Puyallup embarks on back-to-school plan despite reservations from teachers union
Puyallup School District’s kindergarten and first grade students began their return to in-person learning Tuesday, Jan. 12, despite opposition from the teachers union.
Students will be in the classroom twice a week and continue distance learning three days a week. All grades eventually will follow a hybrid schedule of two days in the classroom and three days of virtual learning.
Students will be divided into Groups A and Group B with alternating schedules.
Kindergarten and first grade students began two days a week on Jan. 12. On Jan. 26, second and third grade students will join them and fourth-grade through sixth-grade students will begin the hybrid schedule on Feb. 9. The current plans do not include sixth grade students at Edgemont Junior High.
On Jan. 12, special education returned to four days a week of in-person learning and will move to full week in-person learning by Feb. 16.
President Karen McNamara of the Puyallup Education Association told the school board Monday that she is worried about the return.
“We would like to make sure that before we actually send our secondary students back, that we have all of the kinks worked out, and the plans,” she said in the public meeting. “We are still concerned about what’s happening with the elementary, but you have decided to move forward.”
McNamara said she wants students and staff to be safe.
“We need to ensure that our kids are having the education that they really need, and I am gravely concerned. I have many people that are gravely concerned that this will not be happening,” she said on Monday.
The district’s assistant superintendent Vince Pecchia said about 70 positions were opened for teachers who were uncomfortable with returning to the classroom to teach continuous online learning. Thirty of those positions were filled, Pecchia said.
Teachers were also offered to take a gap year.
“If there is a teacher now that is assigned to a hybrid classroom, and for whatever reason does not feel comfortable returning, what I would encourage them to do is to contact our human resources department and speak specifically with our leaves-accommodation person,” he said in the town hall.
The K-1 hybrid students will add 2,400 students to district campuses, rotating between a two-day per week onsite schedule, communications director Sarah Gillispie said. Since October, the district had about 850 students on campus in special education and other contained classrooms.
Board member Maddie Names said she is confident in the reopening plan because it has been vetted and families who are uncomfortable with returning can opt out. Some families have chosen to continue virtual learning rather than participate in the hybrid schedule.
Families chose a learning model last fall, and roughly 75 percent chose the hybrid model versus full-time continuous distance learning, Gillispie said.
Dr. Anthony Chen, director of health for the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, addressed questions from parents on Jan. 7 in a town hall.
Parents asked him why there was a change on returning to school when Pierce County’s 14-day case rate per 100,000 was 444 as of Jan. 12.
“We have learned a whole lot. If you think about it, this virus showed up a year ago. It just has spread quickly and there’s so much we are learning about it,” he said. “It has become very clear to us here in Pierce County as well as across the state that for the youngest children that they are not getting infected very much and they don’t spread it.”
The state released more defined recommendations in November, like defining “small groups” as groups of 15 or fewer and updated guidelines on reopening schools by relaxing metrics.
The guidelines previously recommended schools within counties that have 75 or more COVID-19 cases per 100,000 over a 14-day period stay in remote learning. The November update changes that to 200 cases per 100,000 residents.
Chen said in the 10,000 COVID-19 tests completed in a three-week rapid testing program, less than 0.2 percent of results were positive for the coronavirus and there were no outbreaks.
Rural school districts partnered with the health department to decide whether to hold in-person classes by testing school populations to help identify cases of COVID-19, health officials told The News Tribune in October. Three school districts participated in the program: White River, Eatonville and Peninsula.
“We fully support the department of health guidelines and support Puyallup School District’s decisions to go ahead and start bringing back their K-1,” Chen said in the town hall.
The health director also said it’s important for students to get back as soon as possible because distanced learning has taken a toll on students.
“A lot of people worry the longer we keep kids out of school, the greater the impact it has on their education, their social and emotional needs,” Chen said.
This story was originally published January 14, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
