Dear Ada Public Schools Board of Education and Administration,

As parents, caregivers, educators, support staff, and community members of Ada Public Schools, we write with our grave concerns regarding the APS Back-to-School Plan. We have reviewed the plan and it does not contain enough detail to allow us, with peace of mind, to support sending our children, teachers, and support staff back in person on August 13th.

The current status of the pandemic in our state and rising numbers in our community calls into question the safety of opening schools for all parties involved, including teachers and staff with high-risk conditions, and of course, our children and families. The plan, as it stands in the middle of July simply contains too many conditional compromises rather than innovative solutions that actually address several common concerns. For example: 

• “Training on social distancing awareness” is not the same as implementing real and effective social distancing measures. 
• The focus on disinfecting is great, but these measures do not address the primary method of Covid-19 transmission occurs.
• The “pod” approach, or desks facing the same direction, or any other measure that attempts to justify 20-30 students in a single enclosed classroom with recirculating airflow is ineffective. Spread is not contained by this approach.

Additionally, the plan you propose relies on parents to screen their children and teachers to screen themselves. There are problems with this approach.

• Parents may be under stress from their employers and financial obligations that may encourage them to risk sending a symptomatic child to school.
• Many parents are incentivized by their unmodified workplace sick leave policies to take unnecessary risks.
• How are you incentivizing teachers to remain home if they have symptoms (unlimited COVID related sick leave that doesn’t count against them?) 
• We also see a problem with expecting these screenings to occur daily at school - it’s unrealistic as the line to get in would stretch around the block and cause significant delays.

Even if all of these measures are effective and everyone follows the rules, what about the asymptomatic spread risk? The current plan does not even require students to wear face coverings, only teachers and visitors. Children and their families will be subject to a potential super-spread event due to this course of action. 

Maybe things will change for the better before August 13th, but the risk to students, staff, and families at home and in our community is too great (and currently growing) at this time. 

Given these concerns, we urge you to:

• Delay the start of instruction if necessary to develop a distance learning plan that will work for ALL students. 
• Provide an option for all students to learn remotely from APS teachers.
• Provide a safe workplace for teachers and support staff by giving them the choice to work 100% remotely until the pandemic is over.
• When sites do reopen safely, and until a vaccine and more effective therapeutics are available, face coverings should be mandatory at all times for anyone physically on school premises (with appropriate exceptions related to children with disabilities).
• Develop a feasible and EFFECTIVE plan for proper physical distancing (not based on the circumstances of the building, but based on real guidelines and proper distancing), that includes, but is not limited to, staggered schedules, start times and alternating schedules in order to decrease class and school sizes.
• Communicate immediately to families with children receiving special services through IEPs and 504 plans about the implications for online learning.
• Develop a proactive and comprehensive plan in cooperation with community agencies to address the needs of students who are vulnerable, in crisis, and/or need additional support during periods of virtual-only schooling. Needs may include but are not limited to, care, schooling, technology, internet access, food, social services, and mental health services. It is imperative that these needs be addressed to keep every single student in our schools safe.

We appreciate the hard work the district has put into developing the Back-to-School Plan. However, under the current state of the Pandemic we collectively face, it is not acceptable for the safety of our families, teachers, support staff, and most of all, our children.