May 2020

The Present and Our Future:

Reopening America’s Public
Schools

Melissa Westbrook
Tucson, AZ
206-390-0404
sss.westbrook@gmail.com
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Table of Contents

Executive Summary page 3

What Will It Take to Reopen Schools page 5

Current State of K-12 Public Education in the U.S.

and other countries page 7

Trump Administration Actions page 9

Thoughts on Reopening Schools page 11

Conclusions page 21

About the Author page 23

Endnotes page 24
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Executive Summary

Reopening public schools is not going to be as easy as drawing a 3-foot chalk box
around each student.

The movement to “reopen” America is a fallacy based on a fantasy.

This statement comes from an article by writer Jonathan V. Last at The Bulwark,
writing about “reopening” the economy. The statement has even more meaning
when we consider reopening public schools. As he states, the fallacy is government
saying “reopen” to states and magically, all businesses will reopen.

And the fantasy is that children can go back to what they knew as normal public
school. Until there is a vaccine and/or full cure for the coronavirus, that cannot
happen.

It should be noted that children appear to have been spared contracting full-blown
COVID-19. But, it is also true that children can be carry the virus without symptoms
and so, in the case of schools, bring it in and infect adults working in the building.

A good question to ask is, “What is the reason(s) we are reopening schools?”

Businesses want schools reopened to serve as academic daycares so that their

workers can go back to their jobs. This is an important reason but the health and
public safety of those in the schools must be equally important. It is also important
to note that public education prepares children to be future workers in the U.S.
economy but also to prepare them to become thoughtful, curious citizens. The goal
in public education should be to educate, not to train.

Education Week makes a cogent observation that the initial guidelines on reopening
the economy are focused on business. But schools are not businesses; they deal
with children, not widgets. There are large numbers of people in closed spaces for a
long part of each weekday. Add in that the main teaching mode of a teacher is
usually speaking. Schools are not businesses and the higher goal of public education
is to create thoughtful citizens, not just trained workers.

Another reason to reopen schools is the many challenges that both teachers and
parents have experienced with being thrown in the deep end with online learning.
In 2019, only 21% of public schools, including charter schools, offered at least one
online course. We need to bring children to schools not just to get them back on
track with their learning but to help them prepare to learn online when the second
wave of the coronavirus comes.

One of the first items on the school agenda will be for teachers is to assess each child
to see where they are relative to their grade level. What you might see are the
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students who had the best opportunities at home have surged ahead of students
who did not have those opportunities.

What also needs to be part of the assessment is the mental state of each child.
Children crave consistency. When schools closed, that was taken from them for
their weekdays. Additionally, children like being around other children. Depending
on the calming of the virus, many students will have near zero summer learning or
summer life (swimming, travel, etc.)

No matter what stabilities some children had at home, all children have been
traumatized, to some degree, by this upending of their lives. That cannot be
discounted or overlooked especially when reopening schools.
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What Will It Take To Reopen Schools?

It comes down to three needs.

One, there is the need for a series of protocols that everyone in every school
building must follow all the time.

If there is a commitment to following strict protocols for a year or so, then it may be
possible for schools to go back to near-normal school environments the next year. If
not, we will probably see opening and closing schools for some part of the school
year to continue.

Americans of all stripes had this commitment during World War II. Many children
and teens went to school with a keen understanding that sacrifice at home was little
compared to that the soldiers fighting the war. It was that spirit of coming together
that gave citizens the ability to get through that difficult time.

Two, the federal government must push dollars forward for the essential
needs requisite for reopening schools.

The states will have fewer dollars because of the recession coming from the effects
of the pandemic on the economy. Schools cannot reopen with fewer dollars and
more costs.

What kinds of costs? For example, staff.

- Lowering class size for social distancing may mean bringing portables onto
playgrounds. Portables with sinks and toilets cost much more than those
without.
- Lowering class size means new classrooms that need teachers.
- Every school might need a nurse and a counselor.
- Every school may need another custodian if thorough cleaning is to happen
twice a day.

Staff cost money.

Three is the issue of time and the school day.

There generally is never enough time in the school day but the reopening of schools
will see that in spades. However now, every adult in the building now has a new,
intense and vital job – maintaining social distancing and cleanliness for the students
in the school.

All that effort will take time.

