Learning needs to remain DISTANT

[G C]

To the Los Alamos Public Schools Board of Education:

As a tax payer, community member, school volunteer, and a concerned parent of two children in LAPS, I am begging the school board to vote to keep our students in distance learning for now.  

A few of reasons for this safer - albeit delayed - return to school are as follows:

The start of the hybrid model is just 2 weeks after the long Labor Day weekend, and any uptick in cases will be immediately apparent right when our elementary students return to school.

Any contact with a positive case will result in both the students AND teachers in the affected class (or even the entire school, if the case is not contained) being quarantined themselves and made to distance learn anyway. 

Given the rising number of cases and enforced quarantine in other schools throughout the US, potential exposure could result in a problem here in Los Alamos as well - especially once the middle school and high school reopen. Generally speaking, there are a number of major employers in town who have announced employees would be randomly tested, but that has yet to happen. Will reopening the schools - along with other institutions that have already opened - result in a new pathway for the pandemic to make its way into our small community?

It is unrealistic to expect all students to abide by good hygiene rules; hands will get dirty, students will sneeze and cough, masks will move out of places on a child’s face or simply be lost, older students will not be able to remain separate enough when changing classes. There has yet to be any information given on what (if any) transportation changes or additional rules will be made.

Since the lockdown, I have followed the governor’s rule and have personally been quarantined in my home a total of 42 days (keeping my distance from my immediate family, remaining indoors and not going out, etc) - not every person encountered on a daily basis will be willing to follow these safety rules verbatim.  Especially when I see children riding bikes, but not wearing helmets; parents driving children around in the front seat or in the bed of a pickup truck without seatbelts; witnessing that not everyone in our community wears a face covering outside of their “safety bubble.”  This is worrisome given the fact that while the local Covid-19 numbers may seem to be lower, there is only speculation on what COULD be the worst and best case scenarios for the fall and winter.

Please consider the health and safety of students, staff, and community and push back and delay the start of in person learning.

Thank you,

Gabriela Dodd