A cloudy forecast

With Evangeline Parish public schools returning to campus tomorrow, August 24, several teachers in the parish have expressed their reservations regarding if the school district is ready for such an undertaking.
Louisiana Association of Educators (LAE)/Evangeline Association of Educators (EAE) representatives were interviewed about going back to school in the midst of a pandemic. Two LAE/EAE teachers who wished to be identified by their first names, Amy and Angelle, are 2nd and 3rd grade teachers. Also present were Evangeline Association of Educators (EAE) Vice President Angela Freeman, a special education teacher at Ville Platte High, and LAE Organizational Specialist Yvonne Johnson. 
Over the summer, LAE put out a health and safety survey, accessible to all school-level staff in the parish. One of the biggest concerns was having six-feet for social distancing. Teachers said many of the classrooms are not big enough to distance students six feet apart, even with reduced class sizes. 
When asked if they wished the start of school would have been pushed back even further, Amy said yes, because they feel they do not have answers as far as their new routines and procedures, while other teachers are waiting for Chromebooks, and for sanitizing stations to be installed. At Wednesday’s school board meeting, it was announced the hands-free sanitizing stations are being dispersed to the schools.
Freeman said adding to the concerns of reopening is confusion about schedules and routines. “We hear from all our members, not just teachers, how different schools are doing different things.”
Johnson said LAE members are still going to her with concerns. “There’s a lot to work on. Already this summer, we’ve been working on health and safety, scrubs, spacing, and being sure what’s needed to make school safe is provided at the school and district levels. We stay in close contact with the board and the district, continuing to prioritize working on the biggest concerns we are hearing right now, and they’ve been very accessible.” Johnson also said 70% of survey respondents wanted to be able to wear scrubs to work. “We’re appreciative that the district has allowed scrubs through the end of Phase 2. I’m proud of the LAE members who continue to work together to make the situation better, and the district is responding with all the resources they can.”
Angelle said the biggest concern is class sizes as it relates to social distancing. “My class roster has 15 as of now. I can fit 15, and that’s taking everything out of my classroom. If I get another student, I wouldn’t be able to sit that child in my classroom.”
The wording of the social distance rule says six feet should be maintained “to the greatest extent possible.” The teachers felt as though that was a cop-out. “Yes,” said Angelle. “It’s passing the buck,” Johnson added, “School-level staff and LAE members are concerned, not with doing the minimum necessary to avoid being liable, but with truly doing the most that we can to keep our kids and staff safe.”
Angelle said, “I want to go back to work. Teachers want to go back to work. The children want to go back to school. We need to start our routine of education, but we need to do it safely.”
Amy agreed, “I brought a tape measure to school. Emptying my classroom, I was able to separate the desks about three-and-a-half feet. My younger daughter is going to attend fifth grade. She has 14 in her classroom, which I visited and saw the desks are not six feet apart. They were ‘to the extent possible.’ My middle school daughter’s class size is just way too large. I’m not comfortable with them being two feet from each other, and in that classroom, that’s the ‘extent possible.’ ‘The extent possible’ is not concrete enough for me to be comfortable saying our middle school daughter is going to school, so she’s going to be doing virtual at home.” 
Amy also said she feels like teachers have somewhat of a voice, but the children have no voice. “These children are going to come into these classrooms, and if we have them sitting two feet apart, there’s nothing they can do about it. I’m concerned that their parents won’t know. We have to be their voice.”
Angelle said there is no doubt the teachers will do their job and teach, but she and Amy said the number one priority is making sure the students are healthy and safe. “We’re putting them in a setting where they’re trusting us to make sure everything is safe and sanitized.”
Amy said the support from administrators is “phenomenal. I think they’ve been put in an impossible situation, and our principals all across this district are going above and beyond to try to do their best.” She said she and other educators believe the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) did not listen to the teachers and support staff when they made decisions concerning the reopening of schools.
“When the six-foot rule passed, no one did the measurements. No one went into the schools to see if this could be done,” said Angela. “The rule came out, and that’s what it was. The teacher is trying to do the best they can. Not only do they have to keep the students safe, but they have to be mindful to keep themselves healthy and safe also, because they have to go back home to their families.” 
Georgia and other states that have already started school are seeing high quarantine rates on campuses. Johnson said, “Everyone, including EPSB and administrators, is working with the best intentions. Communication is a pervasive problem. People don’t want to create confusion by giving information, then doubling back and changing it. Instead of confusion and anxiety from changing information, we had confusion and anxiety from no information. That’s why we at LAE/EAE believe the best plans are made with school-level staff involved at every step along the way to help circumvent problems. We could be more ready than people think, but we just don’t know because of communication problems.”
When asked what will make them more comfortable starting school on Monday, everyone agreed on firm guidance on the six-foot rule, being sure the sanitizing stations are in place, and for school board members to be present to see the environment. They commended the school board and the administration for all the hard work they have done, agreed that communication needs to be clearer and more uniform, and most importantly, they want their voices and professional opinions heard.
Johnson said the LAE members have been putting in untold extra, unpaid hours to help get ready. “They start sometimes at 6:00 in the morning, and I’m getting phone calls at 11:00 at night because they are willing to do the extra work to make sure we all go back safely. To our school staff who have not been LAE members yet, this is the time. This is the year. We need everyone’s voice in order to be the strongest and the smartest that we can, and make solutions that everyone can live and work safely in.”
When asked what the next step is, Johnson said, “We are always working, even through the summer. It’s not so much a next step as it is cyclical. We’re going back to school. We’ll see what runs well, and when we hit a stumbling block, the LAE members will do what they’re amazing at doing. They will come together and say, ‘Here’s a problem, what can we do about it?’ We will continue that reflective process throughout this very bumpy-ride of a school year because that is what educators do.”