Survey results show 79.1% of the Pleasant Valley School District parents said they want their children back in school five days a week.

The recent survey specifically sought input for grades kindergarten through sixth grade, noting that the children could be seated as close as 3 feet apart.

Rae Lin Howard, the assistant to the superintendent, told the school board Thursday night that parents commented they were concerned about the closer distancing.

“Safety is still a concern for them,” she said.

Parent Jeff Fors of Polk Township, told the board he thinks the children should be in school five days a week.

“We did that understanding that there would be some risk. We understand that there’s going to be a lot more kids in the schools. There’s going to be more potential exposures and we understand that that risk is there,” he said. “We’re not asking (the school board) to make a zero-risk decision on behalf of the family. Us as parents have made that decision. We’ve said yes. We’ve accepted some additional risk in returning our kids to school and we want to see them there.”

He said he thinks the children are falling behind, parents are having difficulties juggling work and schooling, and he doesn’t want the school district to get stuck “in a paralysis by analysis” by continuing to look at new data and never go back this school year.

Parent Jessica Place of Eldred Township said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations are recommendations, not requirements.

“How much longer are we going to keep doing this,” she asked and wanted to know when they might actually go back. “Stop leaving us in the dark and leading us on.”

Incidence rate

Another parent, Ron Reynolds of Chestnuthill Township, said he’d love for the kids to go back and knows everyone else does too, but he thinks the school district should follow the science and protect the teachers, staff and students.

“The numbers are the numbers. The numbers are the facts. The numbers, that’s the science. You can’t ignore the numbers,” he said. “I think we should stay the course, personally, and wait until that 14.3% comes down. That’s a high number.”

According to the state Department of Health, Monroe County has an incident rate of 289 people per 100,000 and a percent positivity of 14.3%, which means that 14.3% of the population in Monroe County is currently positive for COVID-19. The numbers were updated on Friday and Monroe County is at 247 people per 100,000 and 12.8% positivity.

Howard said 1,241 parents responded to the survey. About 92% of them have children attending classes in the district’s hybrid program. The remaining parents have children in other programs, such as the district’s cyber academy, cyber charter schools, private schools, etc.

There are about 2,360 children in K-6 living within the school district boundaries, according to the district’s enrollment data for January. Of those children, 1,488 attend classes at Pleasant Valley Elementary School or the Intermediate School. To break it down further, 836 children attend classes at PVE and 652 children are at PVI.

Of the 8% of the families who have children in the cyber academy or other program, 14.3% said they would come back in February if school was in-person five days a week. The next largest percentage would come back next fall.

On the buses

For the question about busing, 77.5% said they would use busing and know that the children would be sitting two per seat, and would be wearing masks.

As far as the survey for teachers and staff, 149 responded. Howard said 60.4% indicated they would get the vaccine, 28% were not sure and 11% said no. Other than what buildings they work in, Howard didn’t say if there were asked any other questions.

School board Director Susan Kresge asked Howard if they would be receiving the comments from both surveys, and school board Director Laura Jecker agreed she wants to see the comments. Howard said the comments are anonymous, and she would provide them to the school board.

Young students returning

Kresge also asked why there was a survey sent out just to families in kindergarten and then a second involving kindergarten through sixth grade, and who initiated it.

Superintendent Lee Lesisko said the administration considered bringing back just the kindergarten students full time, but then expanded it to include first through sixth grade after the state Department of Education and Department of Health put out a statement about younger students going back to school.

“We’ve always been thinking of that and how that would work, but when the Department of Education and DOH came out with wanting the kids to come back that’s when we started to initiate it,” he said.

The two state departments issued a joint statement on a Jan. 7 that is on the DOE website. It recommended that public school districts consider moving elementary school students from full remote learning to some in-person instruction.

“Beginning with the start of the second semester, the departments recommend public schools in counties with substantial transmission consider returning elementary school students to in-person instruction while secondary school students remain fully remote, provided they follow all applicable orders and safety protocols. Also, due to some student populations being disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 response efforts, schools should consider resuming in-person instruction for targeted student populations (i.e., students with disabilities, English Learners, etc.), regardless of the general instructional model they are utilizing. As always, these recommendations are dependent on local factors including size of the school entity, classroom size, school resources, proportion of staff and students with special needs and underlying health conditions, and the ability to accommodate remote learning with equal access for all students,” the letter stated.

Kresge pressed further about who initiated the survey. She said she was upset to learn about it from other people and didn’t know the school district was thinking about bringing the students back.

Lesisko reiterated that the administration was behind the idea for the survey.

“We’d like to have them come back sooner than later, but we are also concerned about safety for staff and students,” he said.

Lesisko said a recent Times News article incorrectly said the hybrid program would stop and students who do not want to move to the full day would have the option of working at home on a full-time basis.

“We need to accommodate both sides, whether it is in-person or whether it is hybrid or even remote,” he said. “That’s what we are trying to figure out, what the best case is to bring kids back. This is where we are investigating information, and we’re bringing it out so everybody knows what we’re planning on doing. We don’t have all the answers yet, and we’re still looking for information,” he said.