Calling for a return to school

More than 70 parents, students and community members gathered on either side of Pullman’s Grand Avenue on Monday to agitate for K-12 schools in the city to return to in-person instruction more quickly than planned.

In a meeting Wednesday, the Pullman School Board approved a plan to shift from an online format to a hybrid form of instruction, starting with kindergarten through first grade, on Jan. 4, with higher grade levels added every couple of weeks.

Parent Angela Lenssen, who stood with demonstrators Monday afternoon, pointed out Whitman County Public Health supports a return to classes for elementary-age students. If the district begins the process with younger students now, she said they’ll have more time — and a couple of long holiday breaks — to allow for quarantining and refining plans for the spring semester.

“By Jan. 4, then, they’ll already kind of have an idea of how it can go forward,” Lenssen said. “We may be a phase or two into the plan where my high school children will get back to school sooner than the proposed start date for now. I don’t want to wait till March to have my kids even have a chance to be back at school.”

Lenssen said district administrators, the school nurse and some teachers say they are prepared for the move, adding “there’s no reason to delay trying.”

Jen Greeny, who has two children in Pullman schools, said the demonstration is fully in support of the work and time teachers and administrators in the district have put in to make sure instruction can continue. She said she simply wants to have the option to choose which instructional mode is best for her children’s health and education.

“In this school district, we already have it set up that if people do not feel safe to return to in-person learning that they can choose to stay online,” she said. “I believe that parents should have the choice, within a safe environment, to be able to send their kids back to in-person learning.”

High school seniors Hannah Talbot and Allison Lenssen, brandishing signs bearing slogans like “nothing is worth your mental health,” said one of their biggest worries with school being conducted online is the psychological wellbeing of their classmates. Talbot said there are important social supports in school that not only help them maintain a healthy mindset, but also makes it easier to perform well in class. She said without these resources on hand, students’ mental health and overall academic performance has suffered.

Lenssen said class performance is particularly important for college-bound high school seniors, and pointed out they would be the last to return to in-person classes in the district’s phased plan.

High school junior Ben Goodell agreed with his schoolmates that quality of instruction and social opportunities for students have suffered with classes being conducted online. He said other regional school districts like Colfax have been able to return to some form of in-person instruction and he thinks the same can be done in Pullman.

“I don’t think any of us are really satisfied with online school — especially for the seniors, I mean, we’re not feeling like we’re getting the proper, not only education, but proper opportunities,” he said. “Schools are about being social and having opportunities to explore your interests and when you’re sitting on a computer for four hours a day, you don’t get any of that.”

Scott Jackson can be reached by email to sjackson@dnews.com.