RPS Board goes with hybrid model for elementary students, frustrating some parents

In a marathon discussion that lasted nearly four hours Monday night, the Rochester School Board approved a plan to slowly bring elementary schoolers back to the classroom. However, the plan that was approved does not go as far as what was originally recommended by the superintendent, pushing a decision on in-person learning back by roughly one month.

In a 5-2 vote, the board cleared the way for Rochester’s youngest learners to be back in a hybrid learning model in less than two weeks. The district will utilize a “rolling start” approach, starting with moving pre-kindergartners through second graders to a hybrid learning model on January 19. 

From there, grades three through five will join their younger counterparts starting February 1. The School Board’s next meeting is scheduled for the following day; at that point, the board will discuss on its next steps — deciding whether or not the local Covid-19 situation is safe enough to move preK-2 grades to full in-person learning.

“We could still give you an answer on full-in person on February 2,” said Board Member Melissa Amundsen. “If we go back to hybrid, we can give it a little bit of time to see which direction the county’s numbers are moving, and we can delay that portion of the decision.”

Originally, Superintendent Michael Muñoz recommended preK-2 move to full in-person learning on February 16 and grades 3-5 follow suit by March 1, but the majority of board members hesitated to approve the full scope of the plan, citing concerns over approving a plan for the winter while Rochester continues to deal with a volatile Covid-19 situation — with case numbers still not down to pre-spike levels.

“What happens if we go back to hybrid, and a week later, everything hits the fan and we have to go back to distance learning?,” said Board Member Julie Workman, one of two members who voted against the action (the other was newly-elected Board Member Karen MacLaughlin). “Part of the problem is, it's a constant yo-yo... it’s a lack of consistency, that unknown of ‘are we going to stay in this model or not?’ ” 

Dozens of RPS staff members may also be unable or unwilling to come back to school when the time comes, citing pre-existing conditions for themselves or a close-contact family member. While the superintendent said his original plan included input from building administrators, some board members said his administration did not go far enough.

“I think it’s really important to recognize that some people have been missed,” said Amundsen. “It’s really insulting to say to staff ‘oh, they’ve all been included,’ when we’ve received countless emails saying they weren’t asked… for any kind of input.”

Concerns from parents

While the School Board chose a more conservative option than what the superintendent proposed, even the original plan falls behind the timeline set by some area districts.

Byron, for example, has already sent its elementary schoolers back to the classroom, albeit to serve a much smaller student body. Two of the largest school districts in Minnesota, though, have announced plans to have all their elementary schoolers in the classroom by mid-February. RPS’s approach, in comparison, moves much slower — which has put some parents up in arms.

Med City Beat spoke with a half dozen parents prior to Monday’s meeting — and all interviewees, regardless of their stance on what the district should do, said they were frustrated with the lack of transparency behind the planning process and implementation.

Last week, Patricio Gargollo, father of two students at Bamber Valley Elementary, wrote a petition to the School Board asking them to reconsider the original plan, calling the staggered approach “unacceptable” and saying it “does not serve the educational needs of our children.” Nearly 1,000 people have signed on since then.

“We don’t understand why they operate in complete silence without any parental involvement, and we don’t understand why there’s these bigger school districts that can get their kids back in the classroom sooner,” said Gargollo. “They need to do better.”

Gargollo is not alone in his frustration — the district’s process has been problematic for Drs. Bridget and Nick Pulos, parents to two children in Gage Elementary School’s Spanish immersion program. They say they relied on a “patchwork” of child care options to get through the first round of hybrid learning, and with signs of stagnation showing in their kids and another month of hybrid learning on the horizon, Bridget says she’s considering taking a leave of absence from her job to be with her children full-time until they can go back to school.

The district’s extended reliance on a hybrid model is the worst of both worlds, according to Nick. Under the hybrid model, families with two working parents need to scramble to find child care options for distance learning days, but the perceived benefit of the hybrid model — lowering a child’s chances of exposure to Covid-19— isn’t true, in this case.

“No person really thinks hybrid learning makes sense, from a learning model or from a risk standpoint,” said Nick Pulos. “Maybe in the beginning it made sense, but it’s not mitigating risk anymore — you’re still increasing a child’s social circle by bringing them back to school.”

While scientific data on the relationship between opening schools and Covid-19 spread has been limited, that’s recently changed thanks to two recently-released studies on case loads and hospitalizations in communities that have already sent kids back to school. At Olmsted County’s current Covid-19 case and hospitalization levels, the studies suggest that hospitalizations may not increase much, but total case numbers would likely go up if RPS were to opt for in-person learning.

After hearing a presentation from Olmsted County Public Health Director Graham Briggs, in which he called on board members to take “the least bad option,” Muñoz said the best way for RPS to move forward would be to take extra caution — and avoid the risk of shutting down an 18,000-student district again, if cases spike in the near future.

“We have always been more conservative,” said Muñoz. “I can tell you as a superintendent, I am concerned about the safety of our students and our staff. I think it’s our district’s responsibility to look out for the community, and we didn’t want to contribute to our [Covid-19] rates.”

Isaac Jahns is a Rochester native and a 2019 graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism. He reports on politics, business and music for Med City Beat.