As President Donald Trump continues urging the nation’s governors to consider reopening schools before the end of the academic year, Alabama’s school superintendent is considering bringing some students back to school next month.
Eric Mackey told AL.com children 13 and older could return to campus in groups of 10 or less for athletic practice and possibly summer school starting June 8. Younger students could get the go-ahead to return for summer literacy camps as early as July 6.
But Mackey added those dates are tentative. “We may move forward, and then we may have to retract,” he said.
As of Sunday, more than 7,600 coronavirus cases had been reported in Alabama, with a death toll of 289, according to WRBL.
Last week, Trump said states should “seriously consider” reopening their public schools before the end of the academic year, even though dozens already have said it would be unsafe for students to return until the summer or fall.
Trump made the comments in a call with governors discussing how to reopen their economies, among other topics.
“Some of you might start thinking about school openings, because a lot of people are wanting to have the school openings. It’s not a big subject, young children have done very well in this disaster that we’ve all gone through,” he said. While addressing Vice President Mike Pence, Trump added that it’s something “they can seriously consider and maybe get going on.”
Credit: AJC
Later in the call, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said his state’s schools are not reopening fully before summer but hope to open some buildings for meetings about special education and for small groups of students in vocational programs.
“We’re hoping at least for those last few weeks that kids who are taking classes that need the physical equipment, they can come in in smaller groups,” Polis said. “But we want to reconfigure it with better social distancing for next school year.”
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Trump made the comments as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention worked to finalize guidelines for reopening the economy. For schools, that included putting students’ desks 6 feet apart, serving meals in the classroom instead of the cafeteria and closing playgrounds.
But some education officials say opening schools quickly would bring major risk and little reward, especially because the end of the school year is approaching.
“Are they going to reopen for two weeks? Three weeks?” said Daniel Domenech, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators. “It’s not the right thing to do. Particularly when we’re involving the safety and welfare of our students.”
At a White House news conference last Monday, Trump acknowledged that there’s little time left in the school year, even as he said many states are thinking about getting kids back into the classroom.
“I think you’ll see a lot of schools open up even if it’s for a very short period of time,” he said. “In terms of what this vicious virus goes after, young people seem to do very well. Young people seem to do very well so I know that there are some governors that aren’t necessarily ready to open up states, but they may be ready to open up the school systems.”
The American Federation of Teachers immediately slammed Trump's comments, while offering its own 20-page blueprint for reopening the nation's schools.
Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.7-million member teacher's union, told U.S. News, "Our blueprint serves as a stark contrast to the conflicting guidance, bluster and lies of the Trump administration."
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Schools across the nation have closed during the coronavirus pandemic, and dozens of states have ordered their schools to remain closed through the rest of this academic year. Only a few have publicly discussed earlier openings, including Montana, which says school districts can resume classroom instruction May 7.
In many districts, officials have said it’s still unclear whether students will be able to return to the classroom by fall. And even if they do, many are planning for social distancing measures that could make school look radically different from the past.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said on CNN that it’s “way too early” to reopen his city’s schools, adding that “you don’t get a lot of credit for moving too quickly to reopen.”
If schools reopen too quickly and end up spreading the coronavirus, they could be held legally liable, said Francisco Negrón, chief legal officer for the National School Boards Association. And while coronavirus cases have been mild among U.S. children, many schools have students with medical conditions that could make them vulnerable, he said.
“The foremost concern for schools is going to be safety of their students and safety of their employees,” Negrón said.
In the CDC’s draft guidelines for schools, the agency suggested a three-phase reopening process for schools in communities with “low levels of COVID-19 spread and those with confidence that the incidence of infection is genuinely low.”
The guidance encourages schools to create isolation areas for students who develop symptoms. And if anyone with COVID-19 is found to have been in the building, it advises schools to shut down for one or two days to clean and disinfect.
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