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Hybrid Learning Not Ideal

Educators and parents respond to Santa Fe Public Schools’ plan to open campuses to volunteers on Feb. 22

Santa Fe Public Schools wants to make something clear: This district is ready for schools to reopen on Feb. 22.

"We've been prepared to open since August," said Superintendent Veronica García. While Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham's announcement during last month's state of the state address that New Mexico schools would reopen on Feb. 8, took many by surprise, García said at Monday night's school board meeting that it's safe to return for parents, teachers and students who want to.

Elementary parents will recognize the plan for voluntary hybrid learning that Santa Fe's Board of Education approved last fall. Starting later this month, the model will be expanded to middle and high schools, with school principals expected to contact parents starting Tuesday about which students desire to return.

How many students will get back to classrooms despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic depends on staff who are willing to conduct their jobs in-person, and as of the Monday report, a total of 278 staff members said they would return: 129 in secondary schools and 149 in elementary schools.

The district expects up to 50% of students to start in-person classes on Feb. 22, with school principals selecting and sorting students into cohorts as required by the state. Half of those selected to attend school will join on Mondays and Tuesdays, while the second cohort will participate in classes on Thursdays and Fridays. Wednesday is reserved for deep cleaning and 1-on-1 instruction for those qualifying students as well as remote learning for both cohorts.

Teachers will engage in hybrid learning models, such as flipped classrooms and station rotations, to support all students regardless of their learning environment. Though teachers are working to meet the needs of all their students with these models, the goal of the hybrid approach is to maximize the number of students returning to in-school instruction, said Tom Ryan, the chief information and strategy advisor for the district.

Services provided by schools such as nutrition and transportation will move ahead for students regardless of their status of returning to school. Students receiving meals at home from school providers can continue to expect deliveries even if they are not returning to in-person learning this month. Administrators will be communicating with parents this week with updates on transportation and nutrition services. Parents with questions about childcare can determine their eligibility for family services by completing a survey with the Early Childhood Education & Care Department.

Teachers' and parents' aired frustrations with the hybrid model in the meeting's public forum where a district employee read 37 emailed comments aloud to the board. Some parents expressed consternation that teachers were unwilling to return to in-person learning while many other workers do not have the luxury of staying home. Many pointed to the recommendation from the CDC that schools reopen in light of data that shows schools do not significantly contribute to community transmission rates.

On the other end of the spectrum, teachers voiced hesitancy to return while Santa Fe County remains under red-level restrictions according to the state's framework, which will be updated this week. The question of "why now" was a common thread in comments from teachers.

After 10 months of remote learning for some, the urgency to return to partial in-person learning seems rushed without clear plans for vaccinating all teachers, they said.

"Employees are eager to return to in-person teaching and learning when all safety measures and protocols are in place and when employees who choose to be vaccinated receive the vaccine," Grace Mayer, NEA Santa Fe president told the board, adding later, "NEA Santa Fe has been clear with the district, educators will return to the classroom when we are vaccinated. Some of our colleagues may choose to return prior to vaccination. We support their decision to do so."

Exactly when teachers might all get vaccines remains unclear. Teachers are part of the current Phase 1b in the state's vaccination plan, and those with underlying health conditions or who are over the age of 75 are already eligible. The board unanimously approved a resolution asking the state to reprioritize teachers in its rollout plan. But as the board President Kate Noble, pointed out, "We are not in charge of vaccines and how things are prioritized, that is up to the Department of Health."

State health officials have said vaccine supply is the limiting factor determining when teachers and other workers will be vaccinated, and until that happens, Mayer said the teachers' union won't require members to physically work in schools.

García noted, however, that vaccine hesitancy is not an issue among Santa Fe educators, with 99% of respondents expressing interest in receiving the vaccine when it is available.

New Mexico is a collective bargaining state, which entitles districts to negotiate the conditions of teacher's employment with NEA of New Mexico, the union representing teachers and support staff of public schools. Educators concerned with their own safety under the prospect of returning to school without a vaccine, secured a voluntary return to campus as a result of the union's bargaining power, García said.

Editor’s note: The section of this story explaining the state’s red-to-green framework and the place teachers already have in the health department vaccination plan has been updated from an earlier version.

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