Manhattan Beach Public Schools Reopen To Youngest Students

MANHATTAN BEACH, CA — Parents of youngsters in transitional kindergarten through second grade might just be saying "Hallelujah" right about now to their child's imminent return to on-campus, in-person learning tomorrow [Tuesday, Dec. 8] when the Manhattan Beach Unified School District substantially reopens elementary school campuses to young students for the first time this academic year.

The reopening of five elementary schools in the district has taken months of preparation by school district officials and administrators who have buffeted an onslaught of parental concern and outrage, community activism in the form of protests, as well as teacher and staff concerns.

However, even as the positive test numbers for cases of COVID-19 continue to reach the highest levels in Los Angeles County since the pandemic began, Superintendent Mike Matthews is ready to move forward.

"As I have said all along, I am following LACDPH [Los Angeles County Department of Public Health] and State guidance," he told Manhattan Beach Patch today. "Both, as of today, are prioritizing the education of our youngest and most needy students as an essential and safe service. If that guidance changes, we will follow it."

MBUSD has also taken into consideration teachers who may not feel comfortable teaching in person and is accommodating them, said Matthews. "For those teachers who are unable to teach in person, we have we worked with them to find alternate placements where they can keep their jobs. None of our teachers have lost a job over refusing to teach in person."

But the Manhattan Beach Unified Teachers Association, which has long been in talks with the school district to have a voice in the arrangements made to protect its members as related to the novel coronavirus and in-person learning, sees the return of in-person learning a bit differently than the school district.

Mira Costa High School teacher and MBUTA President Shawn Chen told Manhattan Beach Patch last week, "The team has asked Mike [Dr. Mike Matthews, MBUSD superintendent] to consider a delay until after the holiday—for so many obvious reasons—lack of PPE and training procedures, which vary confusingly from one campus to another among them.

"We know that the benefit of a delay may never be truly felt—the district may not get appreciation for helping avert the death of a staff member, child, or elderly relative—but we think the [number of] cases and hospital data [in Los Angeles County] warrant caution at this point," Chen explained.

Charged with a heretofore never seen juggling endeavor, MBUSD, as well as every school district and private school in LA County, has been challenged with a multi-pronged but singular purpose since early March: Provide quality instruction via distance learning and prepare for hybrid learning and students, teachers and staff being on campus during a time when COVID-19 requires at least six-feet of social distancing, constant mask wearing and PPE.

Earlier today in his "Monday Morning Message" Matthews shared a link to the district's new and updated health and safety protocols guidebook, something he calls "essential for the safe operations of our hybrid programs." The email also gave a link to a short video for parents that's "a condensed version of a two-hour training we led for our teachers, discussing all aspects of our TK-2 hybrid."

Today, when the subject of PPE for teachers came up, he told Manhattan Beach Patch, "All of that [PPE] is ready to go. Teachers may choose to bring their own masks or PPE, but we are ready to provide it all."

Chen views the process through a different lens and spoke with Manhattan Beach Patch today about her concerns over all of the details that go into bringing students back onto campus. "We have many concerns," she said. "The district plan requires that someone be at the front gate to monitor the check-in status from the RUVNA symptom screening tool... TK and Kinder students are coming to school for the first time and they cannot be walked to their classrooms by parents, a policy to limit on-campus interaction between adults—and MBUTA agrees with that policy. But because we have not been given access to the actual plan from the district regarding staffing—we have no idea if the plan can actually be safely implemented."

Chen also noted other concerns with the school district. "We also are concerned that pods [groups of students who get together to participate in the learning process or exercise and recreational activities] are continuing," she said. "Those pod environments have been the source of COVID infections—and the infections there are not reported on the [school district COVID-19] dashboard since the pod students have not been in-person on campus. Kids from those pods will be coming in person, and with infection rates so high [in the county], we are concerned about the district's ability to manage. We have instances already of transmission from children to adults in the MBUSD community. With the current rates [of COVID-19 in LA County], it is reckless to re-open."

She also says teachers at one elementary school were called by staff and asked to bring their own PPE with them because supplies are limited. "Yes, we on the bargaining team explicitly have in writing that the district will provide PPE. The example of teachers being asked to bring their own just shows the ways in which the implementation of plans on paper is not fully executed. And errors fall on teachers to fix, and they don't know whom to call or how to get answers when each school site implements the plans in a way that is not in accordance with our agreement."

In response, Matthews said teachers have been told "that If an employee encounters difficulties obtaining PPE supplies at their school site, to please contact Dawnalyn Murakawa-Leopard at dmurakawa@mbusd.org. Since the training, Dr. Murakawa-Leopard has not received any communications regarding those difficulties. In my visits to the sites today, principals were preparing PPE distribution for the few substitute teachers that are reporting to campus tomorrow. Our sites have done a great job of providing the PPE as needed to all employees."

For sure, COVID-19 means that MBUSD has had many more moving parts to deal with beyond the normal tasks typically asked of educators. And with more and more data confirming that children are less apt to get COVID-19, the Manhattan Beach push to bring children back to school after some nine months [including summer] of not being able to attend school with their peers is causing people with different life circumstances to wonder if being on campus is a good thing.

"Many of us have elderly parents for whom we are caregivers," said Chen. "We need ICU beds to be available for our parents in the event they have even non-COVID needs at hospitals. With the exposure risk increasing, our elderly loved ones may not get routine care as it's just too risky to expose them in these health care settings."

From Chen's perspective, teachers need to be more informed of plans, policies and procedures sooner than they have been. "It will not be teachers escorting kids from the gate to classrooms. But we don't know who it will actually be. And we also want to know who will be monitoring bathrooms—we have been told 'grounds supervisors'—and we want to know who will be doing the cleaning and when. We have been told 'the plan' but that plan does not include who to call if the plan is not actually happening," she explained.

For sure, sometimes even the best laid plans are imperfect. And managing so much beyond its usual scope is challenging at best for educators. But administrators appear to be doing the best they can with the circumstances they find themselves in. Said Matthews, "I spoke with several of our teachers today. They have been Zooming with their students and they knew exactly which students to expect for tomorrow."

"I believe we will have a great turnout tomorrow, and I’m looking forward to it," he said.