Next Steps for the LAPS on "Reopening"

[Richard Skolnik]

Dear Board of the LAPS:

Thank you for the exceptional efforts that everyone associated with the LAPS is making to provide educational opportunities to our children during this difficult time. I understand the challenges in trying to find the appropriate balance between the goals of in-person schooling and the need to keep our children, the LAPS faculty and staff, and our community safe.

With the above in mind, I am writing to strongly encourage the Board to consider the continuation of remote learning until the beginning of the second semester.

I write as a concerned citizen, grandparent of children enrolled in the LAPS, and as someone who has worked for over 40 years on international health and education.

The rationale for my suggestion includes:

• The transmission of the virus has dramatically increased in the past several weeks in NM and this increase shows no sign of abating. 

• The status of the specific health and safety measures that the schools were supposed to take before they open remains unclear. What is the status of the safety checklist that was supposed to be used for this purpose?

• The LAPS has not indicated how it will verify that each school is actually implementing its health and safety checklists and how it will continue to do so when schools reopen.

• The LAPS has not indicated how all members of the community will be able to communicate to the system, in free and open ways, failures that they notice in the implementation of the health and safety guidelines for the schools or the mechanism by which the LAPS will follow-up on such concerns.

• The schooling that has taken place so far raises a number of doubts about the ability of the schools to operate safely, including failures to date to default to education outdoors when the weather is conducive, failures to ensure good ventilation by keeping doors open during school sessions, and failures to engage in appropriate social distancing. The stakes will be higher as more children return to school in an environment in which we now know that aerosols are a far more important source of transmission than thought earlier.

Moreover, I understand that different schools may be taking a different approach to the number of hours that students will physically be in school under the hybrid model. This does not make sense and raises important questions about the readiness of the schools to open in safe ways. In principle, the LAPS should be taking a uniform approach at the elementary level to how the hybrid model should operate. This should be based on the best available evidence about the  approach that will achieve the best combination of learning outcomes and student and staff safety. If one school will meet five hours a day in person and another seven hours a day, it suggests that the LAPS still lacks the basis for moving forward in the most effective and safe way with a hybrid model. 

Thank you for your consideration of this matter,

Richard Skolnik

White Rock

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Richard Skolnik

703-627-6646