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For example:

 School entry/exiting for students – will everyone get their temperature taken
when they come in each day and who will do that? Where will that happen?
 Amount of time for lunch/recess. The students may be eating their lunch at
their desks in their classroom to curtail movement in the building but the
safety protocols around eating may take up more time.
 Bus time if there are new protocols around that activity.
 Constant verbal reminders to students about protocols including scheduled
handwashing.

None of these items is about teaching and learning and yet will be vital to the school
schedule.
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Current State of K-12 Public Education

in the U.S. and in other countries

There are 46 states plus the District of Columbia that have shuttered their schools
for the rest of the school year 2019-2021. Montana has signaled it is likely to reopen
some rural schools sometime in May.

Los Angeles Unified School district has floated an idea of not reopening for the
remainder of this school year but they may open earlier for the 2020-2021 school
year, perhaps in July.

Internationally, Sweden alone among Scandinavian countries did not lock down.
Denmark, Norway and Finland, countries that did lock down, have far fewer cases
and deaths than Sweden.

Sweden never closed its schools while Denmark has since reopened them. Denmark
lifted its coronavirus lockdown on the April 14th, reopening schools and daycare
centers, but concerns that they might become breeding grounds for a second wave
of cases convinced thousands of parents to keep their children home.

Esme Emma Sutcu, founder and CEO of Momster, an online network of thousands of
Danish mothers, doesn’t believe authorities have things under control, saying:

“Suddenly, these moms feel like they just have to throw their kids to the
frontline and I think their reaction is: ‘Don’t mess with our kids’,” she said.

Stats for U.S. Public Schools

There are 56 million students attending K-12 schools: 50M in public schools and
nearly 6 million in private schools. The average public school enrollment is about
528 students, with suburban districts handling larger numbers than urban, town or
rural schools.

There are about 3.1 million full-time public school teachers and over 90,000 public
school principals.

Who else works in our schools? From the Brookings Institute:

 Among academic staff, certainly teachers are central, but librarians (or
library media specialists), English as a Second Language or bilingual
teacher aides, special education instructional aides, and a variety of
other instructional aides also work directly with students.
 Among administrative staff, schools have principals, but they also have
vice or assistant principals, secretaries and other clerical support
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staff, instructional coordinators and supervisors such as curriculum

specialists, and a variety of non-instructional aides.
 Schools also employ health services staff such as school or guidance
counselors, nurses, social workers, psychologists, and speech therapists;
 And they employ basic services staff such as food service personnel,
custodial, maintenance and security personnel, and special education
and library media non-instructional aides.

Most of these employees, save principals, are represented by collective bargaining.

Those unions may have much to say about the reopening of schools.

In the Trump administration’s report, Opening Up America Again, the appendix,

Vulnerable Individuals, is important reading for reopening schools and protecting
those in the buildings. It states:

1. Elderly individuals.

2. Individuals with serious underlying health conditions, including high blood

pressure, chronic lung disease, diabetes, obesity, asthma, and those whose
immune system is compromised such as by chemotherapy for cancer and other
conditions requiring such therapy.

The average age of a teacher in the United States is 42.4 years old. Over 18% are 55
years and older.

The average age of a principal in the U.S. is 48 years old with 27% being 55 and
over.

While the rate of COVID-19 in children is very small, both obesity and asthma are
factors that appear to influence the severity of the disease in any given person.

The CDC reports that “for children and adolescents aged 2-19 years, the prevalence of
obesity is 18.5%”, affecting about 13.7 million children. Some populations are more
have larger numbers than others including Hispanics and Blacks.

Also from the CDC on children and asthma:

Number of children under age 18 years who currently have asthma: 5.5 million
(7.5%).

Asthma is the leading chronic disease for children. An average of 1 out of 12 school-
aged children have asthma. African-American children have the highest prevalence
of asthma.

It is also the top reason for missed school days.

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Trump Administration Actions

The White House has issued the briefest of guidelines about reopening schools. As
well, there are no educators on the Reopening Taskforce, not even the Secretary of
Education, Betsy DeVos.

From the White House report, Opening Up America Again:

Core State Preparedness Responsibilities

- Testing and Contact Tracing with “Sentinel Surveillance Sites” for
asymptompatic cases and contact for COVID+results.
- HealthCare System Capacity
- Plans – to protect critical industry workers, those living in high-risk
facilities, employees/users of mass transit, citizen protocols and monitoring
of conditions

The White House presents three phases for “opening up America”; reopening
schools would come under Phase Two. States would have to meet certain health
qualifications “with no evidence of a rebound and that satisfy the gating criteria a
second time.”

