parents the choice to stay virtual. They claim they are doing this because many students are failing. My colleagues and I foresaw this possibility when families were not supported during virtual learning. The entire system of how Maryland operates should have been geared toward children’s success in school, but it was not. Employers demanded their employees to come to work and were not flexible, Comcast decided to cap the amount of internet you can use, and evictions are still happening.

As a result of these failed systems, Baltimore City Public Schools feels pressured to re-open schools to stop learning loss and be the family support system that the state of Maryland is not. However, the plan to re-open is rushed, incomplete and not transparent. There are still so many open questions. Vaccinations have been accelerated for teachers, so why aren’t we waiting until after they are all fully vaccinated? There is still no vaccine for children under 16 years old, and many go home to older adults who are caregivers. Why aren’t we waiting to make sure all of our older adults are vaccinated?  Many students have to rely on the MTA bus to get to school, how will we know they will be able to safely social distance? 

One of the Student Learning Centers is in my district at Waverly Elementary/Middle School. I visited the school before the holidays and I was impressed with how the process was organized. They had a limited number of students so that they could use all available space to spread out, the huge gym to have activities allowing them to social distance (like dodgeball), the one-way hallway rules, and the attention the students could have.

However, the Waverly School is a much newer building than most other buildings in the district. Air filtration isn’t an issue. The building is also huge. The students and staff were able to spread out and use one whole floor of the building for 40 students and several staff. Is that possible in some of our older school buildings? 

This seems rushed. While students in grades K-5, 9 and 12 are able to come back, there are no details about how many students this will be limited to like in the Student Learning Centers. Will this be first come, first served? Will the students who are failing be prioritized? Are there plans for limited capacity in each classroom? How will bathroom breaks be scheduled and maintained to reduce interactions between pods? How will masks rules be enforced? What if more parents sign up than available space? We know, because parents have to work, that many will take this opportunity, because the Maryland is not set up to help our working parents. Will these decisions be made at a district level to ensure equity, or left in the hands of individual administrators? 

Many teachers are to report on February 8 to then start teaching on February 16. How are teachers supposed to teach in person and virtual? Is the internet in the schools capable of supporting multiple teachers live-streaming instruction to students still at home? How will this change impact students and families who opt to remain virtual, whether out of fear for their safety or relative success with this format of learning? Will these students be assigned a new teacher halfway through the year? Proper training for this scenario takes more than one week and a great deal of resources.

I attended the Baltimore City Public Schools town hall, the PCAB town hall, and will be talking with the school system. There are still so many questions. Our families deserve answers.

My child definitely needs to be in school. We have hired someone to come and help us, but so many families do not have that luxury. I need the answers to these questions to ensure children, their families, and teachers are safe and healthy before sending anyone into the classroom. I hope Baltimore City Public Schools and the Governor consider pushing back the date of in-person options to allow for better consideration of the questions I have brought up.