Schools superintendent asks parents to have 'an ounce more patience' for 5-day instruction

Hoover schools Superintendent Kathy Murphy on Thursday said she hears the pleas from parents who are eager for schools to reopen for in-person instruction five days a week but asked them to have “an ounce more patience.”

Speaking to the Hoover Area Chamber of Commerce during a virtual meeting, Murphy said she “desperately” wants “to get all children back in school as soon as possible five days a week, … respecting those who are choosing to do virtual.”

She is a strong advocate for in-person instruction and believes it is the best way to educate children, but school officials also are trying to understand the guidance and recommendations from health officials with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Alabama Department of Public Health and Jefferson County Department of Health, Murphy said.

They are tracking lots of data, including the number of new COVID-19 cases over 7-day and 14-day periods statewide, in Jefferson and Shelby counties and even in the zip codes that include the various parts of Hoover, Murphy said. They also are looking at the infection rates per 100,000 people, she said.

Another metric they monitor is the risk indicators the Alabama Department of Public Health assigns to each county.

On Sept. 10, when Murphy said during a Hoover school board meeting that she was reassessing the initial plan to bring students who signed up for in-person instruction back to school five days a week on Sept. 21, both Jefferson and Shelby counties were labeled as “very high risk” for community spread of COVID-19.

Since then, both counties have shown improvement, with Shelby County now labeled as “high risk” and Jefferson County labeled as “moderate risk,” Murphy said.

On Tuesday, Murphy and the school board announced that elementary students who chose in-person instruction would be allowed to come back to school four days per week beginning Sept. 21. But middle and high school students will continue on a staggered schedule, coming two days per week, for now.

Murphy today reiterated her desire to get all students whose families chose in-person instruction back in school five days a week as soon as possible and said it is her “intention” to do that no later than the start of the second nine-week period on Oct. 19.

If COVID-19 data continues improving, it’s possible that could happen before Oct. 19, but she can’t commit to any date 100%, she said.

“There are a lot of things for which I have no control,” Murphy said.

In the meantime, Murphy said she also realizes that some families may want to change their preference for either virtual or in-person instruction, especially given that virtual instruction is not the same as it was this past spring.

The stated plan is that families of students in elementary or middle school will be allowed to make that change at the end of a nine-week period on Oct. 19 and families of students in high school can make that change at the end of the first semester in December.

That’s because school officials have assigned certain teachers to teach students virtually and certain ones to teach students in person, and shifting too many students from one method of instruction to another in between key grading periods would be very problematic, Murphy said.

That said, school officials have tried to accommodate requests for changes in the method of instruction when possible, she said. Parents need to be able demonstrate if there are extenuating circumstances that merit a quicker change, she said.

Parents of elementary and middle school students who want to switch from virtual to in-person instruction, or vice versa, at the end of the first nine weeks, need to request that change by Sept. 30, according to an email sent out to parents today.

Murphy emphasized that school officials are trying to “get this right for our children.”

She understands the physical health and safety concerns and has to weigh those against concerns about students’ mental health and social, emotional and academic needs, she said.

“The longer we’re not in school on a regular basis, it is going to impact our children academically,” she said.

Murphy also asked everyone not to let the pandemic cause them to lose their sense of civility.

“We need to be civil to each other. We need to be kind to each other. We need to respect each other. We need to speak to each other like we’d like to be spoken to,” she said. “I didn’t create COVID, and I am not trying to cheat children out of an education. I’m trying to open our schools as soon as I can with a clear conscience that we have looked through everything and thought through everything.”

She asked people in the community to challenge one another when they see someone treat another person in an uncivil way.

“People can disagree with each other without being so disagreeable,” Murphy said. “You can disagree with people without disparaging them as human beings.”