However, despite these guidelines from the White House on states “reopening” their
economies, not a single state that has gone that route has met even the
administration’s “Phase One” guidelines. If Phase One guidelines were ignored, will
states and the feds look the other way when reopening schools in Phase Two?

It should be noted that the White House recently rejected a CDC report on reopening
certain facilities including daycares and schools as being “overly prescriptive.”

Fortune Magazine, in their April 28th article, To Reopen the Economy, There are 5
Guidelines We Need to Follow, is fairly blunt in their assessment of the current
landscape.

“…they do not adequately account for the fact that the U.S. does not currently
possess the robust capacity and capability to safely and rapidly test,
diagnose, treat, and isolate COVID-19 cases and trace their contacts at
scale.”

Under the following modified approach, the economy can start reopening, but
at the slower pace allowed by its current testing capacity—while ramping up
its testing and tracing capabilities for more extensive reopening as soon
as is safely possible. Federal, state, and local government leaders must work
urgently with business leaders on the following key elements to ensure that
reopening does not cause a resurgence of the pandemic, which would have
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debilitating effects on American lives and set the economic recovery back even
further.”

Meaning, the country and the states need to be careful or we may find ourselves on a
long cycle of outbreak and recovery.

Fortune calls for the federal government to play a bigger role instead of ceding
authority/responsibility to the states.

Sufficient funding—at a Manhattan Project scale—and smart regulatory

relief are essential to quickly and safely finding treatments and a vaccine, as
well as achieving reliable testing capacity for both the disease and its
antibodies. Treatments may be as important as a vaccine in dampening the
coronavirus threat, as we have seen in the battle against HIV/AIDS.

Fortune calls for more precise guidelines such as how low the infection rate must be
before state economies reopen.

To note, the current guidelines do not state an actual infection rate but rather, the
number of days of reporting.

Currently, states are in the position of competing with each other for PPE, cleaning
materials and other necessities to fight the virus. Districts will absolutely need
adequate PPE for both staff and students.

As well, schools, too, will need more funding in order to have the protections they
need to reopen including more staffing.

Even with increased federal leadership, the states are at the epicenter of
managing the fight against this pandemic. Given the shortfall of testing and
public health capacity (and the lack of treatments and a vaccine), the most
realistic approach for governors would be to carefully scale the opening of the
economy by sector in keeping with the public health infrastructure’s capacity
to test, track, and isolate. 

Fortune does bring up the concern that even if schools cannot reopen, “childcare
and youth centers” need to be open for working parents.

As well, there needs to be expansion of broadband for internet access for online
learning. This need echoes the growing call for broadband to be on the list of city
utilities such as water, electricity and gas.
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Thoughts on Reopening Schools

Schools were caught unaware and unready for the closing of schools due to the
pandemic.

Since many experts expect a second wave of COVID-19, possibly in

October/November, here’s a suggestion for the first 6-8 weeks of school.

 Assessment of all students’ academic level especially for regression of skills

 Assessment of all students’ mental health
 Review online learning during the closures and work to prep students for
future work online

The teachers can have the students use their devices as the teacher guides them,
step-by-step, through online lessons. The teachers can also ask their students
general questions about what didn’t work for distance learning at home. And, what
specific issues students had with the particular software/app that was used by that
district/classroom.

From the American Academy of Pediatrics:

"Until the broad availability of a vaccine and/or treatment for Covid-19 exists,
there is a risk for future waves of disease impacting communities across the
country; it is important that schools plan for the possibility of additional
periods of school closures and prepare strategically for distance learning or
other educational options.”

In short, get the students ready to learn at home again if it comes to that. The
urgency should not be to “catch students up.” It should be focused on their mental
wellness and ability to learn virtually. This type of teaching and learning may then
be something that older siblings can pass onto younger siblings.

Determining School Focus

The focus for reopening schools should be getting kids up-to-speed academically
and ready for future online learning.

Another job – that staff in schools already do but must now do with great intention –
is monitor the mental health of every child in the school.

