Parents, community members urge Pullman schools to reopen

The Pullman School Board fielded comments from more than 30 parents, teachers and community members in its regular meeting Thursday, the majority of whom called for the district to resume in-person instruction sooner than the currently scheduled Jan. 4 start date.

Those who commented during Thursday evening’s board meeting, including two practicing physicians, repeatedly said they favored starting the reopening process on Nov. 30.

The school board on Nov. 4 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.

During the public comment period of Thursday’s meeting, Dr. Deborah Collins, a parent and family physician with a private practice in Moscow, joined the growing chorus in support of reopening at the end of the month.

She said the board’s decision to wait until the spring semester to begin transitioning to in-person learning is not consistent with the best available evidence, federal guidelines or the recommendation of local health officials. She said the current, rapid rise in COVID-19 cases across the country is a concern but there is no evidence to suggest that outbreaks are “caused or worsened by children under 10 attending school.”

“There is no significant evidence to support the incorrect assumption that young children attending school in person will result in more vulnerable adults becoming ill, and the benefits of in person school for most students outweigh the risk,” Collins said. “A month is a long time in the life of a child who is unable to learn, and is losing hope by the day.”

Dr. Stephanie Fosback, a general internal medicine physician with Palouse Medical, agreed with Collins, saying “there is absolutely no evidence that children going to school are going to make my job harder.” Fosback said she and her coworkers commonly have contact with COVID-19 patients and, thanks to adherence to proper safety protocols, no one in her office has been infected by a patient.

Parent Beth Ficklin said she supports the board’s decision to delay hosting face-to-face classes until after the start of the new year.

While she can appreciate that distance learning is not an equitable solution, she said “sending our kids back to school will not end the equity problems in our school district, just like it did not create the equity problems in our school district.”

Ficklin said she is also worried that some families would struggle to access potentially costly COVID-19 tests more than others.

Others who spoke in favor of a Nov. 30 return date said students’ mental health and academic performance is suffering while the online instructional format drags on. Elizabeth Quinley, a second-grade teacher at Sunnyside Elementary School said search engine data collected by the school has shown students Googling the phrase “how to kill myself.”

Quinley said she was speaking on behalf of herself and other kindergarten and first-grade teachers at Sunnyside when she urged the board to consider beginning face-to-face instruction at the end of the month.

“Why fight for a mere three weeks, right?” Quinley asked. “These three weeks would give students three weeks of practicing norms and expectations, before entering winter break, these three weeks would give our district time to reflect with both families and staff before the holiday season.”

Whitman County Public Health gave the district the green light to move Pullman students in kindergarten through fifth grade to a hybrid model of instruction in October. That recommendation has not been extended to middle and high school students.

The board does not discuss the topics brought up during the public comments unless they were previously added to the evening’s agenda. The board may choose to address those issues as either a discussion or an action item in a later meeting. The Pullman School Board’s next scheduled meeting is Dec. 9.

Thursday’s board meeting came several days after more than 70 parents, students and community members gathered on either side of Pullman’s Grand Avenue to protest the January date.

Scott Jackson can be reached at (208) 883-4636, or by email to sjackson@dnews.com.