Guide Lays Road to School Reopenings
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 06/17/20
The
National Labor Management Partnership Coalition, a loose group of
education organizations, has issued a short
report
to help schools plan their reopening in the fall. The seven-page
guide advised the use of a "collaboration matrix" involving
administrators, district staff and teachers and community members for
decision-making.
The
organizations that make up the partnership are the School
Superintendents Association (AASA),
the National
Education Association,
the National
School Boards Association,
the American
Federation of Teachers,
the Consortium
for Educational Change
and the Council
of Chief State School Officers.
Among
the advice to districts: to form a task force with five working
groups, each tackling one segment of the planning:
-
Public
health and safety;
-
School
operations and logistics;
-
Teaching
and learning;
-
Equity
and family needs; and
-
Social-emotional
health
As
an example, the public health and safety working group was advised to
focus on such issues as:
-
What
screening measures to take for identifying COVID symptoms and how
those would be done;
-
What
happens when somebody at the school tests positive;
-
What
scenario would trigger a given school to close and move back to
online instruction;
-
How
communication with families would be handled, especially among those
who have had contact with confirmed cases;
-
Whether
there would there be sufficient personal protective equipment to
keep educators and support people safe;
-
Whether
masks would be required for everybody;
-
How
daily and deep cleaning would be handled without laying the entire
burden on custodial staff;
-
How
to handle safety concerns from teachers and others "without
fear of retaliation or discipline"; and
-
What
the costs for everything would be and how those would be covered.
"Our
nation's students deserve a well-designed, thoughtful plan for
reopening school buildings," said Lily Eskelsen García,
president of the National Education Association, in the guide. "The
nation’s families are counting on all of us--administrators,
educators, and community members--and we must work together to keep
them safe."
"School
board members and other public-school leaders have managed a
herculean task to serve students during the pandemic," added
Anna Maria Chávez, head of the National School Boards Association.
"With the new school year approaching, it is imperative to
provide public education leaders with key questions and options to
consider so they can prepare their buildings so students are safe
when they are able to return.
The
guide is openly available through
the National Education Association's website.
About the Author
Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.