Chicago Public Schools face anxiety with a surging virus

When Chicago Public Schools open Monday, students, parents and staff will face a different landscape than last year, which due to the Coronavirus pandemic, mostly prevented in person learning; but, this year is different both with the Delta Variant surge as well as politics.

While many parents bemoaned the pressure, and the challenges of remote learning, there were some, perhaps the minority, where students thrived, including some special needs students who welcomed the change; but, for many others it hampered both their social and emotional skills development. 

CPS largely agrees that the benefits of classroom learning are the best course, but they have also frustrated some parents who want a greater level of protection from the surging Delta Variant, as well as a level of commitment that there be some contingency plans for remote learning.

They are joined by the Chicago Teachers Union who would like to see some type of plan, even an algorithm, that would protect students and teachers, if cases increase, and schools may need to close, even if only for a few weeks.

What they have received is that there will be no mandatory online health check required, and that parents are on their own judgement to create one. Added to that there is a looser path towards social distancing, with a varied view ranging from  3 to 6 feet, but with the latter maintained during lunch periods.

Masks are now mandatory from last week’s order from Illinois governor, J.B. Pritzker, who says they must be worn by everyone 2 or older, beginning Monday, and for students, “from kindergarten to college,” reported The New York Times.

Chicago is the nation’s third largest school system, and faces wide gaps in racial makeup, student family income, and also contains many homeless children, who face the pandemic in ways that other students may not.

Leading the changes, and the worries among parents and educators is that “the seven day average of newly reported Covid 19 cases in the state has tripled to 3,533 from 1,140 a month ago, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University,” and reported by The Wall Street Journal last week.

Hospitalizations have also increased at a level not seen since May, which concerns the Illinois Department of Public Health Director Ngozi Ezike as she has seen an increase filling hospital beds to an average of almost 500 ICU beds.

As we’ve seen, most of these occur among the unvaccinated, and with school children under 12 years old, who cannot yet be vaccinated, protections are now in place from the state as well as the local level in Illinois.

Pritzker’s mask mandate is a strong measure to prevent the further spread in this population, and  has so far not been a political football as in other states such as Texas, or Florida; giving relief to many.

Illinois Gov. Pritzker

One development for those schools in some states that are fighting for, or rejecting, mask mandates is that insurance providers may not provide coverage for pandemic related lawsuits this school year, noted edweek.org, and that they “are also threatening to entirely drop districts hat fail to follow public health mandes, such as states’ requirements that all students wear masks.”

“Everyone has an idea of what the guidance should be. But insurance companies have the power to say, ‘We won’t cover you,’” said Helio Brasil, the superintendent of the Keyes Union school district in California. “There’s a veto power there, and I’m back at ground zero.”

“PJ Caposey, the superintendent of the Meridian school district in Illinois, has been struggling to explain to parents in his community why he’s requiring all students this fall to wear masks inside school buildings.

Earlier this summer, the district had planned to make masks optional. Even when public-health agencies were strongly recommending masks, Caposey held firm.

That changed on Aug. 4, when Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued a statewide mandate for universal masking in schools to combat the surging spread of the highly contagious Delta variant of COVID-19.”

“I live in a community that would prefer me to defy the governor’s order and just do school the way I want to,” Caposey said.

But, Caposey said, “If we don’t listen, the insurance companies can say we’re not going to be protected. People don’t want to believe me or don’t think that’s a good enough reason.”

There has been a steady increase in children with Covid since July, a fourfold increase according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, “rising from about 38,000 cases the week ended July 22 to 180,000 the past week, according to the AAP,” in a report cited by the Journal.

An important caveat is that all who  are “eligible in a household with young children get vaccinated to better protect them,” they added.

The Midwest, along with the South, has also seen a significant increase in the number of children admitted with Covid 19, reaching a peak of 282 from Aug. 12 to the 18th, yet the AAP considers these hospitalizations, and even death, uncommon.

