Majority of speakers in virtual Henrico Schools meeting support continuation of virtual learning

Most of the 50 or so speakers who addressed two Henrico School Board members during a virtual “listening session” Tuesday night urged them not to return students to school in person just yet.

Board members Marcie Shea (Tuckahoe District) and Kristi Kinsella (Brookland District) also heard from a handful of speakers who implored them to provide a choice for those who do want their students back in class, though.

The board is planning to make a decision about plans for the second nine weeks of school at its Oct. 22 meeting, and those on both sides of the issue have been vacillating between emotions ranging from hopeful and confident to upset and frustrated, as they try to anticipate what the board might do.

During Tuesday night’s virtual session, a number of teachers described their hesitations about returning to the classroom, saying that they fear for their own health and that of those close to them; they worry that added duties will reduce the amount of instruction time they can provide in person; and they don’t trust that students will effectively wear their masks and maintain proper distance at all times.

Others suggested that withs students unable to interact and teachers possibly expected to teach in-person students and virtual students simultaneously, in-person learning might essentially amount to virtual learning in a classroom.

"If we rush back. . . what are we gaining?" asked Varina High School history teacher Jimmy Lincoln.

One parent said that the only thing that had changed since the school board voted July 23 to begin the school year in virtual mode “is that 485 more Virginians have died and the infectious rate has gone up. Why should we go back now? It makes no sense to me."

But several parents and at least one teacher made direct appeals for the freedom to choose whether to return their children to school, opining that since those who want to remain fully virtual all year long may do so, it would be only fair to provide the same option for them.

“We’ve gotta go back – it can be done and it’s being done all over the state,” one mother said.

“All that we are asking for is a choice,” said another.

Several parents who said they had pulled their students from Henrico schools and enrolled them in private schools echoed those comments and described smooth in-person learning at those private schools.

Shady Grove Elementary School second-grade teacher Jesse Sanborn said she was confident that students would behave as directed and that she was hoping to return to school.

“Many of us are ready and willing to go back,” she said.

But several parents said that the combination of rising COVID totals in the region, the arrival of flu season and two major holidays on the horizon, now is not the time to return students to the classroom.

“The fact that we’re having this [session] virtually speaks volumes,” one said. “One single outbreak is going to ruin all the effect that we’ve put forth since March to keep our students safe.”

Other speakers – noting that the school system recently posted job listings for substitute teachers and classroom monitors beginning Nov. 16, the first day of the second nine weeks – wondered aloud whether the decision about returning to school has already been made.

Varina High School counselor Elizabeth Goldberg said she was pondering “if this whole thing [Tuesday’s virtual meeting] is just a charade." She described herself as "overwhelmingly afraid" of the possibility of returning to school, where she would work in a small office with others and would have to balance helping students with enforcing COVID guidelines.

Hermitage High School history teacher Dana Franson made a tearful and impassioned plea for the continuation of a mostly virtual plan. She and other teachers argued that the school system’s recent survey didn’t offer them a fair list of options, instead making those with no medical conditions feel as if they’d either have to return to school, resign or retire. (The survey did not provide employees with a no-excuse option to continue working virtually, which many took as a slap in the face.)

"We are being given the choice to go back or quit. I can’t quit – I love my job,” said Dana Franson, a Hermitage High School history teacher.

Franson made an impassioned plea for the continuation of virtual learning, asking what would happen when teachers get COVID and miss time with their classes.

"Who is going to teach my AP students, a sub?” she asked. “Good luck with that. When we get this, our kids are going to suffer because we aren’t there to teach them.”

The feedback Tuesday night largely mirrored the written comments provided to the board by community members and teachers prior to its meeting earlier this month. Nearly 100 people supplied comments prior to that meeting, and only 12 indicated that they wanted in-person learning to resume, while most of the rest urged the continuation of virtual learning and several others expressed no definitive opinion.

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