We commend the Sedona-Oak Creek, Cottonwood-Oak Creek and Clarkdale-Jerome school districts governing boards for voting Monday and Tuesday, Dec. 7 and 8, to remain open until the end of the semester.
The votes by the SOCSD and COCSD were unanimous while the vote for CJSD was closer at 3-2, but ultimately all three voted to keep our children in classrooms this week and next until the winter break, allowing students who wish to finish up the semester in person.
COCSD and CJSD will be ending their semesters in person on Thursday, Dec. 17, with the final day, Friday, Dec. 18, being virtual-only, purportedly to give teachers an in-service day on the final day of the semester.
My publisher said I can’t follow suit and take a vacation before my vacation to get ready for my vacation, but it was worth a shot.
Board members also argued that the last day of a semester is generally a waste anyways as students are antsy to get out and there’s not the backstop of another day to enforce deadlines if students don’t finish work assignments. If the last day of the semester is a waste, then perhaps the districts should just end on Thursday, because a virtual final day where students are at home will be even more useless.
In any case, all three boards viewed continuing in-person classes as more beneficial for students and safer for them than sending them home to finish out the semester online. COVID-19 or not, students are safer when they are under the watchful supervision of a teacher. They must wear masks on campus and keep a safe distance from others.
The votes were due in no small part to the forceful Yavapai County Community Health Services Director Leslie Horton, the top government medical professional in the county, whose department updates the public about COVID-19 cases and hospital bed counts.
“I strongly believe that kids are better off in school,” Horton told the COCSD Governing Board on Tuesday. “I know that my children are better off in school. Even though they have a safe home environment, they struggle with online learning, and I know that a lot of other parents say the same. Even if you ask the children, they say the same. It is commendable how much work our teachers have put in to creating distance learning environments that work for our kids, but that being said, our kids are still struggling, and they need — especially those younger grades — they need a teacher.”
Numerous teachers from the districts also spoke in favor of remaining in-person through the end of the semester. In Sedona, 11 of the 13 who spoke voiced concerns about returning to online-only, many of who were teachers working with students directly.
The unanimous votes from COCSD and SOCSD governing boards sends a clear message to parents and students that student education and student safety is their chief concern.
After the winter break, the three districts will be online-only for two to five days, then back to hybrid, but can certainly meet at any time between now and then to extend online or go back to the hybrid teaching method, depending on the conditions of the COVID-19 spread.
After Thanksgiving, staying online for a few days made some sense as students exposed to COVID-19 on the holiday would not get sick for several days, so a buffer period allows parents to make sure their kids are OK before returning to class.
The week delay in January is odd, however. For winter break, kids who get COVID-19 on Christmas, Friday, Dec. 25, would show symptoms the next week, well before the normal return to class.
Taking the first week off really only makes sense if kids are out partying on New Year’s Eve with strangers from outside their household — in which case, I want my kid to hang out with those kids because they sound awesome — but if so, COVID-19 isn’t their biggest problem.
Certainly a month away, conditions will change, but we have yet to see if the coronavirus spread will be better or worse by then, how Americans handle holiday travel and how the coronavirus vaccines are implemented. We trust that these school boards will address these changes next month.
Christopher Fox Graham
Managing Editor
