A school district in Arizona canceled its plans to reopen schools Monday after several dozen teachers “protested” a protest.
“We have received an overwhelming response from staff indicating that they do not feel safe returning to classrooms with students,” said Gregory Wyman, superintendent of the JO Combs Unified School District, in a letter to families online Friday. were placed. “In response, we received a full volume of staff redundancies for Monday with health and safety instructions.”
All classes, including virtual learning, will be canceled, although breakfast and lunch will be available for pickup, he said.
The school district said in a statement Monday that classes would also be canceled Tuesday and Wednesday, while working “to find solutions to the polarizing and challenging problems facing school districts across the state and country today.”
“Our superintendent continues to engage in ongoing discussions with the Combs Education Association, as well as our families to address concerns about returning to school,” the statement said.
A board meeting is scheduled for Wednesday night to discuss options for a return to school.
“We are fully aware that a timely resolution on this matter is critical, and are committed to providing updates to our families as soon as they become available,” the statement said.
The JO Combs school district in San Tan Valley outside of Phoenix includes seven schools, according to its website. There are 4,400 students in the neighborhood.
Kayla Fulmer, a spokeswoman for the school district, said several dozen of the 109 people who were called sick are teachers.
The superintendent said Friday that the board voted 3-2 last week to restore instruction in person Monday against the advice of public health officials. The Arizona Department of Health Services has set benchmarks for reopening instruction for individuals, but school districts are not required to follow them.
In an interview Monday, Wyman said 55 percent of the community had voted last week to resume classes in person, down from 65 percent in July. The teachers who recounted what he described as a ‘sick out’ want the school district to meet all recommended benchmarks before re-instruction by individuals.
Wyman said it is problematic that there is no national or local plan for reopening schools as there has been for restaurants and gyms.
“For some reason, public education does not get a mandate,” he said. “We will eventually come to a solution, but we are still working on it.”
Some schools in other parts of the country have difficulty opening safely.
A Georgia district school said Sunday it will close a third high school by the end of the month amid a COVID-19 outbreak. The Cherokee County School District decided to close Creekview High School after 25 students tested positive for the coronavirus and 500 of its 1,800 students in person were under “precautionary quarantine,” it said in a statement.
Creekview is the third high school to close in the Georgia neighborhood outside of Atlanta, next to Etowah and Woodstock high schools. All three schools are tentatively scheduled to reopen on August 31st.
