The staggered start for Evansville area public school students has begun, with some students returning to class this week and some next week. And then there are some students who aren’t returning to the classroom at all but rather are opting for a virtual school year.
Between the two of them, Amber Basham and her significant other Justin have six children in the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation.
“Three in high school, one in middle school, two in elementary school. So that’s a senior at Central, sophomore and freshman at Central, sixth grader at Thompkins, fifth grader Highland, third grader at Highlands.”
Basham can only think of one word to describe what this fall will look like for her family, "Chaos. How is this going to work? I’m sending my two oldest to school the other four that are my step kids they are wanting to do virtual – how is that going to work?”
Jason Woebkenberg, spokesperson for EVSC tries to explain how it will work. For students coming in-person, they’ll be required to adapt to lots of CDC recommendations.
“We had rulers out, did the math to determine how many students to have safely in classroom, shifted students’ schedules, fewer students in a class to allow for social distancing.”
Students must remember to: wear masks, wash hands, not share supplies or food, stick to traffic patterns in halls, not hang out in groups, and keep track of their interactions in case they need to provide information for contact tracing. All that on top of trying to actually learn something.
Fairlawn Elementary School Kindergarten teacher Kaycee Huffman says she realizes that’s a lot to ask of five and six year-olds. We met in her classroom, masked and socially distanced, so she could show me how she set up her room to provide for social distancing. She had to get creative with yoga mats and individualized work stations. She thinks she has done everything she can to prepare her classroom for success. She is just asking that parents do their part:
“Sit down and have conversations with them before they come to school. Say “hey, look, you know how when we go out in public and people have masks on? It is going to be like that at school. If they aren’t in your family, you need to stay six feet apart to keep your body safe. That shouldn’t come from us first, because if that happens it will take longer, if parents having those conversations at home, kids will expect it.”
Teachers are always tasked with educating and caring for students but there is a laundry list of new duties this year – including contact tracing. According to administrators, teachers will be the first line of defense when it comes to stopping the spread of the virus if and when it gets in the school. Woebkenberg walked me through the process, "We realize that is a chance, we are in a pandemic, if that happens and we are following guidance, we would then begin contact tracing to determine who was in a distance that would put them in a situation to be a close contact. We would be talking to Kaycee to find out, ‘Were your students in their spaces? Were there activities where they were within six feet for over 15 minutes?’ It is the six fifteen rule. If Kaycee is able to say that did not happen, then there is a chance no one else would have to be quarantined. Now, if she says yes there were two students who were within six feet for 15 minutes those students would go into a quarantine situation.”
Basham says that seems like a nice plan but, no matter how vigilant the teacher, it isn’t realistic:
“I don’t think they can, especially with high schoolers. Kids have after-school jobs, who are they riding to school with? Who is bringing them home? I don’t know how they would know?”
Basham’s daughter Chloe, a senior, has spent three years in EVSC’s Medical Professionals Academy. It’s a specialized tract for those interested in a medical career. In the past, participating students from many EVSC schools have taken buses in to Central High School for MPA classes. Basham says, with all the precautions, she doesn’t see how that will work and no one is offering an explanation:
“No one has even contacted us yet, we have no clue what is going on. The girls can’t get in to access their schedules. They know nothing. We are completely and utterly lost.”
What frustrates Basham is the lack of communication and the idea that COVID-19 precautions have actually become learning obstacles. Huffman is dealing with this reality as a teacher.
“So everybody has to have their own stuff this year which is a little bit different, they can’t share. So now when student on ‘H’ mat is playing with blocks I would give the student on this mat the same kind of blocks and they would parallel play but they are still six feet apart.
“For Kaycee’s students, they are accustom to playing together in tight situations and Kaycee has obviously thought that through and she tries to mimic those situations in a safe way.”
Basham says she doesn’t fault EVSC for some of the changes they’ve had to make. But ultimately, she says the virus isn’t something that can be controlled, at least not without the help of the community. And that’s where she is in complete agreement with Woebkenberg, Huffman and even Indiana State Health Commissioner Kristina Box:
“If we want to get kids back in classroom we cannot behave like nothing has happened. This is our story right now and if we want to change the narrative we have to do our part.”
Woebkenberg adds, “We are prepared for anything but we can’t control what goes on outside the classroom. Our superintendent has implored, along with other community leaders, please do the right thing. Because the numbers in the county will dictate how successful schools will be. It’s not just numbers in Kaycee’s kindergarten class. We’ve got to work together on this.”
Woebkenberg won’t say what it will take to make school go completely online again. He isn’t committing to a specific number of cases or positivity rate. But he says that isn’t because there is no plan, “There isn’t a magic number or a set point that if this happens, this is the resulting decision. A lot of that has to do with, it is just complicated how the numbers are. If there is a positive case in a school you know where did that positive case transpire? In the school, out of the school? It is important for us to look at data, follow data, but stay in close contact with local medical leaders, health department, seek their guidance, do we close one classroom, one school or district wide?”
Woebkenberg says enrollment in EVSC’s virtual option is up to nearly 2500 students. Pre-COVID, the virtual program had around 80 students. While virtual learning may be Basham’s worst-case scenario, some families don’t feel comfortable sending students because of rising cases in the area.
Administrators say they have heard the jokes and predictions about school opening just to shut down again two weeks later. And it doesn’t help that other area school systems, like Warrick County Schools and Evansville Catholic schools, saw a handful of COVID-19 cases within days of re-opening.
But Woebkenberg says if cases do pop-up, he feels like EVSC is prepared to handle it. Basham says she hopes that’s true because right now, it seems all the precautions may get in the way of actual learning.