Cashwell defends her messaging about latest in-person learning delay

Henrico Schools Superintendent Amy Cashwell told the Citizen Wednesday that she stands by her explanation of why the school system is delaying its return to in-person learning indefinitely for those students who have chosen it.

In Jan. 12 emails to employees and families, Cashwell wrote that the reason for the delay – the second she had announced in a week – was that school nurses soon would be mobilized to assist with COVID-19 vaccination efforts as the county moved faster than expected into the second phase of vaccinations.

As a result, she wrote, they wouldn’t be able to fulfill all of their in-school duties, which in turn would eliminate or weaken a key aspect of the school system’s virus mitigation plans. (Elementary school students were scheduled to return Jan. 25, and secondary students would have followed the next week.)

But during the Henrico Board of Supervisors’ meeting Tuesday night, new chairman Dan Schmitt and former chairman Tommy Branin suggested otherwise.

“[N]urses helping with vaccination is NOT the reason schools will not be ready to open on the 25th,” Schmitt said. “Please know that.”

Branin thanked School Board Chairman Roscoe Cooper, III, for calling Schmitt and Branin before the meeting to discuss the delay and said he was glad that Cooper clarified the email’s “misstatement.”

But Wednesday, Cashwell didn’t deviate from the explanation she gave in her emails.

“We stand by our messaging,” she told the Citizen during a 30-minute interview. “Our position remains very firm and clear around why we got to that point [to implement a delay].”

Cashwell said she had spent most of Wednesday morning speaking with Henrico County Manager John Vithoulkas and HCPS officials to ensure that everyone was on the same page.

According to Henrico Schools spokesman Andy Jenks, 83 Henrico Schools’ nurses are planning to help provide vaccinations throughout the entirety of the second phase, which begins Jan. 18 in Henrico.

Schmitt remains firm on Tuesday statements

Speaking to the Citizen Wednesday afternoon, Schmitt held firm to his Tuesday statements even as he heaped praise on Cashwell. Vithoulkas did the same in a subsequent interview with the Citizen.

“I think [Henrico] Schools made a terrific decision not to open on the 25th,” said Schmitt told the Citizen. “I have been an ‘open school’ proponent from day one. [But] in this case, I think we should wait three weeks because we have the vaccine.

“This is the county government and the school superintendent making a terrific decision and the messaging getting just completely bungled. Let’s just state the truth, and the truth is this: We have the vaccines in hand and we want to get them in our teachers’ and schools’ staffs’ arms. It’s great news. It has nothing to do with nurses. It has everything to do with vaccinating our school staff and keeping them safe.”

Of Cashwell, Schmitt said “I don’t think we can find a better superintendent for Henrico County Public Schools. I do not. I think she’s fantastic. I think she’s faced with decisions and issues right now that are monumental. I think she’s doing a spectacular job. This is not an Amy Cashwell problem for me. This is [just] a horrible [press] release.”

Schmitt’s understanding is that the arrangement between the county government and its school system calls for school nurses to be used outside of their normal contracted hours, he said. But Cashwell indicated to the Citizen that nurses would have to spend on-the-clock time – perhaps as much as half of each work day – on the vaccination efforts.

That, she said, would have made punched a significant hole in the school system’s virus mitigation plans, making it impossible to bring students back in person.

Additionally, the system has been trying to hire one clinic aide for each of its 62 schools but so far has hired only 29, Cashwell said.

Vithoulkas told the Citizen that although he believed the messaging from HCPS could have been better, it wouldn’t in any way impact his relationship with Cashwell or his opinion of her as a leader.

“I will tell you that I have worked with many superintendents throughout my career, and I’ve never worked with one that cares for the kids and the staff and the people more than Dr. Cashwell,” Vithoulkas said. “She and I have a great relationship, and I think she is very good at her job. I consider her a partner. We talk all the time.”

Though Schmitt said that rising COVID numbers would have, in his estimation, made it impossible for schools to reopen Jan. 25, Cashwell and Jenks indicated that their facilities are ready.

Said Schmitt: “If the schools are ready to open on the 25th and all they need are nurses back, then take ‘em. [But] schools are not going to open on the 25th regardless of whether we’re using [their] nurses to give shots or not.”

Cashwell, though, cited the school system’s mitigation efforts as evidence that it would have been prepared to resume in-person learning Jan. 25.

“I stand by what I shared with our community in yesterday’s message and prior messages,” she said. “We’ve got a strong mitigation policy in place, strong.”

Notice of vaccine's arrival came quickly

Cashwell said she learned that vaccines would be available sooner than expected late last week – a few days after her Jan. 5 announcement that in-person learning would be delayed from Jan. 11 to Jan. 25 for elementary school students.

Had she known Jan. 5 that the vaccine’s arrival might be just a week or two away, she said it would have impacted her decision.

“At the time, we thought that we could be waiting a month or more for vaccinations,” she said. “I’ve heard things like, ‘Why wouldn’t you just call [off in-person learning] for the rest of the year?’ I believe in-person instruction is important, and we’re working hard to get there. I hope that the message is that we’re committed to getting there. The delays are hard on our staff as they are for our families and students.”

The school system will not mandate that any employees be vaccinated, Cashwell said, nor will their vaccination status impact their ability to work in school facilities. She said she wasn't sure which vaccine – the one from Pfizer or the one from Moderna – would be offered to employees in the new phase of vaccinations, or whether recipients would have a choice.

School system officials surveyed employees this week to ask how many would want to be vaccinated; the Citizen has requested the results of those surveys, which Jenks said likely would be discussed during Thursday's Henrico School Board meeting.

Cashwell said there does not currently exist a cutoff date beyond which it wouldn’t make sense to send students back to school.

When she delayed the in-person return Jan. 5, she also said that staff members would be expected to report to their buildings beginning Jan. 19. Wednesday, she told the Citizen that although that date has not officially changed, individual principals will have the flexibility to work with employees who aren’t able to report by that date. Others who want to begin working from their schools by that date or sooner are welcome to do so, she said, adding that a number of teachers have been teaching from their classrooms since September.

Any perception that the school system is being forced into the vaccination efforts unwillingly is wrong, Jenks told the Citizen.

“Our approach to the vaccinations comes from a place from a sense of duty,” he said. “This is an example of teamwork and collaboration.”