SC teachers share COVID-19 concerns after 3 high schools closed by staff shortage
Three Columbia-area high school buildings were closed to students on Tuesday because of staff absences, Lexington-Richland School District 5 said.
Chapin, Dutch Fork, and Irmo high schools were all closed as a safety precaution because of a high number of staff requesting leave, Lexington-Richland 5 officials said in a news release.
“The decision to close school buildings to students is being made out of an abundance of caution for school safety as several schools experience a sudden increase of staff absences on Tuesday,” officials said.
The shutdown comes the day after the Lexington-Richland 5 school board adjourned without taking up a request from the superintendent to scale back its re-entry plan because of rising levels of staff shortages and quarantines caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Irmo High School teacher Michael Sugar is one of those teachers who requested leave following the school board meeting, he told The State.
Teachers requesting leave Tuesday “occurred in a flurry after the board meeting last night,” Sugar said.
There was no one “leader” who rallied teachers to request leave, Sugar said. Rather, it was an “instinctive action by teachers,” he said.
Sugar said he supported Superintendent Christina Melton’s “moderate” plan to scale-back re-entry and said safety concerns amid rising COVID-19 cases in South Carolina “are legitimate and need to be addressed.”
“I’m personally comfortable teaching hybrid between now and winter break” with the exception of the two days before break to allow contact tracing, Sugar told The State.
Though Sugar is on leave Tuesday, he plans to work Wednesday from home, which has been normal for district teachers on Wednesdays since the beginning of the school year, he said.
On Tuesday, board chairwoman Jan Hammond said she would be calling another board meeting at 4 p.m. Wednesday, saying the board needs to take action on Melton’s proposal.
“I feel like we got all the answers we need,” Hammond said, adding she was disappointed the board didn’t take a vote on the issue Monday night.
While information on why so many teachers and staff members were absent was not made available, Hammond — who is also a teacher in Lexington 2 — said she assumed the jump in teachers calling out was in response to Monday night’s meeting.
“It’s like when teachers marched on the State House,” she said. “Some parents fussed about having to take their kids out of school, but I think they feel like that’s their only weapon.”
Peter Lauzon with the Lexington-Richland 5 Education Association said he understands why teachers would want to see a change to the district’s re-entry schedule. Although he’s teaching all-virtual classes this year for health reasons, he’s heard from others teaching in crowded classrooms, where social distancing measures are hard to enforce and students sometimes come to school sick.
“The other day, a teacher told me about a student who was sneezing and coughing and wheezing, and he eventually decided he was sick enough to go to the nurse and then went home,” Lauzon said. “But he was in class for 20 or 30 minutes before that.”
The hybrid model reduces the number of students in class and in hallways, since only half the students are on campus on any given day.
Chapin High School teacher Mary Wood said she called out Tuesday to care for her middle and elementary school-age children, whom she withdrew from class because of COVID-19 concerns.
“My normal after-school child care is my parents, and I didn’t want to expose them,” Wood said. “They just lost a friend to COVID. Their health is very important to me.”
But many parents in Lexington-Richland 5 have been calling for a quick return to campus since earlier this year, saying online courses are not adequate and remote learning puts too much of a burden on parents who need to work.
Parent Amye Hawkins said teachers’ calling out is “doing nothing but affecting our children’s education.”
“I agree that a decision must be made, but only after the data is presented,” Hawkins said, meaning data showing the affects on individual schools. “Three new members of this board were voted in due to their promise of transparency and putting students first. They are honoring this promise and should continue to do so until data is presented otherwise.”
At Monday’s meeting, the board directed the administration to put together a public, weekly updated dashboard tracking COVID-19 cases at individual schools. Other school districts have rolled out similar trackers on their district websites, in addition to the updates put out by DHEC.
Jason Valek is a district parent and administrator of the 3,800-member “Learn About Your D5 School District” on Facebook. He said he’d like to see more data on how individual schools are affected, and have the district take a more targeted approach.
“It’s a total breakdown of the system, from the superintendent to the board to the teachers and administrators, and it’s a disservice to the kids,” Valek said of Tuesday’s shutdown. To the board, he said, “Just make a decision, and we’ll live with the decision.”
Hammond said she will be supporting Melton’s call for a return to a two-day-a-week hybrid model for the rest of December. If approved on Wednesday — a virtual learning day in Lexington-Richland 5 — the new schedule would go into effect at area high schools on Thursday.
The announcement comes the morning after a Monday night school board meeting where Melton said Lexington-Richland 5 needs to change course on its plans for sending students back to school during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Otherwise, some schools might not be able to continuing operating.
During a special-called school board meeting, Melton asked for the ability to return students in seventh to 12th grade to a hybrid schedule, spending two days a week in class on campus and three days learning remotely. But the school board adjourned without taking a vote on Melton’s proposal, leaving the district’s current four-day-a-week schedule in place.
The proposed change would have gone into effect Thursday, and was in response to challenges from some schools that face a high number of staff absences during a spike in cases of the coronavirus and precautionary quarantines.
Hammond said she was warned by Melton late Monday that the district was seeing an increase in the number of teachers using its system to request a substitute, and Melton warned the district may not have enough staff available to open the schools.
While the buildings will be closed on Tuesday, it will not be a day off for the students attending the three high schools.
Tuesday will be an e-learning day for students, and information about class assignments will be communicated by teachers through Google Classroom, according to the release. Students should email their teachers if they have questions, officials said.
The high school buildings will remain closed on Wednesday, which will also be a distance learning day for all students in Lexington-Richland 5, according to the release.
Officials said they will continue to monitor staff absences to determine the status of school opening on Thursday.
The teacher-run grassroots advocacy group SC for ED applauded Tuesday’s move.
“SC for Ed supports the educators of Lexington/Richland School District 5 as they fight for transparency & the safety & health of their students and teachers,” the group said on its Twitter feed. “These educators expect the school board to follow the scientific data and guidelines to protect everyone.”
Coronavirus has strained educators at all levels, and this is not the first time during the pandemic local teachers have spoken out against their administration or school board.
In late October, a group of teachers in the Richland 2 school district publicly rebuked their administration for allegedly refusing remote work requests for teachers who have preexisting conditions that make them more susceptible to COVID-19 complications.
This is a developing story, check back for updates.
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This story was originally published December 1, 2020 at 9:17 AM with the headline "SC teachers share COVID-19 concerns after 3 high schools closed by staff shortage."