Edging into the data, and beyond, is that many school districts are distancing themselves from “clear metrics” and have moved to a wait-and-see approach, added the Journal, and this seems to be the Chicago approach: avoiding repeated change, and subsequent anger from teachers by the very powerful CTU.

What CPS has said is that there might be a “brief pause in an entire school’s operation is a serious step, but may be necessary in some circumstances.”

Hitting the nail on the head was Jennifer Finley, the health services director at Dallas Independent School District, who in her Journal interview, said, “There’s no magic number.”

That may be the case but, “districts around the country are already seeing quarantines and closures due to the virus. More than 10,700 students and school employees in Hillsborough County, Fla., last week were either in isolation because of a positive Covid 19 test or in quarantine due to potential exposure.”

Close on the heels of the numbers is a high level of anxiety, reported The Hill, on Monday, that Boston’s Children’s Hospital has seen more children report to the hospital with symptoms of anxiety,” than pre-pandemic.

It was also noted that ”already, schools in 19 states have sent at least 90,000 students to quarantine, while others have shut down, just days and weeks into the year.”

Taking a giant leap forward was the Culver City Unified District outside of Los Angeles who are making all students over the age of 12 to get vaccinated “by mid November to help avoid closure decisions.”

New York has the largest public school system in the US and has taken a more targeted approach to the dilemma and has a plan that “will test a random sample of 10 percent of people in schools every other week,” that will focus on students, and only students, while all adults will face a vaccination requirement.

All elementary children will face required testing, with parental consent, and “only unvaccinated middle and high schoolers will be tested, reported the Times.

Monday afternoon’s news from The Hill has chilled those states that have bans on mask mandates:

“The Education Department announced on Monday that it has opened civil rights investigations into five statewide bans on mask mandates to determine whether they discriminate against students with disabilities.

The department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) sent letters to school officials in Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Utah describing how bans on universal mask requirements could prevent schools from implementing policies that protect students from COVID-19, particularly those with underlying medical conditions “related to their disability.”

Spared, for the moment, are Arkansas, Florida and Texas, “because those states are not yet enforcing their policies due to court battles or “”other state actions.””

Illinois and Chicago wrestle with pensions despite ratings

 

The state of Illinois got a much needed jolt in the arm at the end of June, when its credit rating was boosted, pulling it back from its general obligation debt to Baa2 from Baa3 by Moody’s Investors Service, supported, in part by tax revenue, bounce backs from federal coffers, and a rebound in the state’s economy.

Gov. JB Pritzker crafted a budget that increased pension contributions and paybacks of emergency money from the Federal Reserve, giving some much needed juice to rumors' that it was going to be the first in the nation to be at risk of having its bonds cut to junk.

Pritzker noted at the time, “it’s a huge note of progress for our state,” and added, “Illinois’s fiscal condition is heading in the right direction for the first time in the 21st century.”

Coupled with Fitch’s raised outlook to positive to negative, praised the state’s “fiscal resilience,” according to Bloomberg, but also noted that Standard and Poor's along with Fitch are “still one notch above junk,” and retains “the lowest credit rating of all U.S. states.”

Earning high marks was the payback of $3.2 billion in monies borrowed from the Fed’s emergency loan program; and got a booster shot of $8.1 billion from President Biden’s rescue funds.

Still looming on the horizon is the rating, toward the bottom, for unfunded pension liabilities, according to the American Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative membership organization that espouses “limited government, free markets and federalism”  ranks Illinois 49th for total liability, on a per capita basis, of $31,980 per person.

The right leaning website, The Center Square, in a recent email noted that “Failing interest rates and weaker than expected investment performance have also been hampering the state’s pension plans.”

Taking the conservatives' take in hand, Illinois still has work to do, and pension reform is among them.

While the right likes to blame the malfeasance on the shoulders of Pritzker, others like News Gazette columnist Tom Kacich, have traced much of the blame on Republican governors and university presidents who kicked the can down the road. 

What a can: $317 billion was the number from Moody’s in June 2020, and that reflected a 19% increase at the end of FY 2019, and currently the state has from the total of 5 retirement systems $144 billion in unfunded liabilities, and needs $10 billion just to stay afloat.

