Disgruntled Wayne Parents Rally To Reopen Schools

WAYNE, NJ — A group of Wayne Public Schools parents rallied Thursday night to reopen schools for hybrid learning. The rally comes as school administrators are trying mightily to strike a balance that appeases three stakeholders within the district.

Parents of Wayne students are frustrated by a recent decision to extend virtual learning into mid-February; students in the district are frustrated about a proposed extension of the school day; the teacher's union is steadfast that hybrid or in-person learning is the wrong answer.

Stuck in the middle of the three warring factions are the Wayne Schools administration, and Superintendent Mark Toback, who responded to recent criticism with a simple question.

"How is it possible for any school district to simultaneously balance the differing needs of so many stakeholders during a crisis?"

To better understand the disagreement, it's important to first understand what each side believes. Here's what they're saying:

Parents

The most vocal of those stakeholders have been a group of parents, who organized through the Facebook group Reopen Wayne Schools seeking a return to hybrid learning.

Pix11's Shirley Chan posted video to Twitter of the rally Thursday night, as a crowd chanted outside a Board of Education meeting.

Over 300 parents signed onto a letter sent to Toback, which said the decision to keep schools closed was politically motivated.

"The board’s decision to keep the schools closed is not a safety issue. It is a political one, motivated by a strong teacher’s union," they wrote.

"They are using this position to force the Governor of NJ to prioritize teachers as essential workers and get them vaccinated. Such a move is one we could support, we could rally behind, we could put our voice behind…if the teachers were physically at their jobs teaching."

Toback said recently that staffing shortages, even more so than rising case numbers, are the reason distance learning was implemented.

"Even if we had continued with the plan to re-open for in-person instruction on January 19th, a number of our schools would not have been able to open due to severe staffing shortages. For a variety of reasons, we simply do not have enough employees and substitutes to properly staff our schools and provide adequate supervision for students," he wrote.

Parents attempted to clarify that they aren't anti-teacher, but have strongly positioned themselves as anti-distance learning, something the Wayne Education Association supports.

"Remaining virtual until the virus calms and the vaccine is more readily available is, to us, the only safe and educationally sound course for our students and for our faculty," WEA officials said.

The parents say they understand the health concerns surrounding the coronavirus, but disagree on how dire the situation is. They cite a study from Duke University and the University of North Carolina which found that transmission of COVID-19 was rare in North Carolina schools that implemented face covering, distancing and handwashing mandates.

Meanwhile, parents have shifted their primary concern to the mental health of their children.

Mental health experts have frequently floated the idea that the coronavirus pandemic will have lasting effects on all of us, and schools districts across the country are beginning to grapple with how distance learning amplifies them.

For instance, the New York Times reported that a Nevada school district will reopen after a surge of student suicides in the greater Las Vegas area this week.

"Though we understand the fears associated with in person learning, fear alone cannot be a determining factor. We are all afraid of what could be. But, as parents we are not speaking out of fear of what might happen should our children remain virtual, but rather out of fear for what currently is happening," they said.

Parents say they will protest Thursday, but, if the district won't work to craft "creative solutions" to staffing shortages that have caused the delay in reopening, legal action could follow.

"We are prepared to make noise. We prefer to be allies. We prefer to work for what you want to see happen. We prefer to work together. However, we will not allow the demands of the teacher’s union to supersede the needs of our children. Other schools have found a way. We are confident in your ability to do the same. And we demand you do just that," they said.

Union

The Wayne Education Association has remained steadfast in their calls for distance learning, citing safety concerns, but also a negative impact on the quality of teaching they're able to offer.

"We have learned that there is a small faction of parents in the Wayne community that have organized for the return to the hybrid learning model. We certainly empathize with these parents as our lives too have been turned upside down," WEA officials said.

"However, if some of these parents truly understood the difficulty of teaching in a hybrid classroom and it’s inherent flaws, they may be less rushed to return their children to it."

Officials said that bringing students into a classroom "to stare into a computer" offers no further educational advancement than remote learning does.

"The educational loss would be no better, and would likely be worse as teachers have to teach to two different groups at the same time - a nearly impossible task to perform efficiently," officials said.

This comes as case numbers have continued trending upward throughout the district, most noticeably at the township's two high schools.

Since Oct. 26, the district reported that 656 students have been forced to quarantine, 220 students have tested positive, 205 staff have been forced to quarantine and 61 staff have tested positive.

Wayne Valley reports 125 students have quarantined and 60 tested positive, while 45 students have tested positive and 77 have been forced to quarantine at Wayne Hills.

READ MORE: Wayne Schools Delay In-Person Start; Virtual Until February

The union said any claims that teachers want to remain remote are wrong. It's not the intention of teachers in the district to remain remote forever, only to wait until it makes sense to return to schools.

"No one wants the kids back in school more than we do. We entered the profession for that reason. It is our passion. We want them back, but we want them back safely. We want to engage with our students in the safest and healthiest way possible," officials said.

"The one thing that seems beyond argument is that this virus is unpredictable and the constant mistake we have made is underestimating its wrath. We hope that the Board of Education and Administration continues to do right by our students and staff."

Students

Students disagree that they are currently being done right by the Board of Education and district administrators.

Over 2,600 people have signed an online petition — hosted by change.org — seeking to vote down the proposed extension of the daily learning schedule at Wayne Hills and Wayne Valley high schools.

The proposal would extend the school day for high school students by about two hours, a move students said would interfere with increased responsibility — and amplify pandemic related stress — placed on many of them during the coronavirus pandemic.

Wayne Hills Class of 2022 student body President Grace O'Neill told the Patriot Press — the school's student paper — that she had to take a job because of the pandemic. This schedule, she said, would increase her workload with little payoff.

"School already has way too much control over my life and how I spend my free time and I think these extra two hours would be detrimental to the mental health of Wayne students including myself," she told the paper.

Support student journalism and read the full Patriot Press story here: https://whhspatriotpress.com/2...

The logic behind extending the school day is to make up for a loss in educational advancement, officials said.

"For students to recover academically or to be prepared for the SAT and AP Exams, we need additional instructional time, but extra screen time is a concern," he said.

The district is working on additional guidance which could potentially allow for "flexibility with screen time."

Most frustrating for students, however, is not increased screen time or quality of learning. It's the simple fact that no one asked for their opinion.

"The students of Wayne Hills and Wayne Valley have not been involved in this decision and do not agree with these actions that directly affect us. We were not involved in the decision process to discontinue virtual Wednesdays and will not sit idly by while our schedule is entirely altered without a say in the matter," O'Neill wrote in the online petition.

For now, Toback and the district have published an updated letter with answers to questions from the community.

A Board of Education meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday, and parents are expected to rally outside the meeting, beginning at 5 p.m.

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