High school is coming back, with masks, ‘cohorts,’ and high hopes, but no vaccinations
The Peninsula School District is moving full speed ahead to bring students back for in-person learning, citing low case rates and a commitment to preventing outbreaks. The district announced on Feb. 22 that it would be bringing back high school students for in-person hybrid learning starting March 11.
Middle-school students returned to school last week, and elementary students in grades 2 to 5 the week before. Kindergartners and first-graders have been in school since October.
Since the high school announcement, it was revealed at a school board meeting that an athlete with the Gig Harbor football program has tested positive for the virus,which lead to a series of sports cancellations for the next two weeks and, according to the school’s COVID-19 dashboard, 44 school-based close contacts are currently in quarantine.
This all comes against the backdrop of new state modeling from Washington State Department of Health (DOH) and the Institute for Disease Modeling (IDM) that warns of a higher risk in high school environments. The model stopped short of recommending any action about whether teachers should or should not come back.
A key finding of the report was that “high schools are more likely to have large outbreaks than elementary or middle schools due to reduced ability to maintain stable cohorts or groups of students, larger school size, and older students who are likely more susceptible to infection.”
Cohorts — that is, groups of students who stay mostly together throughout the school a day — are easier in lower grades, where pupils spend most of their day in a single classroom. In high school, there is more movement.
This guidance, and the recent positive case, leaves teachers, students, and administrators reflecting on an uncertain future. Some of them spoke to The Gateway about what they are hoping to see in the coming weeks.
Principal is confident
Michele Suiter, principal at Gig Harbor high school, said she remains confident.
“We’re feeling really good about things that we’ve put into place to kind of practice to get us ready now for our opening,” Suiter said.
Specifically, Suiter said, they have looked at the buildings and their air filtration systems.
“We actually did have that looked at. We had our filters upgraded in terms of that. That was one of the questions that we had early on, that’s something that we have considered and taken precautions on,” Suiter said. “The layout of our building, we have a lot of cross-ventilation opportunities as well. We’ve talked specifically with our teachers and with our custodial staff about prepping our classrooms to create as much ventilation as possible.”
Suiter said that there will be approximately 12 to 15 students per classroom at any one time, which will allow for more spacing and more openings of doors to provide ventilation.
Suiter said the district will defer to the health department if there is any potential for a pause on returning.
“We follow what the Tacoma Pierce County Health Department advises for us. Those decisions will be made at a much higher level,” Suiter said. “I don’t anticipate a step backwards. I anticipate us moving fully forward.”
Union wants caution
Carol Rivera, president of the teachers’ union Peninsula Education Association (PEA), said the union will be watching closely to make sure that all agreed-upon guidelines are being followed.
“We will be watching very carefully about the safety precautions, the PPE, the logistics in our buildings, the fidelity to cohorting, all of those pieces,” Riversd said. “Just like the rest of our community, when we go out, we follow those pieces or we don’t receive service.
Rivers said that the teachers are being given masks, but the type depends on their job.
Most will receive the KN85 mask, a slightly less-effective variant of the surgical N95. The more effective N95s can be requested by employees who come in close contact with students.
“N95s need specific fitting and test fit. Those are for specific people that will come into contact with the isolation rooms,” Rivera said. “The guidance that is set forth with the N95, goggles, shields, and any of those layers are available to all staff members that want those.”
A district spokesperson said there are currently approximately 180,000 KN95 masks, enough to “have enough to supply all staff who request KN95 masks.”
Vaccines still an issue
Rivera said that there are still hopes for the teachers to get access to a vaccine. The district did join with other school leadership in sending a letter to the state encouraging teachers and staff to be given greater priority to vaccines, though Rivera says that by itself is insufficient.
“Obviously, there is a concern about access to vaccines. Our association stance is that the district in partnership with any lawmakers should be moving educators up,” in the vaccine queue, Rivera said. “Stopping at a letter is not sufficient, so my understanding is that there are additional local efforts and communications with providers in other ways to get vaccines to staff.”
