Stay the Course

[JESSE and ROCKE JOHNSON]

Dear School Board Members and Superintendent:

I'm the parent of a 2nd grader at Barranca and a sophomore at LAHS.  I'm writing to urge you to stay the course with getting our elementary students into hybrid learning next Monday. 

I understand the hesitancy by the teachers to go back.  However, we cannot make decisions that impact the education of our children based on fear,  "what ifs", and people's personal situations.  The facts support that we are ready.  The district has been preparing for this for months.  We have extremely low incidence of COVID in Los Alamos and our surrounding communities.  Teachers going back to the classroom, seems less risky than our Smiths workers who have been interacting with thousands of people daily, throughout the pandemic, safely. 

While I personally would prefer going back 100% to in person school, I know that PED is requiring hybrid.  Let's get on with it.  We need to start somewhere.  I think getting back to in person school would also limit the travelling about that folks are doing because school is online and neighboring states are resuming daily activities.  Being in school can help control people's movements in and out of the state.

Hybrid is not ideal but it's the right step to get us where we need to be, which is 100% in person. 

I urge you to stand by your decision and get our district on the path to return to in person school.  I leave you with a quote from Abraham Maslow, "In any given moment we have two options: to step forward into growth or to step back into safety." 

Sincerely,

Rocke Johnson