Teachers unhappy with district reopening plan

PALMER — The Mat-Su Borough School District is planning to open schools for in-person instruction on Aug. 19 where secondary students will still take up to seven classes per week, a strategy Mat-Su educators are asking to be changed.

On Tuesday, incoming MSBSD Superintendent Dr. Randy Trani will host a virtual question and answer session at 5 p.m., and the MSBSD School Board will meet for the first time since June 17 for a work session on COVID-19 planning on Wednesday at 6 p.m.

“A lot of people are panicked. They are not certain that the district has a solid plan,” said Mat-Su Educators Association President Dianne Shibe. “If all seven classes meet in a week, regardless of what schedule you put them on, you have not reduced the exposure level of any given teacher or student but if you have the three class quarter you do you reduce it by more than half.”

Shibe drew comparisons to Anchorage School District’s three class per quarter strategy for in-person instruction and in a MSEA survey of under 700 educators, 68 percent responded that they feel uncomfortable with the reopening of schools, citing safety concerns. Shibe also noted that ASD’s School Board has met weekly for the duration of the summer and the MSBSD School Board will end their 44-day break on Wednesday. The MSBSD announced their plans to reopen schools at a ‘green status’ in June and have hosted question and answer sessions at school communities over the last week. School District officials met at Wasilla Middle School Dena’ina Elementary, and Su Valley Jr./Sr. High and will host a question and answer session on Tuesday at 6 at Houston Jr./Sr. High. On July 14, acting MSBSD Superintendent Luke Fulp said that MSBSD schools would only revert to a ‘yellow status’ of week on, week off in-person instruction if mandated to do so by state officials. Shibe says that the District’s plan to allow each school principal to develop their own plan with teachers that begin work on August 12 lacks consistency.

“There’s two main problems that we need solved, exposure and making remote learning manageable for students and families. Students and families made it very clear last semester as did teachers that it was a fiasco,” said Shibe.

A middle or high school teacher in the core area may deliver instruction to as many as 200 students in one week with seven class periods. Shibe said that teachers are concerned about sanitizer in classrooms and disruption of learning from students washing their hands at a sink without pump dispensers of sanitizer in each classroom. Shibe also asked MSBSD to allow Foundations Teams within each school to return one week early on August 6 to allow for more preparation for students who will arrive on August 19.

“There is nothing that is going to be perfect but is there something that’s going to be safer, and I would suggest with the three class quarter that we are putting people in a position where teachers can have more robust lessons and that kids will have more time to delve into the material, rather than just hurry whip through it and throw something on the computer to hand it in. We just cannot go back to any semblance of last quarter.”

Shibe noted teachers who retired from MSBSD early due to safety concerns and other colleagues examining their options away froms school buildings. MSBSD has hosted weekly COVID-19 working group meetings since May and invited MSEA to attend in June. However, Shibe says that educators were not included in the decision making process.

“There was not one vote ever taken in that meeting,” said Shibe.

Shibe and Mat-Su Educators remain without a contract with the district and Shibe called on not district staff, but the school board to negotiate with educators for a contract.

“The school board needs to show us the respect and settle our contract now because they are asking us to go into this situation where it is potentially dangerous,” said Shibe.