COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KKTV) - Teachers at Colorado Spring’s largest school district are pushing back on a plan to get students back into the classroom this fall. Some teachers at Academy School District 20 have started a petition asking the district for a virtual re-opening in the fall.
“Being in larger groups is more likely to transmit COVID, so being in an in-person classroom environment is, to my perspective a very dangerous tempting of fate,” said Anita Gandhi, a French teacher at Mountain Ridge Middle School.
Teachers tell 11 News they’re worried about the recent spike in cases in El Paso County, stating they’re not sure going back to in-person learning is the best. They say the district provided teachers with a survey in early June for feedback on returning to school in the fall.
“A lot of people have said that in the survey we took in June ‘I said I would be comfortable returning to an in-person environment’ and if you look at our statistics at that time, our numbers were decreasing and there was a reasonable expectation that would continue, but it hasn’t,” Gandhi said.
Several teachers wrote an open letter to the district in the form of a petition asking to return to school in a virtual setting.
“It would be that we returned to school in a virtual environment and that we don’t go back to an in-person classroom setting until we have 14 days of no reported cases in El Paso County,” Gandhi said.
According to the teachers 11 News spoke with, they did not have a say in the back to school plan, which is why they decided to pen the letter. District 20 teachers say they don’t want to diminish the work the district has done in coming up with a plan, but they do wish they had more of a voice.
“We’re going to be the ones subjected to it so it would’ve been amazing to be a part of that discussion,” said Shannon Mello an Art teacher at Mountain Ridge Middle School.
“I don’t know what teachers or what staff members were a part of this decision but I do know that I was not,” Gandhi said.
Teachers go on to say virtual learning would be safer for everyone involved. They tell us they have the tools to successfully provide a meaningful experience for students where learning is purposeful and personalized but done so in a safe manner.
Another worry they have is putting themselves and their families at risk of spreading the virus if they’re in a school with hundreds of kids.
“We also have to think of the personal of it because I am a mom first and foremost both of my kids will be at Rampart this year and I am terrified for the three of us. We are all of us going to see 200 kids in our vicinity on the weekly,” said Jennifer Gorbea, a Spanish teacher at Rampart High School.
Teachers tell us when it comes to their own safety, there hasn’t been a lot of guidance as to what they are supposed to do if they contract the virus.
“There are no guidelines in terms of what will happen to teachers and we don’t know if we are sick if we develop our contract COVID is our sick time going to be paid? If we contract COVID is there any way to trace it back to us being in a classroom environment?” Gandhi said.
“My staff leave days would be completely gone and I have no idea which means I would start to get deductions. They would start to pull from my pay and that’s three weeks so that would be 15 days, 3 days remaining after my initial 12 for the staff leave that I would not be paid,” said Mello.
The petition has more than 300 signatures from teachers, district staff members, parents, and community members.
Teachers are set to meet with the superintendent of District 20 on Wednesday to discuss their concerns.
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Local teachers asking district to re-think back to school plans - KKTV
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