Dr. Welsh,

As parents of students in Paradise Valley School District, we appreciate all of the time and effort you, your staff, and the Board have done to get our kids back in school and to support our teachers.  We all love our PV Schools and Teachers!  They have gone over and above trying to meet the many demands they have been asked to take on.

It is because of our wonderful teachers that many students whose grades were suffering significantly during the first 8 weeks on PVConnect are now excelling in In-person instruction.  And more importantly, the social and emotional well-being took an immeasurable decline during that time that is now only slowly starting to recover. As stated by Superintendent Hoffman on November 9th, the crisis is a “twin crisis” as youth suicides and mental health has become a crisis as a result of Covid restrictions.  Parents who are staff at Phoenix Children’s Hospital have reported seeing a drastic increase in ER visits for children waiting to be admitted to the psychiatric facility, and this is only one hospital.  How many more suicides or attempted suicides need to happen to convince you that our schools need to be open?

Per the emails the district is sending to parents the district states, Covid is NOT spreading rapidly through the schools and that the County has found no evidence that the transmission is happening at school.  According to your latest report of cases in PVUSD on November 9th, only 0.13% of the PV student population tested positive during the week prior and only 0.37% since schools opened. In addition, about a third of the schools have had ZERO cases since schools opened.  There is ZERO justification to shut down schools.

We demand that you start dialog with MCDPH and use their guidance, rather than always making up your own metrics (once again) for PVUSD.

We, as parents, have school choice in Arizona.  Thousands have already left the district.  If you continue to yo-yo our kids in and out of school, you will see more numbers decrease. 

Instead of running to close our schools, please see what states like Texas are doing. Texas can see the mental issues our kids are enduring and have decided NOT to close schools. Texas will quarantine classrooms as cases arise, however they are keeping schools open for the best interest of the student. 

Instead of running to close our schools, utilize your parent base to gather additional ideas on how to keep the schools open even when cases are on the rise such as utilizing our amazing winter weather to hold classes outdoors – especially when there has been exposure.  Keep the classes together, in an open air environment where they can better distance from each other but in a controlled environment with social interaction instead of at home where the students end up seeking the interaction with no masks and no distancing.

If you are truly concerned for our children’s safety, we urge you to consider what safety really means.  Look at the data.  Schools are NOT where Covid is spreading.  It is SAFE to be IN school where your risk of contracting Covid is low.  And it is the BEST place for our children to learn, socialize, and rebuild the damage that has been done to their mental health.

We implore you to please listen to the parents and understand what you are doing to our children's academic well being and mental states.

Sincerely yours,

The parents of kids in PV Schools.