Hoover parents beg school officials to let kids come back 5 days a week

Some parents of children in Hoover City Schools begged the Hoover school board and superintendent Thursday night to allow children to come back to school five days a week.

Since Nov. 30, students have been on a staggered instruction schedule that puts them in person at school two days a week and learning virtually from home the other three weekdays.

But parents who came to a school board meeting Thursday night said the staggered instruction schedule is not working and not serving children well.

Joe Prokop, who has a daughter at Riverchase Elementary School, said parents realize that decisions being made aren’t easy, but other nearby school systems seem to be able to educate children at school five days a week.

Hoover school officials seem to believe that the risk of students being harmed with COVID is greater than the risks associated with children not being at school, Prokop said.

But it’s very important for children to be engaged in school and stay on track instead of falling behind, especially in those crucial early developmental years, he said.

“Our kids need to be in school for the betterment of their lives, the stability of their homes and for the benefit of our community as a whole,” Prokop said. “Parents should be able to go to work and support their families, assuming that they have a job that they can go back to.”

He said he knows of several colleagues who used up all their sick days and vacation days and then lost their jobs because they had to stay home with their children.

PARENTS NEED TO WORK

Catey Hall, who has children at Greystone Elementary, Berry Middle and Spain Park High, said it was easier for some parents to stay home with their kids when the government forced a lot of businesses to shut down in March, but once businesses starting opening back up, most of them had to go back to work.

Even those who are able to work from home don’t have unlimited time to spend helping their children with virtual schoolwork, Hall said.

Her children have had no live interaction with their teachers on virtual learning days since the spring, she said. If students are having trouble, they’re told to email their teacher, but that teacher is busy working with students who are at school and don’t have time to help those at home, she said.

Hall said she hired a teacher to come to her house to tutor her children, but some children don’t have access to that kind of help. There is a major discrepancy between the children who have support and those who don’t, she said. “It’s just not working.”

Hall said her family is doing its part to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in the community, including canceling holiday gatherings, but she can’t accept that the entire community has to do the same in order for her children to stay in school.

“We can’t continue to let the community’s failure to mitigate COVID make or break whether or not our children have access to their teachers,” Hall said.

Arden Pathak has three children in Hoover schools, two with special needs, and she is seeing a lot of regression in one of them with virtual instruction, she said. Her mother, a retired teacher, is coming to her house three days a week to help, but “there are so many kids that are getting lost in this ssytem,” Pathak said. “I just think there’s a better way.”

Christina Allison, a parent with children at Rocky Ridge Elementary, said both she and her husband are full-time health care workers and are deemed essential. But she thinks it’s even more essential that children be in school five days a week, she said. “It’s so important for our children.”

SUPERINTENDENT RESPONSE

Hoover schools Superintendent Kathy Murphy said she appreciated the parents coming to share their concerns but said she went back to a staggered instruction schedule for very good reasons.

On Nov. 19, Alabama Health Officer Scott Harris sent a letter to school superintendents saying that COVID-19 was moving in a disturbing direction with children ages 5-17.

At that time, school-age children accounted for 8.5% of all COVID-19 cases in Alabama, and COVID-19 positivity rates in children were at 15%, Murphy said.

Also, the state health officer told superintendent that 13 children in Alabama had been diagnosed with a multisystem inflammatory syndrome associated with COVID-19, and there likely would be more cases, she said. That syndrome is a life-threatening condition with long-term implications for multiple organ systems, including cardiac dysfunction, Murphy said.

Some people claim that COVID-19 doesn’t affect young children, but there can indeed be an impact for young children, she said.

Murphy also noted a study done at the Georgia Institute of Technology that found that, in a group of 10 people in Jefferson County, there is a 24% chance one of them is infectious with COVID-19. That percentage rises to a 43% chance in a group of 20 people, 75% chance in a group of 50 people and 94% chance in a group of 100 people, she said.

The number of students and school employees reporting a new positive COVID-19 test climbed from 13 in the last week of October to 70 the week of Nov. 18-24, Murphy said.

Additionally, there were 1,273 students and 101 school employees in quarantine or isolation due to having COVID-19 or having been in close contact with someone who had COVID-19 as of Nov. 20, Murphy said.

That creates staffing problems, and the district is having a tough time finding enough substitutes to teach and drive school buses, she said.

On Nov. 20, the Hoover school district could fill only 51% of the requests for substitute teachers and instructional aides and 21% of the requests for substitute bus drivers, she said.

Non-instructional employees have been filling in for teachers when possible, mechanics have driven buses, and buses are running double routes, but it was too challenging to maintain that level of operation, Murphy said.

Pathak said school system officials should have foreseen the need for more substitutes and done more to recruit them.

Murphy said they were diligent about that. Since Nov. 1, 71 people have applied through the state to be substitute teachers in Hoover schools, and 21 substitutes have been added to the list, 19 of whom have already started substituting, she said. At first, school officials would not allow people in PTO groups or booster clubs to be substitutes due to concerns about ethics laws related to school employees, but that rule has been waived in light of the circumstances, Murphy said.

“We want to keep our schools open,” but there is still a shortage, she said.

Murphy said school officials care about any students who struggling with virtual learning from an emotional standpoint and encouraged any student or parent who wants assistance to reach out to their school counselors. There is a link on the school district’s website to do that, she said. The school district also has curriculum to assist students going through emotional problems, she said.

Murphy said she knows the best method of instruction is to have competent and caring teachers providing face-to-face instruction five days a week, but she’s concerned the school district can’t keep children safe right now with that arrangement due to social distancing needs and the spread of the virus in the community at large.

Hospitals have seen a surge in COVID-19 patients and have expressed concern about potentially being overwhelmed from a staffing perspective, to the point that proper health care cannot be given.

Murphy said she and her staff have done all they can do to understand the science of COVID-19, track the numbers and be thoughtful about how their decisions affect families.

“There’s a rhyme and a reason to the madness,” Murphy said. “People may not agree with that, and I respect that.”

She’s not insensitive to parents’ need to go to work, but “my charge is to make sure that I can educate children in the very safest arena I can, and I believe through the stagger we’ve created the opportunity to be able to stay in school.”

She does not want to go to complete virtual instruction, she said. Due to the feared rise of COVID-19 with holiday gatherings, she thought it best to continue staggered instruction until Jan. 19.

Shauna Burrows, a parent at Bluff Park Elementary, pleaded with the school board and Murphy to reconsider. She said parents are ready to do whatever they can to get kids back in school five days a week.

“It’s getting to be an emotional roller coaster,” Burrows said. “Please hear us tonight. We are begging you to really reconsider.”