District leadership has said that a vaccine for teachers and staff is not a prerequisite to a return to in-person learning, though they said that Superintendent Art Jarvis is advocating for all who work for the district to be given higher priority.
Attempts to reach Jarvis to learn about what specific advocacy work he has done went unanswered.
Amanda Swainston, a teacher at Peninsula high school and building rep for the PEA, has been doing some in-person teaching since the fall. She’d like vaccinations to come first.
“We really should be looking at having staff working in-person vaccinated prior to fully returning or having students come into the building, to protect our staff,” Swainston said. “I feel very strongly that we should be looking at having those precautions in place and I mean all staff: our bus drivers, our custodial staff, our para-educators, just to make sure our staff is safe, because we do work very closely with many of our students.”
Swainston said that there are some students that cannot or may not be able to wear masks for medical reasons.
“Our legislators need to step it up and provide those vaccinations for our educators. I appreciate that the district has advocated for that, it still is very important.”
Teachers are already having difficulty finding substitutes, she said.
“As more staff get called back in, are we going to have enough subs? Because of the precautions of staying home if you have symptoms means there may not be enough subs possibly.,” she said. “It’s going to be challenging.”
Assistant superintendent Dan Gregory said the district is working on “building depth” among substitute teachers if they are needed.
“I don’t have the exact numbers in terms of what they’ve come up with,” Gregory said.
Some opt out, some in
Peninsula sophomore Eliana Dietrich said she will not be among the students returning for in-person learning. She has opted to remain in remote.
“I chose to stay home. I don’t mind doing this. I found I was able to be a little more productive because I was able to work on my own schedule,” Dietrich said. “It will be exciting to go back eventually, but I am also happy for this semester.”
Dietrich said her parents left the choice to her.
“My parents biggest thing was they just wanted me to make the decision for what was going to make the most sense for my learning,” Dietrich said. “Once they found that I was okay, they were pushing for that one as well because it was more safe.”
Dylan Rosenlind is a senior at Gig Harbor high school who will be returning to in-person learning.
“It has definitely been an interesting year and hearing that we have a planned date to go back has been really nice,” Rosenlind said.
Rosenlind said he isn’t “super worried” about health concerns.
“I don’t have any elderly family that I interact with in person so I’m not worried about my health as much as I am worried about getting it and spreading it. I will do everything that is recommended,” Rosenlind said.
Rosenlind said he is “definitely” concerned about the health of his teachers and that he will do everything he can to protect them.
“Ill definitely do whatever is asked of me to keep everyone safe.”
Teacher is optimistic
Chris Coovert, a social studies teacher and debate coach at Gig Harbor high school, spoke at a school board meeting in September about his concerns over plans to return. Coovert said he now is “cautiously optimistic” about the planned return.
“Assuming we’re able to follow the protocols we have in place, I think that in the classroom things should be pretty safe,” Coovert said. “My biggest concern for the kids is not in the classroom, it’s lunch.”
That’s because there will be “a lot of people in one place eating without masks,” he said.
“As far as talking to other teachers, there are some teachers who are really excited to be back in the classroom and then there are some who are much more apprehensive,” Coovert said. “There is a huge, wide spread of how people feel about it right now.”
Coovert said he considers himself to be somewhere in the middle, though he still feels there has to be more done to restore trust.
“I still think that we have a long way to go in terms of rebuilding trust, restoring communication between the teachers and the district leaders,” Coovert said.
, Coovert said the risk in high school is different than in earlier grades, and that does give him pause.
“I think that anybody who says that they’ve proven it safe, is not true,” Coovert said. “You can prove that something is mostly safe, but you can’t prove that it is safe, right? I think that there is definitely a higher risk for high school. The biggest thing that I hope that they’re aware of is that they need to be able to adjust if we get back and it doesn’t seem like it’s working, or it is causing too much spread. Hopefully it won’t.”
