FILE PHOTO — Desks are separated by six feet to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 at Winlock Miller Elementary School.
A proposed Washington state bill to force some public schools to reopen under certain COVID-19 metrics was met last week with support from several parents citing frustrations about local power struggles that have emerged amid the state’s largely hands-off approach to the issue.
But state officials, and some residents, pushed back against the legislation — sponsored by Sen. John Braun, of Centralia — saying that setting reopening metrics in stone could be counterproductive.
“Our knowledge about COVID-19 evolves tremendously on an ongoing basis, with new information coming out daily,” said Lacy Fehrenbach, deputy secretary for COVID response at the Department of Health (DOH). “If metrics are put into statute, it will be difficult to make quick changes based on new data or science.”
The concern was echoed by an adviser to the governor and a representative of the Washington Education Association.
But many parents — including some from the WA Alliance 4 Kids, an advocacy group pushing for more in-person learning during the pandemic — critiqued what they see as a patchwork of policies throughout the state that have exacerbated education inequities and created social and emotional issues for students.
Issaquah man Nate Perea characterized the local conflicts over how and when to bring students back to classrooms as “civil wars,” and said he wants “directions, not suggestions” from the state.
Under Senate Bill 5037, if a county has below a 5% test positivity rate, or less than 200 new cases per 100,000 over two weeks, public schools would be required to offer in-person learning to K-12 students, which could include a hybrid model. Although new research on COVID-19 in schools spurred statewide guidelines to hasten the return to school, so far ultimate decisions have been left up to individual districts.
This school year, Lewis County aggressively — and contrary to state guidance at the time — reopened schools with the help of its public health officials, a workgroup including superintendents and pediatricians, as well as IPAC, a small infection prevention consulting group. Braun has applauded the county’s efforts, and condemned other areas — including King County — that have been slower to reopen.
“We’ve learned a ton that the remote schooling just doesn’t work for some students,” Braun said Monday. “I think statewide we’re not exactly where I would like to be, but I’m particularly proud of the schools in my district and Lewis County. Nearly every one of them is open, and some of them have been open right from the beginning of the school year.”
Centralia School District Superintendent Lisa Grant could not make it to public testimony, but said she likely would have signed in as “other,” instead of in support or opposition of the bill.
“We would like to maintain local control,” Grant told The Chronicle. “We met with Sen. Braun, I think three other superintendents, the health department, and some of his staff, and we appreciate he was willing to listen and made some revisions to the bill.”
One revision was allowing for a hybrid model under the established metrics. In Grant’s school district, even in-person learning has to be staggered and in conjunction with virtual learning, as some buildings just aren’t big enough to allow for social distancing with the whole student body.
Seattle parent Edward Lin criticized the legislation for only requiring schools to reopen, and not pairing the requirement with metrics requiring schools to shift back to virtual learning.
“The bill weighs heavily on one side of that debate only,” Lin said. “This is just an attempt to force schools in Western Washington like Seattle public schools to reopen when local communities should be making that decision.”
While Braun characterized the bill as establishing a “very low bottom barrier,” that would largely allow schools flexibility to open or close as they saw fit, Sen. Mark Mullet, D-Issaquah, who co-sponsored the bill, offered a different picture.
“My understanding is that once they’re reopen, they would be reopen for the remainder of the school year,” Mullet said.
The bill is likely to undergo significant changes if it progresses further through the Legislature. Mullet noted that the financial burden placed on schools offering both in-person and virtual instruction may have to be addressed through state spending.
“We know that probably 30% of students will choose to stay remote, so we know it’s going to take extra resources to offer in-person learning while a lot of students are choosing to stay remote,” he said. “The state will be your partner in that journey.”
IPAC also requested that the bill include more safeguards to ensure that schools have health measures solidly in-place before bringing students back. The idea of getting the state to prioritize teachers, staff and administration in vaccination distribution was also floated, and called a potentially “extraordinary game changer” by committee chair Sen. Lisa Wellman, D-Mercer Island.
In her conversation with The Chronicle, Grant threw out the idea of allowing DOH to decide on reopening metrics, which would then be mandated by the proposed bill.
But even with alterations, the bill will face obstacles in a Legislature where both chambers are controlled by Democrats. Mullet, a moderate Democrat, is the only lawmaker in his party to sign onto the bill.