On the other side of the equation, its largest city and the driver of the state economy, Chicago, has a pension debt obligation of almost $1.1 billion in 2020, according to the city’s audited financial reports, according to a recent report from local public television station, WTTW.

The bad news: Chicago owes $32.9 billion to all four pension funds belonging to police, firefighters, municipal employees and labor, they noted, quoting the 2020 Certified Annual Financial Report, an increase of almost 3.5% from 2019.

If the devil is in the details, then this growth was anticipated, said Chief Financial Officer Jennie Huang Bennett, since the required payments are based on actuarial estimates, and as the station noted, “helped balloon the city’s structural deficit,” beginning in 2020.

That withstanding the debt is still “significantly” underfunded per Chicago’s Annual Comprehensive Financial Report for 2020.

While critics have complained about the city’s tardiness in releasing the report, it’s easy to see why the bad news takes so long, with the revelation that firefighter’s funds has the “lowest level of the four, at 19%..”

The city’s mayor, the much beleaguered, Lori Lightfoot noted that it is the biggest problem with Chicago finances, and promises to “force a reckoning” in Springfield, but city hall observers and economists wonder what she can get from Pritzker without jeopardizing their relationship, and on the heel of the aforementioned financial success Pritzker managed to eke out.

Some in the local media have speculated that the changing role of Chicago mayor has deviated so much from yesteryear, if she can muster the power to go to Springfield, even hat in hand.

It should be noted that while she has not offered a specific plan, changes to the pension system “can only be changed with an amendment to the Illinois Constitution.”

Much like the state's increased contributions ,”the city will pay its four pension funds $1.8 billion, approximately $91 million more than in 2020, from its $4 billion general operating fund,” according to plan.

Paralleling the state, Chicago got $1.4 billion in aid from the government” and “ended the ear with $197 million in cash on hand, $12 million more than expected,” in a quote from Bennett.

Covid took Chicago, and other US cities to its knees, and it took in $405.5 million less than expected in general funds, and created a $886 million hole in the budget.

Facing this dilemma requires even more than good intentions, many have said, but even getting to the road that is paved with them may take a miracle.

Cassidy and Hadden get funds for Chicago nursing homes

 

State Rep. Cassidy

In what seems to be warp speed, the endorsement of State Rep. Kelly Cassidy and 49th Ward Alderwoman Maria Hadden of the Coalition to Strengthen the Ombudsman Program to fully fund and staff the City of Chicago's ombudsman program, “which serves residents in long term care facilities,” according to a press release from the latter’s office, was met with success in a Tuesday announcement, in their effort to fully fund and adequately staff the City of Chicago’s ombudsman program, which was threatened with privatization by the Illinois Department on Aging.

As the statement noted, “Ombudsmen oversee the operations and conditions of nursing homes and long-term care facilities to ensure that residents are treated with humanity and dignity. Ombudsmen develop relationships with residents and act as advocates on their behalf, entrusting them to investigate issues and secure solutions. They act as advocates for residents who often have their needs overlooked.”

On their respective Facebook pages, Cassidy and Hadden Commented that the “the Illinois Department of Aging has secured additional funds to fully staff our City Ombudsman program AND has agreed to cease their plans to privatize it. Our Ombuds are so important to the health and wellbeing of our nursing home residents and have been true heroes throughout this pandemic. Thank you to the Coalition to Strengthen the Ombudsman Program and to our Ombuds”. 

As the Illinois Department of Aging acknowledges on its website: “Mandated by the Federal Older Americans Act and the Illinois Act on Aging, the Illinois Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program (LTCOP) is a resident-directed advocacy program which protects and improves the quality of life for residents in a variety of long-term care settings. Ombudsmen work to resolve problems of individual residents and to bring about changes at the local, state and national levels to improve care.”