There should be a nationwide, trauma-informed baseline of activity with the

assumption that every child has experienced some degree of mental discomfort from
the closing of schools. Naturally, some students will have had worse experiences
than others but all kids suffered the loss of school day schedule, friends, sports, etc.
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There needs to be a creation of a narrative for schools to follow, a guided

understanding of what kids might be feeling and how to support them.

One suggestion is that all districts should be using the Multi-Tier System of Supports
(MTSS) model as a national requirement. MTSS helps screen students for both
academic and behavior issues with an eye to intervention early on. This happens via
the Response to Intervention (RTI) which focuses on academics, as well as Positive
Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) for mental well-being.

All children should get socio-emotional learning (SEL)which is about positive

behavior, recognizing feelings and the ability to self-regulate. This is not coddling
children; it is giving them resources to use for their well-being that will benefit both
the child and the school.

As well, districts should provide mental health support to teachers, administrators

and staff who will experience a great level of stress under these conditions.

Preparing Students and Parents:

 It might be useful to have a “soft” opening day. Perhaps a timed event (with
different grades coming at different times) in a nearby park so that kids can
see their classmates, learn the new protocols (maybe with funny teacher
skits) and learn about their school day.

 Every school should have ready a protocol document for parents so there is
no misunderstanding about how the school day will work and expectations
about student behavior. It might be worthwhile having parents sign-off that
they read the document and discussed it with their child(ren).

The document should include information about transportation, bathroom

use, lunchtime, recess, and protocols for both adults and students while in
the building.

Parents should also receive information on the coronavirus. Depending on the

situation, the coronavirus can last for nine days and, for comparison, flu viruses can
last on surfaces only 48 hours. However, just because a virus can be detected does
NOT mean it is viable. The virus needs all its components to be able to infect a
person. For example:
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How long can the virus survive on surfaces?

o Plastics – up to 72 hours
o Stainless steel – 48 hours
o Cardboard - 24 hours

 Because it is likely there will be a second wave coming across the country,
possibly in October or November, along with the regular flu season, perhaps
districts might mandate a flu shot. If so, that information should be in the
Protocol document.

 Many parents will be relieved that school is starting, however, both parents
and students need to be aware that the building will not be the school it was
before including activities and programs. Parents need to understand that
the safety of students and staff comes first.

 Relay the understanding that it is vital to reduce the number of outside

people in any given building to make any contact tracing easier.

Options for School Schedules

 Half-days 5 days a week*

 Full-day for 2-3 days a week*
 Staggered start times by grade
 Two schedules per day – 6am-noon and 12:30 pm to 6 pm
 Half-day Saturday school (as many European countries have)
 Have high school students continue their education from home, thus
allowing middle school students to take over the larger high school buildings
and the elementaries to take over the larger middle school buildings in order
to try to assure the most space for social distancing.

*For any reduction in seat time, there may need to be revision of state law that
usually requires students to have an amount of seat time in order to determine
school funding. It’s usually known as the 100-day rule.

Options for Facilities

 One-way hallways
 Possibly taking over gym/lunchroom and dividing to create more
classrooms with moveable walls.
 Portables
 Suspending the use of any other rooms in the building by outside programs
except for before/after school care.
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It may be necessary to have a covered parent drop-off area outside the school with
the students escorted in by staff.

There is a video circulating of what appears to be an elementary school in China

where one student comes to an outside gate to the school. Inside the gate there are
several marked squares in front of stations. He first discards his face mask in a
trashcan outside the gate. At the first station a student has each shoe sprayed with a
disinfectant. At the second station, the student is sprayed from the neck down
including his backpack. At the third station, there appears to be a robot that the
child breathes on and it takes his temperature. Then he enters the building.

It’s a wonderful set-up but it illustrates what challenges schools will have. What
adults cover those stations every morning? Who supplies items for use at the
stations? What about inclement weather?

Preparing for Reopening

CDC guidelines for cleaning state that if the building has been closed longer than a
week and not used, it doesn’t have to be deep-cleaned before reopening. Districts
will need to contact trace each building before reopening.

