Jackson County parents worried as virtual learning ends. ‘I just wish we had the option’
All 979 students signed up for virtual learning in the Jackson County School District are supposed to return to campuses on Tuesday.
But many parents say their kids are doing well in virtual learning and they don’t understand why they weren’t given the chance to weigh in as the school board made a decision.
Some are planning to home school their kids rather than send them back to campus. Others are scrambling to get doctor’s notes on short notice: the board voted on Oct. 5 to require everyone, except students with medical exemptions, to return to school the next week.
LaTasha Heidelburg, the mother of a fourth grader, chose to enroll her daughter in virtual learning because she didn’t feel comfortable sending her back to campus. She said she signed a form committing her daughter to learning at home until at least the start of the next semester. She assumed that meant the district was also committing to offer virtual learning until then.
“I just wish we had the option,” she said. “For the people that hate [virtual learning], let them go back. For the people that are progressing, allow us to do that.”
Superintendent John Strycker said the school board’s decision was based largely on data showing large numbers of students enrolled in distance learning were failing classes. The worst failing rates were for middle schoolers: 78% were failing at least one subject, and 23% were failing four or more. Among high schoolers, 69% of students were failing at least one subject and among elementary school students, 38% were failing at least one subject.
Strycker declined to share data showing what percentage of on-campus students at each school level were failing one or more subjects.
Julie Hill’s 11th-grader is doing well in virtual learning, making all As. Hill said she doesn’t understand why students like her daughter need to go back to campus.
Strycker said the district had decided to bring almost everyone back instead of only those students who are failing because the district believes schools provide more than just academic benefits.
“We believe there’s a social, emotional part of education,” he said. “Even spiritual. We believe there’s life skills taught at school. Our philosophy has been to have the students in school.”
Medical exemptions
If a student or a member of their household has a specific medical condition, they may present documentation to the district and get permission to continue with virtual learning.
The five conditions are “critical CONGENITAL (not congestive) heart disease,” organ transplant, condition requiring active dialysis, cancer requiring active chemotherapy, and “lung disease, such as Cystic Fibrosis.”
Hill said she was shocked when she saw how limited the list of conditions was.
“I don’t mean this jokingly, it’s only like life or death ones,” she said.
Hill has a number of autoimmune diseases, as does her mother, and her father has heart disease. None of their conditions are on the Jackson County School District list. Hill said she plans to ask her doctors to write a note explaining that her household has serious medical concerns that aren’t on the qualifying list.
But the clock is ticking. On Friday, Hill got an email saying those in the process of trying to get a doctor’s note had until Oct. 19 to submit one. If there were “extenuating circumstances,” parents should call the district, the email said.
“Passwords for distance learning will be cutoff on October 19th and students will be withdrawn on October 26th if they have not turned in the appropriate documentation or been granted an extenuating circumstance extension,” it continued.
Jesse Penico, an infectious disease specialist at Gulfport Memorial Hospital, said he agreed all five conditions belonged on the district’s list. But he would have added several more, including hypertension, diabetes, immunological issues and obesity.
Studies have shown obesity is one of the leading risk factors for severe complications from COVID-19. About 25% of Mississippi youth are obese.
Penny Westfaul, director of curriculum and central office administration for the district, said the team that developed the list of conditions included Michael Cunningham, a cardiologist at Singing River Health System, as well as the district’s nursing staff. Their goal was to choose exemptions that would get as many students back on campus as possible.
“If you look at the percentage of people in that category [obesity], we probably would exempt about half of our student body and half of our staff,” she said.
Westfaul said that the district will consider requests for exemptions like Hill’s on a case by case basis.
Quarantining and case numbers
Since the school year began, the district has recorded 169 student cases students and 73 staff cases. Unlike other Coast districts, Jackson County does not require the close contacts of students and teachers who test positive for COVID-19 to quarantine.
Strycker said the data supports this strategy: the district’s case numbers are comparable to those at other schools on the Coast, where on any given week dozens or even hundreds of students are in quarantine.
“Why would we want healthy students out of school if our numbers are unbelievably low?” he said.
Medical professionals, including those at Singing River Health System, which has been advising school districts in Jackson County, say quarantining close contacts ensures the risk of transmitting the virus stays low after a person tests positive.
“Within those 14 days, an individual could potentially be positive and shed or share the virus,” said Daralyn Boudreaux, an infection control specialist and the director of quality and infection prevention at Singing River. “Keeping them quarantined would reduce the risk of that.”
Boudreaux said Singing River has helped talk through state and CDC guidelines with local school districts, including the recommendation that close contacts quarantine for 14 days after exposure.
Penico, the doctor at Gulfport Memorial, said he thinks following CDC and state guidelines is the best option for all institutions, including schools.
“You start to get in trouble when you go off of those recommendations,” he said. “If somebody gets sick, they can blame you. And people are going to get sick anyway. It’s going to happen.”
As schools have reopened around the country in recent weeks, there’s little evidence that they are spiking COVID-19 transmission levels in their communities. On the Coast, most cases in students and teachers have been linked to events and gatherings outside of school, administrators say.
But if the COVID-19 situation at a school reflects the situation in a community at large, there are a few worrisome signs for Jackson County: the average number of new cases per day in the county was 35.2 over the last seven days, compared to 32.3 in the previous seven days.
The county’s most recent COVID-19 test positivity rate released by the state, for Sept. 17 to Sept. 30, was 14.1%, up from 12.5% from Sept. 3 to Sept. 16.
Strycker said he’s watching those numbers.
“I’m always concerned,” he said.
Back to school
Jayln Jordan, a senior at St. Martin High School, was taking three classes virtually. After she found out that anxiety about getting COVID-19 likely wouldn’t qualify her for an exemption from returning to campus, the school worked out a plan: Jordan could drop her science class, since she didn’t need it to graduate, and take one of her two other classes on Edgenuity, a platform that delivers courses without Jackson County School District teachers as instructors.
Why couldn’t she take both on Edgenuity? Jordan says she asked. Allowing virtual students to take classes on the platform would also address one of the other key reasons the district decided to bring everyone back to campus: Teachers are exhausted from managing in-person as well as virtual learners.
Jordan was told that she had to be on campus for at least one period per day, so she’ll be attending an English class in person every morning from 8:30 to 10 a.m. Then she’ll leave for the rest of the day. She’s set to graduate in December.
“They can do it,” Jordan said of St. Martin offering her classes online. “They just don’t want to.”
“I don’t want to go to school,” she continued. “I have grandmothers that are old. Their immune system isn’t that good.... Just the thought of me like hanging out with them and then spreading it to them, and them getting severely ill, just scares me.”
Heidelburg doesn’t want to home school her daughter, so she was planning to spend the weekend shopping for new uniforms; she hadn’t had to buy them for virtual learning.
“I guess I have no choice if nothing changes between now and Monday but to send her back and hope for the best,” she said.
This story was originally published October 12, 2020 at 5:50 AM.
