The Cleveland Heights-University Heights School Board on Tuesday night voted unanimously to start the 2020-2021 school year with a distance learning plan.
During the virtual meeting, board members agreed it's the safest decision for students and staff when it comes to protecting them from the spread of the coronavirus – though they also shared concerns about students not returning to in-person classes in some capacity.
Board President Jodi Sourini worries about the “students with the greatest needs.”
“I mean, our youngest learners, our most socio-economically challenged students and our special needs students” she said. “I've heard from a lot of parents that said that, frankly, their kids did not have a good online experience in the spring. And I understand that.”
Board Member Dan Heintz expressed concerns for families in the district “for whom staying home with their children is a luxury that they don’t enjoy.”
“I'm very worried about those families who, if and when their children are home, don't have an opportunity to go out and earn a paycheck or are left with an impossible decision to leave their children home unattended,” Heintz said during the meeting. “It's a real concern of mine. And we know how economically fragile so many of our families are.”
Superintendent Elizabeth Kirby said with a decision made, the district can move forward with contacting parents and discussing the remote model with them. Kirby also said she can start thinking about the school year “from a nutritional perspective” and the staff’s professional development needs.
The Cleveland Heights Teachers Union, which represents the district’s teaching staff, was against returning to in-person classes in light of the pandemic. Union President Karen Rego told ideastream Wednesday that teaching remotely “was the only safe way to re-open schools.”
“I know that they [district officials] were doing their best to have all these safety protocols in place, but there's just a reality when it comes to children of any age that the best protocols on paper don't always work in a school-type setting.”
Rego said she shares the district’s concerns about students who might struggle with the distance learning plan for a wide variety of reasons, but she has faith in the teachers.
“I understand that remote learning is certainly not the best choice, especially when most of our families are working families and have other responsibilities and more than one child at home, [for] a lot of them,” said Rego. “It is not the way teachers want to teach. But the one thing that teachers are really great at is getting kids caught up. And when it's safe to do that, our teachers will do that. And I have confidence they will.”
The Cleveland Metropolitan School District and Akron Public Schools recently announced students also will be learning remotely for the first nine weeks of the fall semester.
