Editor’s note: This commentary is by Tom Payeur, of Starksboro, who teaches math at Winooski Middle/High School. He was the 2019 Vermont State Teacher of the Year.
On July 10, Secretary Dan French announced that the Agency of Education, Vermont Superintendents Association, Vermont Principals Association, and the Vermont School Boards Association are not interested in forming a statewide planning commission for the reopening of schools that includes the voices of teachers, parents, support staff, and nurses. Rather, these organizations believe that the Reopening Guidelines have provided enough structure to individual districts so that they can flexibly design their own reopening plans. And therein lies the issue.
When we introduce individual flexibility to a global pandemic we lose our ability to control the spread of illness, even death. It is all but guaranteed that we are not leaving interpretation of the reopening guidelines to individual districts, but rather to the administrators of those districts. There is no guarantee that every district is working with a group of diverse stakeholders, including teachers, parents, support staff, and nurses, to plan accordingly. And if these teams are being convened, there is no doubt that they are compelled to fall back on the same old power structures common in schools, where administrators and superintendents attempt to maintain the role of boss rather than true collaborator. Who convenes the meetings? Who determines the agendas? Who points the members of these teams to informational resources? Who has the ultimate say on whether we will be going back to a full time, part time, or remote student day? I find it hard to believe that anybody other than administrators will be making these decisions. I am not saying this is a nefarious action on the part of administrators. It is simply the structure of a power dynamic that has no place in the life and death decisions of a reopening team.
I live in Vermont because I often find myself aligning with the reluctance to give up local control. This myth of Vermont politics, however, should not blind us to the fact that local control of schools has been disappearing over the past several years. Districts are merged. Teachers and support staff subscribe to a statewide health plan. Salaries are negotiated with the feeling of a high-noon standoff, where neighboring districts eye each other, looking to see who will blink first and set the comparable. Be assured that the same is happening with local plans for reopening. Everyone is hesitating to make critical decisions out of fear, lack of knowledge, and misunderstanding in a time when every passing day brings us that much closer to the unknown.
I would support this hesitancy if it came from a place of concern about the health and wellbeing of students, educational staff, and their families. But with a governor who has made it his agenda to cut funding for schools since his initial election, I am led to believe that this hesitation ultimately comes down to a price tag. No superintendent wants to be the one who makes the call that would increase a budget more than their neighboring districts have. No school board wants to ask for more money from their community. This has led to decision making from a place of competitive fiscal austerity.
I must insist that there is another way. Engage a statewide commission of educational stakeholders, composed of people who were in the school buildings when the pandemic first began. These are the leaders who figured out how to make remote learning work in a matter of days or weeks, who have been anxiously considering the reopening of schools since March. Coming to the table as equals, they would be able to stand up and say exactly what schools need in order to open. The state would be compelled to respond, to find the money, to ensure that until there is a vaccine, it will do everything in its power to protect the citizens of Vermont. Unfortunately, bureaucracy has led our state to eschew this responsibility to include those on the frontlines, who work most directly with the students in our care, and I fear for what August has in store for us. I fear our narrow approach to the unknown.
VTDigger serves a vital role in delivering news that changes the terms of many debates. Digger reporters engage us, enlighten us and offer "real eye openers" about issues of the day.
Crea Lintilhac, VJT Board Member
"danger" - Google News
July 20, 2020 at 05:05AM
https://ift.tt/3jrQyUf
Tom Payeur: School reopening in danger of being an economic decision - vtdigger.org
"danger" - Google News
https://ift.tt/3bVUlF0
https://ift.tt/3f9EULr
No comments:
Post a Comment