Request of WCPSS from parents, educators and tax payers
By: Kelly Mann
Tags: Accountability, Resilience, Education, Ncpol, Reopening Schools

Wake County families, teachers, staff and taxpayers ask for clear transparency and up to date information re Wake County student engagement, attendance and performance.

o Superintendent Moore will provide a weekly update on student absences. Clear daily attendance rates should be provided to prove that students are adequately being educated.

o Superintendent Moore will provide up to date data on each Wake County school’s projected student quantity per grade requesting in person.

o Superintendent Moore will provide biweekly reports with grade averages across Wake County.

o The BOE will provide tangible intervention programs with exact dates, specific plans and learning programs to support at risk students. Our students who have fallen behind need a real plan that is implemented.

o Prepare biweekly updates from Wake County pediatricians to update the community on adolescent health issues, particularly suicide, that correlate to school closures and isolation. A brief update similar to what was provided by Theresa Kallman, MD, FAAP, Cornerstone Pediatrics, Cary NC Theresa M. Flynn, M.D., Primary Care Pediatrician at the September 15, board meeting is sufficient. Suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death in NC for adolescent 10–17 years old.

o WCPSS will provide specific reports on how each demographic and race is performing and engaging in remote. A report with fall data should be ready for public release by Feb 1.

o Superintendent Moore will provide a weekly update of schools that are experiencing staffing shortages so the community may assist in developing strategies to address and keep the school system open.

Wake County families, teachers, staff and taxpayers request that the school board respect, acknowledge and take advisement from leading science experts in our area and country. It is indisputable that these are the experts and to argue otherwise is irresponsible as both a community leader and citizen.

o Wake County Public School System is collaborating, with an NIH paid partnership, with leading pediatric disease experts with ABC Collaborative. Every school board member should recognize and respect these individuals for the experts they are. They have extraordinary knowledge and accomplishments that should be respected. When school board members question their expertise, they are setting a poor example for educators and the community.

o Every leading medical and science expert has advised communities should reopen schools. Any school board member who challenges this information is spreading fear and misinformation and is behaving irresponsibly.

o Majority of school systems in NC and the US have followed science and have reopened schools with strong plans in place. Wake County Schools has successfully opened with strong plans. Science, facts and information should lead every decision moving forward with WCPSS. It is a community obligation to clearly inform the public and school board members should not be permitted to spread fear and misinformation.

References and experts:

www.abccollaborative.com

https://fee.org/articles/harvard-researchers-nearly-half-of-young-adults-showing-signs-of-depression-amid-pandemic/?fbclid=IwAR2m4XJqBAP8N3u4COhO20GF6FrkX1QgGG8jUFNRCTOsA0Uf-5_uzSxqdE4

“The setbacks for younger pupils, students of color, and low-income childrenhave been especially acute.” https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/12/17/opinion/let-public-health-expertise-guide-school-reopenings/?fbclid=IwAR1jnpaUGc5wufj8sAc805HwVHkm8QI6rG4dqHm164fST1o5ABtViS4MvuA

“…most affected will be those facing racial, economic and other inequities that have only become more pronounced since the pandemic began”

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/education/covid-having-devastating-impact-children-vaccine-won-t-fix-everything-n1251172

“Six feet should be the default minimum for adults, but it’s past time we recognize that kids are different and the importance of schools is different, especially for the youngest learners. Three feet should be the default distance for schools.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/11/12/three-feet-social-distancing-schools-coronavirus/

“To date, few outbreaks involving children or schools have been reported.”

https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/coronavirus-disease-covid-19-schools

Keeping kids out of the classroom will make recovering from the pandemic harder in the long term, while not keeping us any safer in the near term

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/11/ease-restrictions-schools-dont-close-them/617146/

“In spite of everything we have learned about COVID-19, the role of schools in community transmission, and the steps we can take to keep children safe at school, we are moving in the wrong direction — and doing so very quickly,” said Robert Jenkins, UNICEF Global Chief of Education. “Evidence shows that schools are not the main drivers of this pandemic.

https://reliefweb.int/report/world/covid-19-unicef-warns-continued-damage-learning-and-well-being-number-children-affected

https://www.edweek.org/leadership/schools-need-to-be-bolder-about-reopening-public-health-expert-says/2020/11

“On average, students would have to grow at nearly twice the annual rate for three to four months to make up for these losses.”

https://www.eschoolnews.com/2020/12/16/covid-learning-loss-math-gains/

Mental health professionals and social workers are studying the issue, worried about “high rates of clinginess, distraction, irritability, and fear among children,”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/12/17/generation-covid-kids-trauma-pandemic/

Children are more likely to get covid 19 outside of school

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6950e3.htm

Government missteps and mixed messaging over the pandemic have already widened racial disparities in education.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/12/we-now-know-how-much-children-spread-coronavirus/

Among children and adolescents aged <18 years in Mississippi, close contact with persons with COVID-19 and gatherings with persons outside the household and lack of consistent mask use in school were associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection, whereas attending school or child care was not associated with receiving positive SARS-CoV-2 test results.

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/pdfs/mm6950e3-H.pdf

https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/students-reading-losses-could-strain-schools-capacity-to-help-them-catch-up/2020/12