Health officials force Peninsula schools back to remote learning, superintendent says.
This is a developing story. It was updated at 3 p.m. Friday, Oct. 23.
Because of climbing coronavirus case rates countywide, the Peninsula School District will be forced to return to full remote learning on Nov. 2, Superintendent Art Jarvis told the school board on Thursday.
Jarvis said the decision was made after a difficult conversation with Dr. Anthony Chen, director of the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.
Health officials have been alarmed by a spike in new cases that began Labor Day weekend and continues, with new cases reaching 100 daily.
Jarvis said he was deeply disappointed, but had no choice but follow Dr. Chen’s recommendation.
“The last four weeks has been a beautiful witness to what our teachers could do, our bus drivers could do, our cooks, our leaders,” Jarvis said in an emotional report during the Oct. 22 video meeting. “We were truly leading the pack.”
Noting that 1,000 children were brought back to school with no increase in illness, Jarvis said “we believed we would get the benefit of that doubt that we demonstrated there was no connection to our in-person attendance and the flare elsewhere in Pierce County.”
But the Health Department insisted that countywide statistics should prevail, he said.
“It sounds very clearly that we will be asked to return to remote learning for awhile. It’s wrapped in the world where it will not be mandated, but will be stated by the Health Department that it will not be safe for children to attend in person learning at this time.”
The decision means that kindergarten and first-grade pupils, who have been back in classrooms for the last month, will have to return to online learning. Jarvis said they will probably remain out for at least three to four weeks, until county case rates return to a lower level.
“We are looking at a 3-to-5 week period, possibly longer,” he said.
On Thursday, the county health department reported 1,032 COVID-19 cases in the last 14 days. The 14-day case rate per 100,000 is 114.4. Average cases per day over the last 14 days is 73.7. The target rate is fewer than 25.
In an email to parents Friday Jarvis said: “Although we have safely and successfully provided in-person learning to over 800 of our district’s Kindergarten and 1st grade students since Sept. 28, we learned Thursday that we will be asked by the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department (TPCHD) to discontinue in-person learning indefinitely for K-1 students.”
Jarvis has been arguing for months that the Gig Harbor and Key Peninsulas, which have have had relatively low COVID-19 rates, should be considered separately from the rest of the county, but said he had not been able to persuade Dr. Chen. The 14-day case average for Gig Harbor and Key Peninsula has hovered between 30 and 40, well within the county’s “moderate” range.
“TPCHD has local control over the county as a whole and will not make exceptions for specific areas within the county.,” Jarvis told parents in the email.
There is still a chance of a reprieve, Jarvis said. and “conversations are continuing” among the district, the health department and the state Office of Public Instruction.
The district had been planning on staging the remaining elementary grades back to in-person schooling at two-week intervals, beginning the first week of November. Those plans will have to be put on hold, Jarvis said.
“We know this change to remote learning may be challenging for many families; therefore, we will continue with our plans for instruction and conferences the week of October 26-30,” Jarvis told parents. “Kindergarten and 1st grade students will attend school in-person for half-days and then will return to full remote learning on Monday, Nov. 2. Students will remain with their current teacher as we go into our remote environment.”
School board angry
The school board took the news hard.
“I’m more than disheartened, I am maddened,” said Deborah Krishnadasan, the school board president. “I’m ticked off. Our area has done so well. To pull our kids out of school now is going to do more harm than good.”
Krishnadasan said she was especially disheartened because the district has done a good job bringing K-1 students back into the classrooms safely.
“I’ve heard people say the kids are adapting well,” she said. “But they’re not just adapting, they are thriving. They’re happy, the teachers are engaged, the parents are happy.”
In the meantime, she said, “we know that our kids are struggling remotely.”
Krishadasan read out Dr. Chen’s office telephone number: 253-798-6500, and urged parents to call him directly. Then she apologized.
“I’m sorry, I’m upset, but this is not the direction we need to be going,” she said.
One school board member, David Olson, said he thought the timing of the health department’s decision, so close to the Nov. 3 election, was “fishy.”
“It’s unfortunate that Dr. Chen didn’t cut us some slack, especially since we have had zero cases of covid since re-opening,” he said. Olson said he had several conversations with Dr. Chen about keeping schools open, but found him inflexible.
“It’s my opinion that he just doesn’t care,” Olson said. “It’s his way or the highway.”
The Peninsula School Districts serves about 9,000 students in the Gig Harbor area and on the Key Peninsula. It is one of the few school districts in Western Washington that have attempted to resume in-school education.
Jarvis told parents Friday that plans to stage in other grades will continue when allowed.
“In-person learning opportunities for K-1 children will resume when health measures permit,” he said. “Additionally, we have completed our plans to integrate our 2nd grade students into our in-person learning model when allowed to return. Planning will also include considerations for a hybrid model for grades 3-12.
A hybrid model — remote learning for some and in-person school for others, perhaps by shifts — will be necessary for higher grades, Jarvis told the school board on Thursday, because with smaller classes and social distancing, by the time 2nd-graders are returned, “we will be running out of both space and teachers.”
Latest information on school re-opening is on the Peninsula School District website, www.pds401.net
Jake Gregg and Kerry Webster contributed to this story
This story was originally published October 22, 2020 at 8:59 PM.