Buildings
 Manage some operations remotely
 Cross-train employees on sanitation measures
 Establish protocols for custodians
 Determine the characteristics of any given building and its traffic patterns
 Create protocols for use of common equipment like printers
 Set-up a separate room should a staff member or student show signs of
illness related to coronavirus and needs to be quarantined.
 Use of fans and opening of doors/windows where possible. Air-conditioning
systems are known to spread germs throughout buildings.
 Remove shared writing tools like pens and pencils as well as any paper
material such as brochures from reception areas, kitchens, teachers lounge,
etc.
 Install plexiglass or other barrier materials for front office staff.
 If there is funding, UV-C lights for disinfecting air through the HVAC systems
of the facility and UV-C lights for disinfecting surfaces.
 Consider use of voice-activated systems like Alexa or Google assistant to turn
off/on lights and devices?
 Create signage, both inside and outside the school on protocols. Some signs
may need to be in multiple languages.
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According to CBRE Group, Inc in their report called COVID-19 and the Future of
Furniture, they discuss reopening offices but their work is also applicable here.
Increase:
 division and social distancing
 tech lighting
 hands free adjustments
 dividers with clear screens

Decrease
 desks together
 soft and porous material as in rugs/carpeting
 seams and folds (as in curtains)
 high-contact unassigned areas
 lockers
 personal belongings and bags on the floor

Personal belongings (coats/jackets and backpack/lunchbox) could prove to be a

challenge. Not every school has lockers nor enough of them for each student.
Hanging coats/jackets next to each other would mean students possibly entering
each other’s “bubble” of space. (This might not be an issue if students are sprayed
down each day from neck to toes per the Chinese school video.)

Schools could have an open laminate box for each student in the hallway. Students
could put their outerwear and backpack in there. Lunches would stay there until
lunchtime.

Getting to School

More buses, fewer riders?

That may work for smaller districts but the costs of transporting students would be
huge if districts suddenly had to engage more buses and more drivers. Traffic in
many big cities is already difficult. Good answers to this issue will be tough.

Entry into buildings

- Will every school require that all students and all staff have a temperature
check every day? Do schools have the equipment needed to do that?

- If so, who will do that check in a timely manner so kids get to class? Where?

- Also, everyone coming in the building must now sanitize their hands.
Districts will need to consider costs for hand sanitizer and distribution.
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After school starts, many schools lockdown, meaning there are no open doors to the
outside. There is usually a “school doorbell” that signals to front office staff that
someone wants to come in.

Districts will have to decide if front office staff must screen visitors, rather than
automatically buzzing them in.

 There may be a need for an intercom system/camera system so that visitors

can be questioned.
 If there is a need for parents to drop-off forgotten items, perhaps there can
be a locker outside to place the items in and then the staff will then retrieve
and deliver.
 How will the buzzer and the outside front door handle be cleaned after each
visitor uses them?
 What about vendors making deliveries?
 The front office may need the creation of an in/out lane to maintain social
distancing.
 If a parent needs to pick up a child for an appointment, the school could have
the parent text the front office staff who will send for the child and then have
the child meet their parent outside the building.
 Again, the goal is to have as few outside people in the building as possible
and that may mean fewer parents and volunteers in the building.

Illness in Adults and Children While at School

 Will all staff in every building be tested before school reopens?

 If a staff member/teacher/child is diagnosed with coronavirus symptoms,
what will the protocol be? Close the entire school for a couple of days and
deep-clean?
 As well, the issue of finding qualified substitutes is a challenge in many parts
of the country.

Classrooms

All K-12

- If there are curtains, they either need to be replaced or if not, the protocol is
that students cannot touch them. Shades on windows must be operated only
by the teacher.
- Writing implements – how do those get sanitized each day?
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- How can classrooms make sure that students do not share pencils, markers,
or pens? Many K-2 classrooms have lazy susans on shared table desks and
students all use the same crayons, colored pencils and pencils.
- Given that many American classrooms have large class sizes (more than 20-
24 students), how can social distancing occur? Students can’t be seated all
the time – how to handle walking thru other students’ “bubbles?”
- The virus has been shown to live on cardboard so if teachers are able to
make copies of work for students and then let them sit for a day that may be
helpful. The risk of getting sick from handling mail or packages is very low
and there are no documented cases of someone getting sick from opening a
package or handling paper. However, most schools send home a “first day”
packet of information for parents – those pages should sit for at least a day
before they are assembled and sent home.
- What is the protocol if bodily fluids leave one child and hit an adult/other
child?
- Would the procedure for fire, earthquake or shooter drills need to change?
Districts may need to contact police and/or fire departments for guidance.
- It’s important that each classroom either has an open trashcan or a hands-
free lid on the trashcan.
- Enforcement of protocols – what about kids that won’t follow protocols?

