NEW ORLEANS — NOLA Public Schools are returning to in-person learning for some students today after being closed for three weeks due to a post-Christmas spike in COVID-19 cases.
Elementary and middle school students and teachers start class today.
“We went for two days and then had a steady string of emails thereafter of infections so I think the school system dodged quite a few bullets as far as the transmissions in school after the break,” said Eric Schroeder, a middle school social studies teacher in New Orleans.
Schroeder said he is hesitant to return.
“For myself, I am nervous. Having spoken to a few teachers, the mood is fear,” Schroeder said. “Teachers, in general, don’t understand the decisions that are being made or how they’re being made.”
NOLA Public Schools announced last week, elementary and middle school students will return to in-person classes on February 1. High school students will be phased back into school with a full hybrid model that includes in-person learning after Mardi Gras as long as the city COVID numbers don’t get worse.
Meanwhile, schools in the UK are closed to in-person learning in response to the new UK variant, B.1.1.7. That more contagious variant is now in Louisiana, making Schroeder concerned that the virus could spread more easily in a classroom.
“It’s really tough when education funds have been neglected for so long in face of other priorities and suddenly education is the biggest priority and we're willing to risk lives for it,” he said.
Senior Advisor to the President, Cedric Richmond, spoke on Face the Nation Sunday morning about President Biden's efforts to open the majority of K-8 schools in April.
“The key to it is passing the American Rescue Plan so we provide school systems and local municipalities to open schools safely and we think that if we invest in the resources to make it safe, schools should reopen,” Richmond said.
President Biden’s plan would put $170 billion dollars towards reopening schools. It would go to PPE, improved ventilation in schools, modifying class sizes, and hiring more janitors.
“Give the school systems the ability to buy the masks, ventilation systems, all the things needed to open up," he said.
Superintendent Dr. Henderson Lewis said in the announcement about returning to class last week:
"We know that in-person learning is the best educational experience for students because it develops the whole child, academically, socially, and emotionally. Research and our own district's data have shown us that school is one of the safest places to be when community levels of COVID-19 remain moderate to low."
In Louisiana, essential workers, including teachers, are next in line for the vaccine, but it's still unclear exactly when distribution will begin for that group.
