Lake Washington Parents Speak Out Against Secondary Learning Plan

REDMOND, WA — A group of students and parents rallied in Redmond Monday evening at the Lake Washington School District headquarters, where the school board held its first in-person meeting since the pandemic began.

According to KIRO 7, hundreds assembled outside the meeting, calling on the district to reconsider plans to keep 6th - 12th graders on a fully remote learning plan through the end of the school year.

The district announced an agreement with the Lake Washington Education Association last week, updating its Pathway Forward roadmap to reflect changes for secondary education.

"After analyzing a number of factors, the District has determined that the shift to a hybrid model and disruptions to schedules would create more challenges and problems for secondary students than benefits," the district wrote last Thursday.

Kindergarteners and first graders began returning to the classroom on Feb. 18, while 2nd - 5th graders are slated to return through March.

The district said negotiations were underway to ensure in-person support services for older students, but most coursework would remain remote through the school year. For school sports, high school football returned on Feb. 24, and plans for more sports to resume are in the works, the district said.

Inside Monday night's school board meeting, several students and parents signed up for public comment, speaking out against the district's choice to forgo in-person plans for older learners, and sharing personal insights into the mental health toll and academic challenges brought by a year of learning via computer.

"My 11th grader is autistic and has always had an issue with anxiety, depression and attention disorder," one mother told the board. "He is in grave danger of not graduating next year because he so greatly needs the personal connections that help him succeed in school."

Another parent said he did not believe the district had adequately planned for a return to the classroom, despite improving coronavirus metrics and evolving state guidance.

"For the past six months, we were told there is a plan to reopen when it is safe to do so," he said. "Now that it is safe, we are told we are not resourced to execute on [a] hybrid model, only an insincere management plan that they know they can never execute on. I feel there was no plan; we were lied to."

New modeling, shared by the state Department of Health in late February, found relatively low risks for K-5 students to resume classroom instruction with proper safety measures in place. However, the same report showed high schools more likely to have outbreaks and older students more susceptible to infection.

Teachers' unions in some districts have resisted large-scale in-person learning plans until the wider population of teachers and school staffers qualify for vaccination. On Tuesday, President Joe Biden directed states to prioritize vaccinations for teachers in March through the federal pharmacy program. Later in the afternoon, Gov. Jay Inslee said all educators would immediately qualify for appointments.

As another tool, the state is working to increase the availability of rapid antigen tests to help screen students and teachers after early success in several pilot programs.

Monday's board meeting also heard directly from some students, who shared firsthand accounts of virtual classroom struggles and acknowledged a greater challenge for some students than others.

"I have food, a mother who's employed and recovered from COVID, as well as help with school at home; I am a super fortunate kid," said one sixth-grader from the International Community School. "Right now, I'm not going to talk about me. I want to talk about the kids who don't have these luxuries. Kids whose parents have to leave the house to put food on the table, kids who struggle in broken homes, and kids who have parents who can't speak English and are unable to help them with school work. I also want to recognize my fellow students and classmates who are struggling with anxiety, depression and the effects of long-term isolation. I have struggled with anxiety and I am here to ask you to give us the opportunity to return to our classrooms where we belong."

Monday's school board meeting, including the full public comment period, can be viewed on the Lake Washington School District website. A spokesperson for the district told Patch that parents can expect a weekly update Wednesday, which will include the superintendent's full report from Monday.