The good news was received in an email Cassidy received on Monday, from Deputy Governor Flores, that “the Chicago Department of Family Support Services (DFSS) and the Illinois Department on Aging have been working towards an agreement that provides the City with more funding to hire additional staff,” according to Hadden’s Chief of Staff Leslie Perkins, and “there will no longer be a bid issue for private contracting services, and the program will get to remain housed under DFSS.”

Hadden had said previously, “Throughout this pandemic, residents in our nursing homes were some of the hardest hit by the virus. In the City of Chicago, our Ombudsmen are the workers who act as advocates for those residents. Through this last year, our City Ombudsmen worked tirelessly to support nursing home and long-term care facility residents; often they were the only people outside of staff even allowed in the buildings.” “Despite the vital role they play in supporting our most vulnerable residents, their staffing was allowed to drop to 5 positions from 8 during the most challenging time of the pandemic because the State was planning to privatize the program.”

Alderwoman Hadden

It was not clear why the State and City of Chicago chose this action, or what the exact revenue stream was to fund the positions, but “the decision to privatize the ombudsman program came after the City of Chicago failed to meet staffing requirements set by the state. The state requires ten full-time ombudsmen for the City of Chicago, yet only provides funding for eight employees”.

Reductions had previously occurred with Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and continued with his successor, Lori Lightfoot, prompting an earlier report in March by local public radio station WBEZ reporter Chip Mitchell, who wrote: “Lisa Morrison Butler, Chicago’s DFSS commissioner at the time, announced that planned change in a September 2019 email to her department’s employees and pointed to the city’s understaffing of the program: “The reason for the de-designation is that there is a required benchmark of minimum staffing as well as other benchmarks and the program’s overall performance.”

To fully fund and staff the program, she had said,” it would cost approximately an additional $200,000 per year. Included in this year's state budget was a $1 million increase for the Illinois Department on Aging’s long-term care ombudsman program; however, this funding has not been prioritized to keep Chicago's ombudsman program a public service.”

In addition, they warned of the dangers of privatization of services across the country, which has led to “worse service, higher costs, poorer conditions and less accountability.”

The Action Network, a local advocacy organization, had reported in early March, on its website, that, “The ombudsmen are "too expensive". The State of Illinois does not want to fund two more positions because they do not want to pay for collective bargaining protections and an adequate salary of experienced ombuds. They would rather outsource the program, which would then have significantly less power to stand up to nursing home owners, and less pay and less protection from intimidation for the ombudsmen themselves.”

Cassidy has a long legislative record of care in this area, and in 2012 introduced a measure to improve staffing levels in Chicago nursing homes saying at the time ,“As more residents are aging, nursing homes are a vital part of the care that seniors receive and their families rely on,” and that disregarding appropriate levels would greatly affect care.

Expressing her gratitude for Tuesday’s actions, she wrote, “We are so relieved to see that the state and city have heard our communities demands to keep our ombudsman program a public resource. We are continuing to work with activists, ombudsman, nursing home and long term care facility residents to continue to improve this vital program”.

Attempts for a comment from The Illinois Department of Aging Director Paula Basta, and her staff, were unsuccessful by press time.

Lightfoot disses bill for an elected school board

 They said that it could never be done, and that if done it would be a mess for parents and students alike, but on Tuesday, the Illinois State Senate in a 36/15 vote did just that: voted to create an elected school board for Chicago, a first, and one that with a phased in plan would allow for a partial unit in 20125, and a fully elected board in 2027.

While certainly a historic event, and pending House approval and Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s signature, there can be pitfalls, as noted in previous discussions, but most prominently was received with more than a soupçon of opposition by Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot.

In an unrelated press event, she was quoted, by The Chicago Tribune: “There were obviously a lot of different agendas at work that led to the bill that passed,” and described “the legislation as one step in a longer process on which there’s still work to do.”

What that entails seems to be murky at best, and her clarification left more questions than answers to most listeners.

“We’re talking about the most consequential change in governance for Chicago Public Schools,” Lightfoot said. “It can’t be about the politics. It’s got to be about the people, and the people that matter most are our children. So we’re going to keep making sure that message gets through and resonates, and I’m confident we can get to a better place.”

