Lauren Coupland
I understand the excitement that many are feeling at the PED announcement that schools should reopen 5 days a week. But many parents and staff have feasibility questions. I urge you to publicly announce the potential plans and answer questions before the board meeting. This will allow time for parents, students and staff to ask follow up questions and get clarification. I also urge you to allow follow up questions to be answered during Friday’s board meeting. Below are just some of the questions that I have or have heard in the 24 hours since the announcement.
Thank you for taking these questions under consideration.
Lauren Coupland
Maintaining a Remote Option
How will you maintain the education of students for families that elect to remain online?
The state stated that students MUST have the option to stay remote. Many if not all grades at LAOLA are full. Many parents were told that they could not switch, but that their students could remain remote at their home school because core instruction remained online. How will these families
How many students at each grade level are not currently attending the in person afternoon options?
Do you have enough space in remote classes to accommodate all of those students?
The virtual offerings for middle school and high school are not comparable and switching in the middle of the final quarter is not feasible. What is your plan to accommodate those students without overburdening teachers?
The majority of high school students are not currently attending all classes in the optional afternoons. How many would opt to remain remote with this change?
Logistics
How will you handle quarantining students or staff? How will students access instruction when they are quarantined and their teacher is teaching in person full time?
PED says that social distancing will be changed to “as much as possible” and mentioned that plexiglass barriers are a possible way to safely handle situations where staff and students cannot maintain 6ft distancing. Will these be provided for every classroom, or will teachers continue to purchase these safety items out of pocket?
How will IEP services be provided for students who are in person 5 days a week? Will ancillary service providers be exposed to all students and grade levels by having in person sessions? Will they still be provided remotely? If so, how will students remain supervised and have their privacy maintained?
How will bussing be handled? What will the capacity/restrictions be? Do we have enough busses and staff to accommodate this?
How many substitutes does the district have that are willing to sub in person?
Staff vaccinated this week will receive their second dose the week of April 5th. Do we have enough substitutes to cover the appointments for 2nd doses for staff?
The state has said that staff with an ADA exemption will be allowed to continue working remotely until two weeks after their final vaccine. How will this be handled if those staff members will not reach that milestone for several weeks?
Many staff are concerned because they have high risk household members who remain unvaccinated. Do those staff members qualify to stay remote until they are fully vaccinated?
Changing the schedule again
How would you respond to those who say that changing the schedule without all teachers being fully vaccinated, and with Los Alamos vaccination percentage well below 80% is going back on assurances made in January?
Elementary students, parents and teachers were assured in the January 6th newsletter that the current schedule would remain in place for the rest of the year unless "the local vaccine rate is above 80% and students can return full time." While the state is now prioritizing teachers, many will not have passed the 2 week period after their second shot by April 5th. Additionally, the prioritization of teachers has halted the vaccination progress of the high risk and 75+ population. Many of whom are the parents or guardians of our students.
Do you believe that 7 weeks of in person instruction makes up for the upheaval of another major schedule change? Does that answer change based on grade level?
What percentage of the 39 in person days will be used for state testing? Understandably this differs by grade level.
What percentage of the 39 in person days will take place before AP tests? How will this affect the logistics and usefulness of a switch to fully in person?