Dear Dr. Steinhaus, Mrs. Guy, and School Board Members,
First and foremost, its just not the right time to go back
to hybrid in-person learning when our state's Covid cases are spiking at
historic numbers. As Dr. Scrase
said last Thursday, "If there was ever a time to social distance here in
NM, now is that time." Our
state's recent rate of infection had risen to 105%, which is top three in the
United States. A large population of our staff and children commute from
outside of Los Alamos daily. Our
labs' scientists are now being sent out of state for research again. Many of our kids currently attend an
assortment of camps and practices and even others are going out of state and
playing in athletic tournaments. In addition to our States' spiking case counts these additional factors increase the risk of infection here in Los Alamos exponentially.
We need to be patient and not feel PUSHED back into in
person learning. As an educator I
feel pushed right now to do something that puts my health and the health of
those around me at risk.
Additionally, as an elementary teacher, I feel that my life is being
experimented with before my middle school and high school colleagues.
For reasons mentioned, I strongly feel that now is not the
time for our school district to spur ahead in to hybrid in-person
learning. In stead, this is the
time and the opportunity for Los Alamos Public Schools to be patient and to
lead the state in making a more conscious decision which uses science, data and
values the lives and safety of people by not pushing ahead into hybrid
in-person leaning at this time.
Respectfully,
Lanse Carter