A better place that allows for more control? Chicago is the only one of 891 districts in the state that does not have a fully elected school board, noted a coalition of CPS parents, Black and Brown organizers, and others who held a news conference last month urging Sen. President Don Harmon to call the bill for a vote last month. 

Across the country only New York City and Boston have a mayoral appointed board, with most comparable big cities such as Los Angel, Miami, Houston, Las Vegas and Atlanta all having an elected school board.

Certainly no one in politics pretends that every bill passed is perfect, and that compromise is the order of the day, and no more perfect example is this bill.

The Trib also noted, “Despite supporting an elected board during her mayoral campaign, Lightfoot has since supported proposals that would allow the mayor to retain some control of the board.”

From these and earlier comments she seems to object to the loss of mayoral control and that her appointments to the hybrid board are required to be confirmed by the city council. 

This is revealing; not only as a turnabout from her campaign days, but also a creeping resemblance to her predecessor Rahm Emanuel, along with dropping an F bomb to State Sen. Robert Peters, about his senate colleagues, at a recent basketball game, and a desire, she said, that they had thought, ““how ‘we’re gonna **** her.”

We’ve seen this thinned skin approach before, most recently when she nearly toppled negotiations between outgoing school CEO Janice Jackson and the Chicago Teachers Union in a televised melt down.

“The same day the Illinois House passed a different version of the elected school board bill, Lightfoot introduced a plan that would create a hybrid board, with the mayor appointing the majority of members. She has said a 21-member body would be “unwieldy” and objected to the timeline for transitioning away from an appointed board.”

Offering praise, to the efforts, was the CTU, who wrote in a legislative memo published by the Trib: “Thanks to the work of thousands of people — and in particular the members of the (Grassroots Education Movement) coalition — we are one step closer to an elected representative school board,” the CTU wrote. “... And a huge thanks to everyone in the CTU who helped move the bill to this point.”

Lightfoot pledged to “keep our fight where it should be, which is making sure that our children are heard, that their educational futures are secure and that parents have seat at [the] table.”

In a continuation of what can only be called a rant, Lightfoot said, “Why that is so hard for people to understand, why that sense of urgency around those core values is something that some folks in Springfield don’t get, I don’t know. But there has to be accountability for ignoring the people,” continuing, she said. “It’s interesting that this is supposed to be about democracy but what happened in Springfield had nothing to do with democracy. But democracy, mark my word, will prevail.”

it’s not all going to be sunny days ahead, and as we noted, in an interview with former Ald. Dick Simpson, for our long shuttered Examiner column, almost four years ago, he stressed: “An elected school board would get the voice of citizens between the near dictatorial control of Mayor Emanuel and opposition by the Chicago Teachers Union. We citizens pay for the school system and we parents depend upon the system to educate our children. We should have a voice separate from the mayor's that can provide a check and balance to both the mayor and the union.”

He did caution, “Adding to the mix is a racial component that has a system that is mostly African American and Hispanic and an elected board . . .Thus a citywide elected board could tip heavily in favor of whites, and disenfranchised students of color; but the move now leans towards a proposed district election rather than citywide.”

Lightfoot has pledged to keep fighting for a negotiated resolution that reflects “the realities and the necessities of CPS” and planned engagement with “a range of community partners” that have been weighing in on the school board issue. She called on those involved to “get back at the table in a concerted effort to listen to each other” and put students and parents first.

“I don’t believe what came out of the Senate the other day does any of those things,” Lightfoot said.

Jackson's departure from CPS leaves a spotty legacy

The resignation announcement by Janice Jackson, Chicago Public School superintendent, earlier this month, shocked many local professional educators, as well as local residents; but many of those who have professed admiration for her tenure, and some of whom previously were critics, have taken a reformed view of Jackson, the ultimate apparatchik in one of Chicago’s key leadership positions.

While she has been derided for shilling for the former mayor, Rahm Emanuel, she also emerged from supportive roles after her predecessor, Forrest Claypool, was removed from office for lying to an investigator for his role in a cover up in an ethics probe., for a variety of what Chicago Teachers Union President Jesse Sharkey called “foundational work,” her legacy is spotty.

