Remote learning still a 'last resort' for local schools

A new push for remote learning has emerged nationally amid skyrocketing COVID-19 case numbers, totals that some experts feel will create inevitable and insurmountable public school staffing shortfalls. National Nurses United, the largest organization of registered nurses in the country, said Monday that it supports a return to remote learning as a proactive measure rather than "waiting for scientific proof of harm before taking action to protect people's health." "We always advise people to practice physical distancing in order to avoid infection, but schoolchildren are actually required to gather in large groups every day," said Martha Kuhl, National Nurses United secretary-treasurer. "The responsible thing to do to protect them is to provide an alternative to in-person school through remote learning until we get this surge under better control." Every public school district in Medina County aside from Wadsworth and Black River instituted a mask mandate upon return from holiday break, but none have indicated that remote learning is a likely scenario. The county continues to stack new daily COVID-19 case records with the current high mark set at 512 on Dec. 28. Updated Ohio Department of Health reporting over the past few days has added to an initial Dec. 28 total of 491, which was also a Medina County 24-hour record. Until Monday, Brunswick Schools had avoided districtwide mask mandates in the 2021-22 term, instead opting for individual building absence thresholds that would trigger such requirements. Superintendent Jason Niedermeyer said Tuesday that he and other administrators will do everything in their power to keep students in buildings. "We're going to do everything we can as a school district, from a mitigation standpoint, to avoid remote learning," he said. "If this pandemic has taught us anything, it's that the best and optimal learning environment is face-to-face and in person. We're going to do everything we can to make sure we can continue to offer that to our families. "Now that we're back in session for our second day we're getting a better handle on what kinds of absentee rates we're getting out of our staff. Not every absence is related to COVID but, unfortunately, many of them are. We're fortunate that our substitute fill rates have remained higher than what's happening in other districts. We're cautiously optimistic that we'll be able to continue to fill those and operate in person as long as possible." State data places Medina County's COVID-19 testing rate at 4,892 per 100,000 residents with a positivity rate of 28 percent. Over the past two weeks, Medina County is ranked seventh in Ohio with 1,717 cases per 100,000 residents. The U.S. is averaging more than 400,000 new cases a day for the first time in the pandemic, though hospitalizations are growing at a much slower rate, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Just before New Year's, the Cleveland Metropolitan School District announced it would move to remote learning for the first week of 2022 because of COVID-19 spikes. Cloverleaf Schools Superintendent Daryl Kubilus said that remote learning remains the least-desirable option among administrators as well as parents on both sides of heated mask requirement debates. "Remote learning, for us, is an absolute last resort," he said. "We would exhaust everything we could do to keep kids in school. I would think the only consideration for something like that would be due to a staffing scenario. I don't want to alarm our parents by even mentioning it. Since we came off remote learning last year, the thing that united everyone in their conversations with the district was wanting our kids to be educated in the schools." Calls for remote learning are also coming from teachers unions in areas including New York City and Chicago. According to National Public Radio, a virtual town hall held Sunday saw 80 percent of 8,000 attending Chicago Teachers Union members express opposition to carrying on with in-person classes. More than 25,000 members of the union were slated to hold a formal vote on the matter Tuesday, with the possible outcome of refusing to report to buildings. In New York City, the United Federation of Teachers has asked that remote learning be instituted for "at least a few days" due to a significant uptick in teachers testing positive for virus infection. However, that request was quickly shot down by new Mayor Eric Adams. Kubilus said that despite local difficulties created by COVID-19 cases and staffing shortages, he prefers having local control over any move to remote learning as opposed to state or federal mandates. "Our desire is to have our kids in school, period," he said. "There's been some other things in regards to the virus that the state government has opted not to pursue. Different counties in Ohio might have different issues as a result of the virus and its level within different communities. It's difficult to paint the entire state with a broad brush when it comes to remote learning. We experienced great learning loss as evidenced by our diagnostic testing of kids as a result of remote learning. "I know we're now able to administer (remote learning) much more effectively than we could in March of 2020 but, still, the best possible education we can give our kids is right here in our buildings." Niedermeyer agreed in regards to having local control over in-person versus remote learning, but he added that some areas of state and federal pandemic guidance continue to send mixed messages. "Local control is helpful because COVID impacts every community differently," he said. "I guess the fact that it feels like the rules change every five minutes is what's frustrating for school districts. We're really, really fortunate in Medina County that we have the guidance of (Medina County Health Commissioner) Krista Wasowski. When you talk about someone who's just on 24/7 and just very helpful, that's her. In some cases, the guidance (coming from the state and federal level) feels like you're taking steps backward." Contact reporter Jonathan Delozier at (330) 721-4050 or jdelozier@medina-gazette.com.