HONOLULU — Last Friday, Hawai‘i Department of Education Superintendent Dr. Christina Kishimoto released a statement of her plans to push for reopening of schools by the fourth quarter of this school year, which inspired the state epidemiologist that same day to write a letter to Sen. Brian Schatz and DOE colleagues in support of these efforts to reopen schools for in-person learning.
“As we have learned more about COVID-19 and schools, we have also learned that schools are not, as initially anticipated, amplifiers of COVID-19 transmission,” Dr. Sarah Kemble, the state’s acting state epidemiologist, wrote. “Rather schools are one of the safest environments for children when it comes to COVID-19.”
Kemble said in-person instruction provides children better educational, social, emotional and physical support than online instruction.
She said universal mask usage, hygiene and keeping kids in cohorts can dramatically minimize the transmission risk of the coronavirus.
“Schools that have implemented mitigation measures are able to control COVID-19 transmission better than many community settings, where children may interact in less structured ways or attend gatherings with their families,” Kemble wrote.
Few students in the state have returned to school 100% in-person. Elementary schools had the most students attending in-person classes daily at 12% of students in December.
Just 5% of middle schoolers and 2% of high school students attended classes in-person daily, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported.
Schatz said he would try his best to support Kemble’s recommendation.
“Throughout this pandemic, everybody has been correctly calling for decision-makers to rely on the science,” Schatz said in an interview with the Star-Advertiser on Friday. “And now the state’s epidemiologist is saying that it is better for public health to open up the schools, so everyone is going to try their very best to move in that direction.”
School employees have been a priority group for the coronavirus vaccine since January. A Hawai‘i State Teachers Association survey released on Feb. 12 reported that 52% of the union’s members had received one or two doses of the coronavirus vaccine and 16% had pending appointments. Another 4% were in the pipeline for appointments.
Fewer than 2% said they would never want to receive the coronavirus vaccine. More than 11,000 of the union’s 13,500 members responded to the survey.
For months, HIDOE has been expressing its efforts to reopen schools during the pandemic despite the concerns of educators, union leaders, and parents. Still, Kishimoto believes her team is capable of reopening schools soon.
“Our tri-level leadership team is exploring the viability of being able to safely open all, most or some of our elementary schools for daily in-person learning during the fourth quarter,” Kishimoto said.
According to Kishimoto, reopening schools would allow Hawai‘i’s youngest learners the opportunity to have some in-person time back in the classroom this academic year before transitioning to summer learning and the next school year.
“This will take tremendous planning and effort in a short amount of time to ensure any reopening plans,” Kishimoto said. “(We will) continue to prioritize the health and safety of students and staff.”
Kishimoto said the fourth quarter begins March 22, following spring break.
“We are putting together a detailed plan, and will continue to engage our partners and discuss where we are during the (next) Board of Education (BOE) meeting,” Kishimoto said.
Corey Rosenlee, president of the Hawai‘i State Teachers Association, said the union is committed to making sure students can return to face-to-face learning at schools safely.
“HSTA wants to honor our internal democratic process and wishes to hear from its teacher leaders across the state about their concerns before making further public comments,” Rosenlee said.
The next BOE meeting will be held virtually on Mar. 4. For more information go to https://boe.hawaii.gov/Pages/Welcome.aspx.
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The Garden Island newspaper reporter Stephanie Shinno contributed to this report
We can “want” in-class learning all we want, but so long as HSTA continues to lobby to give themselves a longer free stay-at-home vacation, public schools won’t be able to re-open. The teacher’s union is literally holding the children of Hawaii hostage, and not for any legit health reasons, but simply because they want to be able to spend their days surfing instead of teaching.
I don’t know. What if this COVID-19 gets larger, meaning the variant strain I just red about get to be wide spread and the vaccine does not work. People start catching it again. What do the DOH intend to do then. Obviously in class will be cancelled again. And sport will be cancelled again. 2021 seniors, obviously a freebie. They graduate. Fall time comes around, will they continue on the leave? DOH says to be cautiously optimistic and to always follow proper COVID-19 protocols. They cannot do this with school on. How will they settle this in 2021 fall again?