A staunch ally of Emanuel, Claypool was succeeded by Jackson, in 2017, and who was criticized for this alliance; and, one of them was Troy LaRaviere, president of the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association, who said in an email to Chicago Tonight, at the time:  “CPS’s Executive Officers have one job: To get their talking points from the Mayor’s education people, memorize them, and repeat them at every opportunity."

“That was Ms. Jackson’s job as (chief education officer), and the only thing that will change as CEO is her salary.” and, that salary was increased to $300,000, which some say was justified for increased testing scores.”

Jackson later forced out a resignation from his principalship of Blaine Elementary, an award winning school, recognized by Chicago Magazine in 2010 as the 16th best elementary school in the city, and also the 6th best “neighborhood school.”

Her role in the negotiations of the 50 school closures under Emanuel, was much derided, and recently Chicago Reader columnist, Ben Joravsky, said, “. . .Jackson proved her usefulness to Mayor Rahm by being the front person when he closed 50 schools, mostly in Black communities,” 

Later in a 2019 Chicago Magazine profile: “ [She] made no secret to those who knew her of how unhappy she was with many decisions — including the closing of 50 schools on the South and West Sides — the district was making under Byrd-Bennett and Claypool, a local pol and Emanuel ally with no experience in the educational system.”

Her supporters, and there are many, who say that the opening of the new high school in Englewood and the Bronzeville Classical Elementary School on the city’s South Side, are to be praised has been justifiably lauded, as well as stabilizing a once moribund budget that had also earned junk bond status by a major bond rating agency.

Coming after the budget woes of Bennet and Claypool, and taking a quick look backwards, LaRaviere’s departure can now be seen as inevitable, especially since he was one of the few voices that objected to the $20 million “no bid” contract negotiated by the now disgraced Bennett from her former employer, SUPES academy, for teacher training, that in reality, was a tidy kickback: enough to pay college tuition for her grandson’s tuition, and go to casinos; she was subsequently sentenced to federal prison.

Against this background, Jackson succeeded on some fronts, and her personal narrative as a homegrown success story, has earned her points, which the local press has continued to tout.

Legitimate growth, reported Chicago Magazine: “Graduation rates and most test scores are climbing. Illinois schools will be getting an additional $375 million in state money for their next fiscal year, most of it to be distributed in “tier” funding, meaning the poorly funded systems — namely, Chicago’s — will get a greater share (around $66 million for CPS). “

On the flip side is that enrollment has seen a dramatic drop with 103 schools that have fewer than 250 students, and in an interview with WBEZ, Jackson acknowledged that “it’s a huge problem,” and “the biggest threat to the school system,” but segued to saying that communities need to speak up.

Parents did speak up when, as her critics noted, she supported “a plan to convert the existing National Teachers Academy elementary into a high school, while shipping current NTA students over to South Loop Elementary beginning in 2019.”

Changing the award winning elementary school created an uproar and WTTW reported “NTA parents have protested that move, and students at Harper have held sit-ins to voice opposition to their school’s closure.” 

The district has also seen pressure from white parents for increased gentrification of the schools as well as neighborhoods, and during the Academy outrage, we reported,, “Emanuel, critics, such as Chris Kennedy, former gubernatorial candidate, this represents, part and parcel, of the gentrification of some of the city’s most developing, and desirable neighborhoods; underscoring, and accelerating, the trend of city living especially by affluent whites, with school age children.”

Equity despite a task based department may also be part of Jackson’s legacy where, in that same profile,  there has been distrust from many, at the beginning of her tenure: “I have respect for Dr. Jackson as a teacher and as a principal,” says Jitu Brown, a national organizer for the social justice group Journey for Justice Alliance. “But she is not working for the communities as head of CPS. Her job is to bring educational justice to the neighborhoods, not close schools and bring in gentrification.”

