Schools are started everywhere: except Pullman.
Wednesday night’s Pullman School Board meeting included heated debate about when to bring children back into the classroom.
Pullman school children are the only ones in Whitman County still studying online. Whitman County’s Public Health Director supports the reopening of Pullman elementary schools in a hybrid format.
The Pullman School Board considered Superintendent Dr. Bob Maxwell’s phased reopening hybrid instruction plan during the meeting. The plan calls for phasing in elementary school grades for a mix of in-person classroom and online instruction in two-week intervals. The plan allows Pullman families to opt-out of in-person instruction and keep their children online full-time. Dr. Maxwell also proposed that the phased reopening of elementary schools wouldn’t start any sooner than November 9th.
Dr. Maxwell also told the board a survey of elementary school parents found that a majority support in-person instruction, especially among grades K through 2nd grade. Third through 5th grade families were fairly evenly split between wanting to get back into the classroom and staying home.
School Board Member Nathan Roberts argued that the potential November start date is too early after hearing from Public Health Director Troy Henderson during the meeting. Henderson is expecting a difficult pandemic Winter with an increase in cases, especially in January, February, and March.
Henderson also told the school board that elementary school children don’t spread coronavirus as much as older people and that there are very few instances of COVID-19 transmission in the classroom when pandemic guidelines are followed.
Roberts proposed waiting to reopen schools until January 4th at the earliest. He had this exchange with Pullman School Board Member Susan Weed who disagrees. You can listen to that debate by clicking on the audio file below.
Henderson told the board that having kids in school can help slow spread the virus and had an exchange with Roberts who disagreed. You can listen to that portion of the debate by clicking on the audio file below.
The Pullman School Board approved the reopening plan document and decided to consider a possible start date during a special meeting sometime in the next 2 weeks or at their next meeting on November 12th.