Carson City School Board to consider return of in-person classes for 3rd to 6th grades

The Carson City School District will hold a special school board meeting Thursday, Dec. 17 in order to discuss reopening schools for third through fifth grade students at the elementary school level, as well as sixth grade students at the middle school level.

This would allow students to attend classes, in person rather than digitally, four days a week, Tuesday through Friday.

Students in pre-kindergarten through second grade have already returned to school four days a week.

To protect against the spread of COVID-19, the meeting is restricted to the school trustees, legal counsel, essential district staff and will not be open to the public. However, those who wish to attend remotely may do so by visiting www.carsoncityschools.com and clicking on School Board, then Join 12/17 School Board Meeting.

While COVID-19 test positivity rates in Carson City (28 percent), the Quad-County (21 percent), and Nevada as a whole (21 percent) are at an all-time high, the discussion to reopen schools may seem unusual. However, Nevada School Superintendent Jhone Ebert believes that in-person teaching is not a signifiant contributor to the spread of COVID-19.

In a story published by the Associated Press, Ebert stated her desire to return to in-class instruction as soon as possible is largely driven by concerns regarding disparities in academic achievement between higher-income and lower-income students when taught through only-distance learning.

However, Carson City School District has been on a hybrid schedule, where students are in school two days a week and distance learning three days a week.

According to Carson City School District Public Information Officer Dan Davis, it’s too early to tell whether or not there are discrepancies with the academics of lower and higher income students, and those won’t be known until the end of the school year.

Unlike in Clark County, where an approximate 30 percent of students have not had any contact with their schools since the shut down, the Carson City School District has made contact with all of their students, according to Davis.

Carson City School District went to great lengths to provide both laptops as well as hot spots to any student who needed them in order to connect, and all students have made contact with their schools, said Davis.

According to Davis, the reason behind the push toward opening isn’t new, but rather, has been planned since the original shut down.

“This has been part of the reopening plan since the get go,” said Davis. “They’ve been looking at (reopening) since the beginning of school.”

According to the AP: “Nevada’s teacher’s union has established ‘safe best practices and health guidelines’ but has opposed what it sees as a rush to reopen classrooms and condemned Sisolak’s recent declaration allowing hiring of substitute teachers with no college education.”

“Educators want to return to our classrooms and school sites more than anyone, but we’ve consistently said that the key to the safe operation of school buildings is slowing the spread of COVID in our communities,” Nevada State Education Association spokesman Alexander Marks said.

Marks further went on to say that in Washoe County last week, children younger than the age of 9 represented the greatest percentage increase in new COVID-19 cases.

According to Davis, the spread of COVID-19 within the schools isn’t so much an issue for students, who spread the disease at much lower percentages than adults, as it is for teachers and other staff members. If a student becomes sick, they will quarantine at home and distance learn, but if a teacher becomes sick, there are greater consequences.

So far, there have only been one or two instances of a classroom or a grade level having to be completely shut down to quarantine within the Carson City School District, according to Davis.

The plan will mimic the reintroduction of third through sixth graders in the same way that Pre-K through second were reintroduced four days a week on Tuesday, Oct. 20. All students regardless of grade level will continue to distance learn on Mondays. Students will check in electronically with their homeroom teachers and work independently throughout the school day.

If Carson City School trustees chooses to reinstate in-person learning for the third through sixth grades, students and families who elected full-remote instruction will be allowed to remain in the remote learning instruction model if they so choose.

The School Board will decide whether or not these students will be allowed back four days a week on Thursday, Dec. 17.