Some Scarborough Public Schools parents are eager for the district to have students return for full in-person learning again. Contributed photo
SCARBOROUGH — A group of Scarborough parents, hoping to assist the district in a plan to give students more in-person learning time, have formed a committee to combine efforts.
The Return to In-Person Learning, Scarborough Public Schools student advocacy group, would like to see the district develop a plan to give students more time in the school buildings in 2021, said member and parent Amber Hoxha.
Scarborough Public Schools currently uses a hybrid learning model, where students are in class two days a week and are learning from home for three days, and this can be frustrating and hard for both students as well as parents, said parent Winnie Lee.
Lee said she believes the district is ready to reopen schools as early as this spring, and students are responsible enough to adhere to CDC guidelines.
On Feb. 25, Superintendent Sanford Prince announced the district was gathering parent feedback for consideration of current amendments to the hybrid learning model. The School Transition Reopening Redesign Taskforce, which helped develop plans to return to school last fall, planned to use this feedback on March 11 to provide a recommendation to administration.
Prince will provide an update and possible recommendation to the board on March 18, said School Board Chair April Sither.
“The recommendation from the committee will go to administration, and then (Prince) will present his recommendation to the board on the 18th,” she said. “That recommendation could be an action item for the board. He could ask for board approval of a plan to return to school. We did approve the plan to return to school in the fall, so there is a precedent for the board taking action, but I don’t know at this point if (Prince) is going to bring forward a plan or not.”
The parent committee has been encouraging parents to present their opinions to the board, and many parents on Feb. 25 said they had frustrations with the hybrid learning model.
In an email, Hoxha said she had to close her consulting business because she needs to teach her two children, who are both in different grades and have different needs.
Hoxha is unwilling to have her children in the hybrid learning model again in the fall, she said. She will look for other schooling options if the district doesn’t offer fulltime in-person learning.
“We love our teachers and appreciate our administrators for all they have done for us and continue to do,” she said. “But school-aged kids should be in school. I worry about families in worse situations than myself who cannot pay bills or are left alone with abusers, single parents who work more than one job to put food on the table. Who is educating those children?”
Lee said one of her students has special needs and during the pandemic, she has developed depression and anxiety. She believes the lack of structure, where she is only in school two days a week, could be contributing to this.
“I think we’re going to have to be unconventional about our approach,” she said. “I think we need to not try to do what other districts are doing necessarily, but come up with something else. You know, when we were all locked out, we didn’t stay locked out. We wear masks and sanitize.”
Maine Properties, a property management company in Scarborough, donated $25,000 in labor and materials to Scarborough Public Schools in 2020. Todd Jepson, director of facilities for the district, said that the company installed plastic glass barriers in six of the school buildings. The glass barriers were included as a CDC guideline for returning to in-person learning last fall. Photo courtesy of Diana Nelson
While some parents are anxious to have their students return to fulltime in-person learning, this decision might not fully be in the district’s control, Betsy Follansbee, parent of two Scarborough students and educator in another district, said.
“The movement afoot from parents in Scarborough does not seem to realize that it’s not a ‘yes or no’ decision that lies within the school leadership’s power — there are state and federal level guidelines at play that may actually make this a moot point,” she said in an email.
Follansbee wrote a letter to the district to highlight the positives she has seen in hybrid learning.
“While I would absolutely love for my kids to attend school full time, I have still been very impressed with the hybrid education they are receiving,” she said in the letter. “Their learning has flourished this year. In a year where we all worried about learning loss, this is no small feat. All of their remote independent work has been carefully planned, thoughtfully delivered, and developmentally appropriate. The work is manageable, but challenging enough that it’s not ‘busy work.’ My kids are motivated to do their work because it is directly connected to what they do in school on Monday and Tuesday.”
On March 6, Scarborough High School announced that the school would need to go fully remote after 13 positive COVID-19 cases were detected. There were 155 individuals who were deemed as close contacts.
The board has received a mix of opinions from parents, Sither said.
“Sometimes we get messages from parents, requesting more in-person time be looked into right now, and other parents seem to be expressing that they hope this is the case for the fall,” she said.
As a board, the members want to make sure they are considering everyone’s perspectives, Sither said.
“I think the concern always is that it’s really challenging to make sure we hear from all perspectives, and as a board, we have heard from parents who are OK with the hybrid schedule,” she said. “We have heard from parents who wouldn’t be comfortable sending their kids back to school until their teachers are vaccinated. Those don’t tend to be the parents who make public comment, so it’s difficult sometimes to balance vocal public opinion from actual public opinion.”
The Return to In-Person Learning group is also accepting anonymous statements from the public, which can be sent to spsparentcommittee@gmail.com, said the committee.
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