All St. Paul Public Schools students will start the upcoming school year in full-time distance learning during the coronavirus pandemic, but district leaders say they’re eager to reopen schools once it’s safe.
The school board on Wednesday voted 5-1 to approve Superintendent Joe Gothard’s proposal to have all students, from preschool through 12th grade, learn from home on iPads for at least the first six weeks of the school year.
With input from the school board, Gothard will consider bringing some students back for in-person instruction as early as Oct. 19, after a four-day weekend tied to the teachers union’s annual conference. The next possible transition point would be Nov. 16, the start of the second academic quarter.
“We would like to move to (in-person learning for all) as soon as possible,” Chief of Schools Dave Watkins said.
Most large Minnesota school districts are waiting to announce how they’ll start the school year. Several have turned to hybrid schedules, while Minneapolis is starting with distance learning exclusively.
St. Paul board member Steve Marchese reiterated his concern Wednesday that families will leave the district for in-person options in charter and private schools and neighboring districts. Marchese was the lone “no” vote Wednesday night.
He proposed a pilot program that would bring small numbers of low-income, special education and English-learning students back to school sometime soon, but fellow board members rejected the idea.
STATE GUIDELINES FOCUS ON LOCAL DATA
Gov. Tim Walz released guidelines last week that urged school districts to choose their modes of instruction based partly on the rate of new coronavirus cases in their county.
Over a recent 14-day period, Ramsey County averaged 16.5 new cases per 10,000 residents. That figure suggests elementary schools can safely operate in-person while secondary students take turns learning in-person to allow for social distancing.
Gothard, however, said most elementary schools don’t have enough room to operate at regular capacity with social distancing, and space is even more scarce in middle and high schools. Even a hybrid schedule would require the hiring of hundreds more staffers, he said.
Marchese asked Gothard to establish his own measurable targets, so that families “know what to expect,” if Gothard is not going to follow the state’s suggestions.
Gothard said he’d “get to work on that right away.”
MORE INFO
Starting the year with distance learning would give the district more information and time to plan for a transition to in-person instruction, Gothard said.
He said starting a school year is difficult in normal times, and the pandemic creates a new kind of uncertainty over which students actually will show up.
Under a hybrid model, he said, the district would need to coordinate bus routes that get kids to and from school as well as routes to deliver meals to students learning at home.
“It’s those kinds of logistics that need to be precise and that we can’t miss on,” he said.
The district provided details Wednesday on support services they’ll offer during distance learning.
Those services include academic support centers operating in several schools from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays and possibly limited hours on Saturdays. Struggling students referred to the centers will get one to three hours of daily academic, social-emotional or technological help, starting in October.
SURVEYS
As the new school year approaches, St. Paul parents increasingly favor continued distance learning.
The district says its July parent survey found nearly twice as many people would choose distance learning over in-person instruction if given the choice:
- 43 percent preferred distance learning, up from 25 percent in the June survey
- 23 percent preferred in-person classes, down from 30 percent
- 32 percent were undecided, down from 43 percent
School districts across the state must offer families the option of sticking with full-time distance learning for the entire year.