Chalkbeat.org reported the end game: “Parents seeking to stop Chicago Public Schools from closing the popular National Teachers Academy in the Near South Side won a victory Monday, in what attorneys say may be the first court-ordered freeze of a school-closing measure in Chicago.

This was not only a perfect storm, but an example, say detractors of Jackson’s duplicity, especially considering that, as was reported at the time:

“NTA is—and was at the time CPS announced its plan to close it—among the highest academically performing elementary schools in Chicago. It is located at the site of the former Harold Ickes Homes, a public housing project on Chicago’s near south side. It serves over 750 students, making it “efficiently utilized” according to CPS standards. About 77 percent of its students are African American, and about 72 percent come from low-income households.” 

Scandal also rocked the district when there was “an egregious investigation, this time by The Chicago Tribune which revealed the sexual abuse of  students at CPS, 523, over a nearly ten year period, from 2008 to 2017, and then shortly afterwards, another painful revelation: incidents where students had sexually violated other students; and where a majority of the perpetrators, and victims, were special needs students.” 

While Jackson revealed pain on hearing that she quickly swung into action, and did some basic level protections for the safety of the students; but, also showed that years of neglect in the care and management of the district took its toll, and have created an aura of distrust by many parents.

For her successor the die seems to be cast, in several directions and while the guessing game has not yet begun, and whether the person may be local, or national, tackling long held systemic problems in bay and keeping the balls in the air, while moving ahead, is far less a task, than wrestling with angels.

Chicago Schools emblematic of reopening challenge

For Chicago Public Schools, the nation’s third largest school system, school openings have begin to look far less than Mayor Lori Lightfoot and school superintendent Janice Jackson promised: happy smiling school children assembled at the school door, with parents hovering in a background of sunny skies, replete with television cameras recording the long awaited event.

Instead, the return of elementary school children has tweaked that vision to less than 30 percent attendance with most parents keeping their children at home, out of fear and distrust, of both the Covid pandemic, as well as the school system itself.

Battle scarred from a second near strike with The Chicago Teachers Union, Lightfoot marshalled all of her considerable energies, and strength, to force the issue, and increase the optics of in person learning, as similar cities across the US attempted to do the same.

Needless to say the politicization of the effort was not only for mayoral benefit, but also for gubernatorial leadership, as the partisan divide began to take hold of this issue and came to have Gov. J.B.Pritzker as a party of interest; and,while widely acknowledged to be a benefit for both children and parents, the issue also began to be intertwined with recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and the massive vaccination effort from the Biden administration.

While the CDC said that vaccinations were not necessary for schools to open, the White House began to push for it, as an aid to in person learning. Yet, that effort began to be compromised by the lack of record keeping on teacher vaccinations.

Associated Press reported that “States and many districts have not been keeping track of school employee vaccinations, even as the U.S. prioritizes teachers nationwide.”

While that may come as a surprise to many, they also noted that “Vaccines are not required for educators to return to school buildings, but the absence of data complicates efforts to address parents’ concerns about health risk levels and some teachers unions’ calls for widespread vaccinations as a condition of reopening schools.”

For Chicago, this seemed like the nail in the coffin as not only was it supported by CTU, but in a latent move, after the request and tense negotiations, by CPS who began to advocate for them in a level of requirement, said some reports, to the chagrin of Union officials.

Reaction from parents across the country has been mixed, with some saying how joyful it was to have in person instruction, as their children cheered, to others, more fearful and less trusting saying, with one parent noting, “Nope, my kid will not go back and take that risk. Teachers may have gotten the vaccine but not the kids that are in class, and they can still get sick,” said one from Chicago.

 

In Louisiana’s East Baton Rouge parish, a mother told Huffington Post, “My family works. I have no one I can take her to and say, ‘Ok, at 12 o’clock you are going to have to start working online with her for school.”

Whie no one area can be called an epicenter, Chicago with its racial and economic diversity might be seen as a model for frustration.

Adding to that are the variables of school size, and age, with some, from another era, not easily equipped for physical distancing, and others built in another century that have not been adequately maintained and parents who cannot afford child care, especially Black and Brown parents, whose resources are already stretched thin; not to mention the gulf between wealthy suburban districts, and those from the urban core.