Elementary

 Many elementary classes for K-2 have rugs as teachers frequently gather kids
together on the floor to read or interact. Clearly, the closeness of seating and
the difficulty of keeping soft surfaces like rugs sanitized means these must go.
 The number of items that can be handled in a classroom, including counting
objects, must be reduced.
 No classroom pets.
 No show and tell; nothing brought from home.

Middle/High School

 Students need to know how to clean their device including it being turned off
and unplugged before cleaning. Students that have school-issued devices
need to be reminded not to share them with others in their homes.
 Possible option: have students stay in one classroom and the subject teachers
rotate to them.
 Older students often put writing implements into their mouths; teachers
need to remind students daily about the dangers of doing that.

Bathrooms

 There should be protocol in place with signage in bathrooms.

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 Hands-free soap dispensers/towel dispensers as well as automatic flushing

toilets might be good future capital investments for districts.

Lunch
 Lunch would likely have to be taken in classrooms. Lunch staff would bring
the school lunches in and take them away. This may be easier in elementary
schools than middle/high schools. If there are two shifts of school in a single
day, it may be easier to do.
 Parents would be asked to use paper/plastic bags that can be thrown away
or, if a lunch box is being used, that it be cleaned in a dishwasher or in
disinfectant every night.
 Previous efforts at composting or recycling may need to be suspended.
 Many high schools allow students off-campus for lunch both because
students prefer that and most cafeterias cannot feed all the students in the
amount of time given for lunch. But having students leave campus for lunch
is fraught with issues.
 Teachers could eat in lunchrooms and space out rather than going to the staff
room to eat.
 After lunch, every desk will need to be thoroughly cleaned. Older students
can probably manage this but elementary school teachers may have to
oversee the task.

Recess

If there is a full school day schedule, how to allow children to run and play for some
part of the day will be challenging. Schools can look to PE teachers for ideas of how
to allow kids exercise and play outside without contact. PE teachers can also give
classroom teachers guidance for in-class activities that allow for some degree of
activity without contact.

While middle and high school students don’t have recess, if their ability to move
around during the day is curtailed – if they stay in one classroom all day – there may
need to be some kind of activity built into their day.

Libraries

 Sanitizing carpeting or rugs every day would be difficult. A library might be

restricted to small numbers of students who can come in to access computers
and/or research materials.
 Librarians would rotate to classrooms rather than students going to the
library.
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PE

 PE teachers may have to get very creative to keep social distancing. The gym
may be taken over to create classrooms for smaller class sizes. This is yet
another issue with no easy answers.

Music/Art

 Unless a school has a large music room, music/chorus would probably have
to be suspended. A case in Washington State of a church choir that met, used
hand sanitizer and did not touch each other did not prevent members from
contracting the virus.

 Music teachers can develop music appreciation lessons that would allow
students to learn about music while listening to it.

 As well, art rooms should likely stay closed because of the difficulties of
working on projects and maintaining social distance/sharing of art materials.
As with music teachers, art teachers could develop art appreciation lessons
with limited art activity within classrooms.

After-school Activities

 In order to have a safe school year, schools may have to suspend clubs and
activities.
 Few sports, especially no contact sports. The safest sports for social
distancing might be golf and tennis. Many towns and cities do have sports
leagues of their own.
 If there are sports, no public attendance of meets or games.
 No field trips or overnight trips.

Students with Challenges

Students with challenges in public schools include those in Special Education and
English Language Learners.

Schools will have to coordinate their efforts for each group but particularly for
Special Education as that group of students has wide-ranging needs from blindness
to dyslexia.
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Vaccinations

News stories indicate a big drop-off of parents bringing their children to the doctor
for childhood vaccinations. This could be an issue for schools if parents don’t get
that duty done before the reopening of schools.

As well, when a COVID-19 vaccine is produced, will districts require parents to have
their children vaccinated in order to attend public school?

Other Thoughts on Reopening Schools

A coalition group of 16 Southern states, the Southern Regional Education Board, is

creating a master plan, “a playbook” for reopening schools. It has yet to be released.

