Town commissioner, CMS teachers demand increased transparency from leaders on reopening

Teachers in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, along with some elected officials, are demanding increased transparency and communication from district leaders as they work on a detailed plan for a limited, two-week reopening of in-person schooling.

The school board voted 7-1 last week to pursue “Plan B Plus Remote.” That would bring students back to classrooms in three socially distant groups over a two-week orientation period, before switching over to full remote learning - until the trend of cases in Mecklenburg County changes. The board will meet again Tuesday evening, where a report on details of reopening is on the agenda.

In an email to reporters, Matthews town commissioner Ken McCool called on CMS to publicly release its detailed remote opening plan, and to host a series of virtual town hall meetings to provide answers to lingering questions.

McCool said that he was unable to get concrete answers from board members to questions of IT support during remote learning, how much teacher input had been solicited, how lunch would maintain social distancing and how many people had signed up for the full remote learning option.

“It is becoming increasingly clear that CMS is not prepared for our teachers to return to work in two and a half weeks,” McCool said. “CMS must answer these questions and the questions from the rest of the Matthews Board of Commissioners, and they must do so transparently.”

In an informal survey organized by CMS teachers over the weekend, roughly 77% of respondents said they were either not confident or hesitant to return to classrooms under Plan B, which would have operated schools at 50% capacity or less by rotating students through three groups. Of the 3,241 respondents, about 76% were district employees and 21% were parents.

Teachers said they are seeking answers regarding the availability of personal protective equipment, access to testing, how to isolate sick students and the stark differences in the quality of school buildings, some of which have poor ventilation and struggling HVAC systems. They said they also do not know if they will be required to work in school buildings even if their students are remote, or if they are expected to gather during the teacher workdays scheduled for the weeks before the first day of school.

Hayley Rowley, an elementary school teacher, said that the survey captures the uncertainty teachers and staff feel about returning to school. She said many teachers and employees felt like they did not have any say in the district’s decision-making, even as they would be the ones tasked with executive whatever plan the district chose.

“There’s nothing more frustrating than feeling powerless in a situation,” she said. “We don’t know exactly has the power here but we know it’s not us.”

McCool said teachers should not be asked to return in person to shoulder all the risk of the pandemic without additional support and compensation.

“Teachers teach because they love their students, but we should not be putting them on the front lines of this crisis and making them do more work, and they all have to do it with no hazard pay,” McCool said. “We need to advocate for our teachers more, and we need to do it now.”

Rowley said she was appreciative of the decision to pursue the modified Plan B for reopening, and that it felt like the vote showed the board listened to the voices of teachers raising concerns about returning to in-person instruction as Mecklenburg County continues to lead the state in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases. Hours before the vote, thousands signed multiple petitions started by teachers to ask the district to open under a remote plan.

Since the vote for a mostly virtual fall, some have criticized the district for caving to the fears of a small percentage of teachers, as 88% of responents to the district survey said they would return to in-person instruction if they were told to do so. Strain, the lone vote against plan, told WFAE that “kids are being kept from their best educational environment because 10% of the teachers are afraid to work in the schools.”

Rowley and other teachers said the original survey did not give them sufficient options, and that it only allowed teachers without a medical condition to choose between quitting their jobs or returning to in-person teaching if asked. She said it was also unfair to use the intent to return form as a measure of how teachers felt about safety, since that was not one of the questions.

“It felt like if we didn’t say we were ready and willing to return to instruction, we would risk losing our job or not having a placement, or that we would be forced to resign or retire,” Rowley said. “It created a lot of unrest among the teachers in CMS.”

Strain declined to comment.

This story was originally published July 21, 2020 at 3:12 PM.