Shaker Heights Parent Group Demands Immediate In-Person Learning

SHAKER HEIGHTS, OHIO — Three days after Shaker Heights Public Schools superintendent David Glasner announced plans for district students to remain in a remote learning model for at least another week, a parents group is pushing for the school board to approve an immediate return to the classroom at its meeting Tuesday night.

Organizers of Shaker Heights For In-Person Schooling (SHIPS) said in a news release issued Monday that the district has “repeatedly failed” to meet deadlines in its plan to shift from remote learning. After beginning the school year using the remote model because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the district was set to begin a hybrid model this week.

But on Friday, Glasner announced that those plans has changed and that the earliest students could return to the classroom would be next week because of the number of local cases of the coronavirus. Glasner said that district officials will continue to monitor data issued by state and local health officials, including the possibility that Cuyahoga County would be designated as a Level 4 or Purple county.

However, officials from the SHIPS organization have sent letters to Glasner and school board members demanding for a return to in-person learning based on recommendations for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics, which the group says supports in-person learning for elementary and middle school students.

The group said in the news release that 70 percent of district parents have preferred at least some in-person learning from the start of the school year. The group also cites the fact that other districts in surrounding communities like Beechwood, Mentor and Olmsted Falls have had students in the classroom this fall.

“When it comes to children’s education and well-being, we don’t have the luxury of time for continued delays in re-opening,” Kayla Fernstrum, co-founder of SHIPS and a Shaker Heights parent said in the news release. “We need bold action from our school board members. It is not enough to support the decision to reopen. We need schools to re-open for in-person learning.”

The SHIPS group calls the reliance on the color-coded risk level system “misguided” and cites scientific evidence that has shown lower rates of transmission of the coronavirus among younger-aged students. The group also said in the news release that evidence exists that demonstrates that students who learn remotely run the risk of educational, nutritional and social deficits.

“I’ve seen the data that consistently points to the overwhelming benefits and low-risk of in-person instruction, even with rising community transmission,” district parent and pediatrician Anandhi Gunder said in the release.

In his announcement on Friday, Glasner acknowledges that other area school districts with a number of safety measures have either experienced zero or very low transmission rates of the coronavirus because they have implemented the kind of protocols that the Shaker Heights district has planned for when it returns to the classroom.

Glasner said he plans to again update district families on Friday of a possible return to in-person learning next week.

“As I've said a number of times this week, we have an obligation as a school district to meet all of our students' needs,” Glasner said this past Friday. “And I want to thank everyone for all of their hard work to make the remote learning environment as successful as possible. We also know that we have work to do and options to provide in order to meet all student needs.”