The group will seek solutions to prepare for a possible COVID-19 resurgence and
future emergencies and tackle other key issues, including:

 Students’ academic growth and any possible learning loss

 Equity and opportunity for students during and after the crisis
 Using federal stimulus funds effectively and managing state budget
priorities
 Access to broadband and the use of technology

The American Federation of Teachers, AFT, has release their proposal, A Plan to
Safely Reopen America’s Schools and Communities.

As well, the conservative American Enterprise Institute, AEI, has also issued a
report, A Blueprint for Back to School.

Both have worthy suggestions and might be good starting places for districts to
begin their planning.

Of important note, both the two reports cited above as well as the Forbes article
make clear that school districts and states need federal help.
 21

Conclusions

Reviewing safety needs for every single public school in the country, it is apparent
that districts have a considerable job ahead. State education offices must make clear
to districts want their state wants to see in a plan but districts need that information
soon.

Students and parents have to be prepared for what the school day/year will look
like.

Staff at schools will need to learn new protocols and set the example for all students
and non-staff adults in the buildings.

Superintendents as well as school boards will need to advocate at both a state and
federal level for funding to enact safety measures at schools.

To echo what the American Federation of Teachers stated about their plan; they call
it “a living document” and they are right. With an ever-evolving crisis, any plan must
be flexible and dynamic.

It will also take:

Fortitude
“Fortitude is the disposition of soul which enables us to despise all inconveniences and
the loss of things not in our power.”

Saint Augustine

Grace
“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.

“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for
them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

The Fellowship of the Ring

and, a Sense of Humor

Dear Parents,

If you promise not to believe everything your child says happens at school, I’ll promise
not to believe everything he says happens at home.

Signed,
Your child’s teacher
 22

About the Author

Melissa Westbrook is a long-time public education advocate and wrote the most
widely-read public education blog in Washington state for the last decade. She was
recognized in 2011 as one of the most influential people in Seattle. She has retired
from blogging and now lives in Tucson, Arizona.
 23

Notes

Evie Blad, “Complex Questions about Reopening Schools Remain, Even After White
House Guidance,” Education Week, April 17,2020
https://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-
12/2020/04/after_white_house_guidance_sch.htmlu

Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen, “Danish Parents Are Refusing to Send Their Children Back
to School as COVID-19 Lockdown Lifts,”World Economic Forum/Reuters, April 17,
2020
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/coronavirus-covid19-denmark-
lockdown-school-education-children

Susanna Loel, “Half the People Working in Schools Aren’t Classroom Teachers – So
What?,” Brookings Institute, January 14, 2016
https://www.brookings.edu/research/half-the-people-working-in-schools-arent-
classroom-teachers-so-what/

“Opening Up America Again,” White House/CDC, April 2020

https://www.whitehouse.gov/openingamerica/

“Interim Guidance for Schools and Day Camps,” CDC via New York Times, April,
2020 https://int.nyt.com/data/documenthelper/6935-CDC-opening-
guidelines/e1a8802d0d76b3eb43a8/optimized/full.pdf#page=1

W. Bowman Cutter, et al, “To Reopen the Economy, There are 5 Guidelines We Need
to Follow,” Fortune Magazine, April 28, 2020
https://fortune.com/2020/04/28/reopening-states-economy-guidelines-
coronavirus/

“A Plan to Safely Reopen America’s Schools and Communities,” American Federation

of Teachers, April 28, 2020
https://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/covid19_reopen-america-schools.pdf

Samuel Volkin, “How Long Can the Virus That Causes COVID-19 Live on Surfaces?,”
HUB,John Hopkins University, March 20,2020
https://hub.jhu.edu/2020/03/20/sars-cov-2-survive-on-surfaces/

Danielle Renwich, “How Long Does Coronavirus Live on Different Surfaces?,” The
Guardian, April 4, 2020
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/04/how-long-does-
coronavirus-live-on-different-surfaces
 24

“COVID 19 and the Future of Furniture,” CRPE Group, April 8,2020

https://irp-cdn.multiscreensite.com/e894f327/files/uploaded/Future%20of
%20Furniture%20post%20COVID%2019_CBRE%20Furniture%20Advisory.pdf

“Schools Should Be Ready for Phased Reopening, Future Closures, Pediatrics Group
Says,” CNN, May 5,2020
https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/05/health/schools-reopen-coronavirus-
pediatrics-wellness/index.html