Classes will likely be part in-person, part remote for Seattle Schools students this fall

The plan Superintendent Denise Juneau released today will be enacted in the likely event that schools cannot fully open - and are not again shuttered due to Covid-19.

The district did not provide details about what student schedules would look like. It said families who want to keep students home will have an all-online option.

In an email to staff late this afternoon, Juneau said its plan will be tied to King County's Safe Start reopening phase in September.

School will be in-person for all students if the county is in Phase 4, which calls for widespread reopening but continued social distancing.

If the county is in Phase 2, which it entered today, or in Phase 3, the district plans some combination of in-person and remote learning.

"The schedule for a blended model, part-time in person and part-time remote learning, is yet to be determined," Juneau wrote. "The in-person schedule is dependent on the physical capacity of our buildings. We are exploring partnerships with community organizations to increase space capacity."

If the county reenters the restrictive Phase 1, school will be entirely remote.

Juneau said priority for in-person seat time would go to students most at-risk, including some students of color, children with disabilities, and students facing homelessness. She said the district had also gotten recommendations to prioritize children in grades K-3 and students transitioning to middle and high school from its engagement teams.

District spokesperson Tim Robinson downplayed the expectation many families had that a more specific plan would be announced today.

“This has never been an exercise in developing the specifics - this has been about developing a framework for those specifics,” Robinson said.

"There’s so much to think about, there’s so much to strategize about."

Several weeks ago, the district asked several engagement teams to weigh in on three potential plans. The teams were comprised of parents, students, administrators, teachers, school board members, community-based organization representatives, and classified and central office staff.

Rather than choosing preferred plans, though, the engagement teams on Tuesday gave the district recommended priorities that the plan should reflect.

Meanwhile, Seattle Education Association, the teachers union, accused Juneau of rushing the planning process, allowing only six days for the engagement teams to discuss the options before an arbitrary June 19th deadline, and failing to get adequate input from staff and families.

“Making a final decision on a specific contingency scenario at this point without bargaining the impacts in good faith with educators will send the message that the district does not plan to reopen schools in partnership with its educators or the community nor with the students furthest from educational justice as the center of this plan,” SEA said in a written statement on Monday.

The union said the engagement teams “were barely able to scratch the surface of the complexities of reopening schools. Meetings were highly scripted and didn’t truly engage or listen to participants,” and did not prioritize the needs of Black male students, students with disabilities, or other marginalized youth.

“Making a final decision on a specific contingency scenario at this point without bargaining the impacts in good faith with educators will send the message that the district does not plan to reopen schools in partnership with its educators or the community nor with the students furthest from educational justice as the center of this plan,” the union said in the statement.

Whatever plans districts choose must align with public health restrictions or allowances.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal said last week that Plan A for all districts must be all students attending in-person, if that model is allowed by public health officials.

Districts were told to make a Plan B, such as what Seattle Schools was expected to announce today, to allow for social distancing, as well as a Plan C: all-remote learning, in case schools are closed due to Covid-19 outbreaks at the school level, or county- or state-wide closures due to significant upticks in viral transmission.

For many families, particularly those who include people with underlying health conditions or other vulnerabilities, sending children back to school in-person this fall is unthinkable without an effective Covid vaccine available.

Still, many parents and teachers have said three months of distance learning have proven how challenging that mode of education is for students - especially many low-income children, families with language barriers, and students with disabilities.

Educators have told KUOW that only a fraction of their students showed up for online classes or turned in schoolwork since schools closed in March, with teachers at lower-income schools often seeing just 30 to 40 percent of their students engaged each week. Seattle Schools, however, said it was not tracking student engagement.

The district released no details regarding how remote learning would be structured for fall in order to serve all students. It has hired Attuned Education Partners, a consulting firm that works primarily with charter schools, to develop that plan.

The district and teachers union are scheduled to begin negotiations next week regarding what school might look like next school year.

"I look forward to working with SPS on ensuring that we are doing what we need to do to create equitable outcomes for our students that we know have been historically under-served by our district even when buildings were open," said incoming SEA President Jennifer Matter.

"Definitely for SEA, our priorities are ensuring equitable outcomes for students who were most impacted by the building closure, and health and safety," Matter said. "We don't want to put students at risk. We don't want to put educators at risk and the greater community at risk."

Juneau said the district plans to present a detailed reopening plan to the school board on June 30th.