Detroit with its 78 % Black population, and widespread unease with the vaccine, faces an uneasy comparison with suburban schools, serving as a prime example of the difficulty of a one size fits all process with widespread belief in the efficacy of vaccination, tied to school openings.

Now enter a change in the social distancing requirement that Illinois education officials issued on Wednesday, in a move to increase students, that was met with more than “scepticism from teachers and some parents,”the Chicago Sun Times reported as they reduced the 6 ft. distance requirement to “3 feet as long as educators are vaccinated.”

The problem is as AP noted, “No states are publicly reporting the percentage of teachers and school staff that have been vaccinated, according to a Johns Hopkins University analysis published Thursday.”

Lacking that communication only hampers the thin level of trust between some educators and parents.  

Adding to the confusion is that, “President Joe Biden directed all state governments this week to administer at least one coronavirus vaccination to every teacher, school employee and child-care worker by the end of March. Biden has promised to have most K-8 schools open for classroom instruction by the end of his first 100 days in office, or the end of April.”

It is worth noting, as AP did, that, “Vaccines were a contentious part of the fight to reopen schools in Chicago, which narrowly avoided a teachers strike last month over COVID-19 safety plans. Vaccinations began in mid-February, but it’s unknown how many of the nearly 40,000 Chicago Public Schools employees have been vaccinated.”

Whether the bulk term of “employees” included teachers was unclear, but one week earlier the Chicago district online tracker showed at least 3,586 “staff members had received vaccines at CPS sites,” but, which may not be inclusive of “doses administered to staff through partnerships of independent providers.”

For those teachers that have been vaccinated, they are required to wait  two weeks before returning to the classroom,unless special accommodations have been made and frequently will have substitute teachers teaching students, instead of themselves.

An ironic situation then ensues, and one that The Chicago Tribune noted, quoting one teacher, who said, students are “basically being put into a room to do the exact same thing they’ve been doing,” while remote learning’”

By the time Fall approaches, there may still be students whose parents have kept them in remote learning, thus freeing more classroom space, and making it easier for the new distance guidelines, say some observers.

If lack of knowledge seems apparent, one area where it is not is the politicization of the effort across America, where the above examples point, not only for desired optics in Chicago, but also California, Ohio, and Florida as well can be disregarded by their educators, with 6 ft as an ideal distancing target, but then becomes a requirement when students eat lunch.

A further muddying of the waters has occurred with a directive from the Illinois School Board of Education, and the Illinois Department of Public Health who recommends the discontinuance of on site symptom checks (mostly temperature measuring) and that “all assessments to be done initially in the morning ahead of the school door.”

Notably, the exact steps to be taken were not issued.

Looking across the nation we see a mix of remote learning balanced with classroom learning, a desired goal earlier done in 2020, in some parts of the US and Europe, but now with new strains of the coronavirus appearing, might prove to be the best avenue to opening schools and relieving, in part, ast least, the long standing problem of child care, although the new COvid relief bill does provide a significant amount of money for child care, for the poorest of families.

This effort is predicated on the belief that younger children are less prone to transmitting the virus, with their less involved schedules, than high schoolers who are often in school, playing competitive sports with other teens, and on field trips, among the many beyond the school walls.

Then again, there are some schools that are adopting a wait and see approach that will allow them to “scrap in person classes at least for the start of the school year, including Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Washington,” according to Huffington Post.

Still others despite rapidly increasing cases are equally increasing in person learning, such as Mississippi, where “44 districts began classes in person this week,m starting Monday with the rural 1,700 students . . . just east of Jackson.”

Taken as a whole it’s hard to imagine a more dramatic, yet fractured approach to a critical need for social capital, for the next generation, yet is also equally hard for various state and local needs to be met in an atmosphere of power, politics and passion; where it will take more than money, not matter how justified to move the needle towards the Fall of 2021, especially with a vicarious virus, such as Covid.