About 50 parents and students gathered Thursday night outside the Center Grove schools administration building before the district’s school board meeting, carrying signs and demonstrating their desire for schools to be open five days a week.
All students at Center Grove High School and the district’s two middle schools reverted to eLearning this week after 316 students were absent last week for coronavirus-related reasons. Five COVID-19 diagnoses at the high school and one at Middle School Central resulted in the absences, either because students started showing symptoms of the virus, or they were within six feet of an infected person for more than 15 minutes.
The number of students quarantined was a steep increase from the week of Aug. 12, when 58 students had coronavirus-related absences, school officials said.
For the next two weeks, the three schools will have students in classes two days a week on a staggered schedule, learning online three days a week. School officials have not yet made a decision about what school will look like starting Sept. 14.
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Parents displayed signs with messages such as, “We choose in person, not virtual,” “We support you and in-person learning,” “We love our CG schools” and, “The benefits are bigger than the risks.”
Center Grove parent Kelly Sponsel, has daughters in high school and elementary school.
“We found out kids were going to a virtual and hybrid model a week ago tonight, and I could tell by reading social media a lot of parents felt like I did, which was so sad for our kids,” Sponsel said.
School board members could consider spacing out rows of students so only those directly in front of or behind an infected student would have to quarantine, have students learn virtually one week a month to slow the spread of COVID-19, or have students rotate seats every 14 minutes to avoid reaching the 15-minute threshold of close contact, Sponsel said.
“We’re saying we see the 15-minute rule and we’ll (have students) switch seats every 14 minutes because it’s so ridiculous,” she said.
Parents who send their children to school understand the risks associated with COVID-19, but quarantine rules should be amended, said Mary Graham, who has children at Middle School Central and Maple Grove Elementary School.
“Our hope is the school board takes kids coming back to school and sees if they’ve got COVID, and if not, we need to lighten these guidelines,” Graham said. “We’re hoping other communities hear this and get numbers and statistics and we can make a change with the health department.”
Sponsel made reference to Brownsburg schools, which had 67 students return to school from quarantine, although none of those students displayed or reported experiencing COVID-19 symptoms, according to the school district’s newsletter.
If health officials see students who are quarantined are not being infected, they might choose to limit the distance they deem as close contact, she said.
Social distancing guidelines are determined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which recommends people stay at least six feet apart to prevent the spread of COVID-19, according to the institute’s website.
“We’re wearing masks and socially distancing," Graham said. "Six feet causes more kids to be out with one diagnosis. We’re hoping six feet can be lightened to three feet or so for every one child out. Maybe there are four or 10 other kids (quarantined) instead of 25 kids.”
Sponsel fears students not in school will experience increased anxiety and depression, and says school is necessary for them to develop socially.
Brittany Carroll, a parent of students at Center Grove High School and Middle School Central, said she hopes the school board takes parents’ ideas into consideration.
“We truly believe the teachers are the heroes here. We appreciate them and support them,” Carroll said. “As a parent group, we want to roll up our sleeves and do whatever we can to support the school. They can use us as an untapped resource.”
School board members heard parents’ concerns during a portion of the meeting dedicated to public comment, and acknowledged the protest and emails from parents, but did not take any action to change current policies during the meeting.
School administrators say they will look at data from the first week of students learning at school two days a week and make a decision based on that data, said Rich Arkanoff, superintendent.
“As you know, our ultimate goal is to return to in-person (learning) as soon as possible. On Friday, Sept. 4, we will review data and update the community on next steps," Arkanoff said. "The week of Sept. 14, our goal is to come back completely in person. The data we’ll look at is mostly COVID-related absences. We’re wanting to keep that flat or drop. (If it does), that’ll be a good sign to go back to in-person fully.”
Although educators would love to have students in school five days a week, keeping them safe is what is important, said Craig Smith, principal at Middle School Central.
“What the community hired us to do, first and foremost, was to keep kids safe,” Smith said. “Having kids inside our buildings is something we really can’t replicate, but it really comes down to when we saw those numbers starting to increase last Thursday. We needed to make a difference and we wanted to keep kids safe. Blended learning may be the best answer for right now. Not from now on, but right now.”
Students and teachers have done a great job adapting to different circumstances that have been thrown at them, changing circumstances that they will likely have to continue to adapt to, said Jeffry Henderson, principal at Center Grove High School.
“I’m incredibly proud of our kids and staff for their dedication and compliance to the mask mandate,” Henderson said. “I think we’re finding teachers are adapting. They all have just about become Marines: improvise, adapt and overcome. Teachers sometimes may feel like they might be at war against an unseen enemy.”
