The Colorado League of Charter Schools hosted a ‘question-and-answer’ event on Friday morning, May 29, to help charter organizers understand the educational options that might — or might not — be available this coming September.
Pagosa Peak Open School — our local District-authorized public charter school, also known as PPOS — would probably not be in existence, were it not for the League of Charter Schools’ funding and guidance, provided to the PPOS founders back in 2016. But the amount of solid advice available to public schools, concerning the 2020-2021 school year, is sorely limited as the summer of 2020 begins. Limited, and confusing.
Nevertheless, charter schools and traditional schools are making an effort to develop options for the coming school year.
The special guest for Friday’s online meeting was none other than Colorado Governor Jared Polis, so at least some of the information was coming straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak. Prior to his election as Governor in 2018, Polis had a lengthy involvement in education, and helped start two public charter schools.
Some of the advice shared by Governor Polis may have been helpful.
At one point, the Governor was reacting to ‘chat’ comments posted by the event participants.
“Let me address some of the ‘spacing’ comments that are there [in the ‘chat’ column].
“So, some people are talking about 25 students in a [normal] classroom, and if you need to be six-feet apart, most classrooms can’t support more than 10 to 15 students. That’s probably true.
“There’s two things going on here. There’s spacing in a classroom — and spacing is nice, which in an ideal world can occur. But there will not be any kind of statewide prohibition on having 20 or 25 students in a class.
“That [will be allowed to] happen. The bigger piece, the more important piece, is the mixing of the cohorts. So, 25 people in a classroom, it’s almost a given that they are going to be around one another, and it’s possible anything could spread. You know, lice, or strep, or COVID. But the key thing is keeping those cohorts separate, so that it’s not, you know, three people in a classroom get it, but it’s not 50 people in the school [who get it.]
“We realize there’s still the vector through siblings and everything else, but the point is, you want to catch it when it’s early and isolated, rather than school-wide.
Speaking to the event participants, he acknowledged that everyone is “going to do the best you can.”
“But the more important thing is that the cohorts [from individual classrooms] aren’t all together at recess, and hallways, et cetera.
“If DPS (Denver Public Schools) is saying, no more than 15 in a classroom… but if they’re saying that, then they’re saying that. We are, right now, [limiting gatherings to] 10 people indoors. We don’t know exactly where we will be, but I hope we’re at 25 allowable statewide in August. That would be where we hope to be, which would mean this wide range of [educational] practices are allowable.
“Someone is saying, DPS is requiring charter schools to [follow the 15-person limit]. That’s a discussion we need to have with them. I… They’re trying to figure this out, too, so they are probably planning for 15 and under. Maybe if they have the flexibility, they may want to go to 22 in some cases.
“Look, there’s no question that ‘smaller is better.’ But you’re going to have some interesting things happening. Not at every school, but many of you… a lot of the parents aren’t going to want their kids to return to in-class instruction in August. Now, that’s good, and that’s bad. It’s good, because you might automatically be at 15 kids per class.
“It’s bad because you still want to be able to count those kids [who aren’t in the physical classroom.] They’re enrolled, and you’re teaching them online. Assuming you’re doing both [kinds of instruction]…”
Conventional and charter schools in Colorado are funded mainly on a ‘per pupil’ basis. A school with 100 students receives half the ‘Per Pupil Revenue’ funding of a school with 200 students.
The ‘count’ takes place in the first week of October each year. So schools typically put considerable effort into having as many students as possible enrolled at the end of September. When the Governor talks about ‘counting those kids’ he’s referring to exactly that situation. How many students can the school claim as enrolled students, come October 1?
This past school year, each enrolled student in Archuleta County schools was worth about $8,000.
Governor Polis:
“You know your parents better than I do. But it’s my guess you could have 20%-30% of parents who aren’t ready for their kids to be physically in classrooms in the fall. But that will be parents where one parent is not working, or where a parent is working from home.
“In some of your schools, it might be that almost everybody needs to be back, because they’re working parents, they’re single parents; they need the schools.
“But for many of you, I suspect there will be a percentage of families who want to begin the year with the kids at home. And hopefully, they will return during the year. But the thing is, you need to count them. You need them enrolled and you need to count them.
“If that happens, there will be fewer in-person kids.”
One of the participants, Letia Frandina, had posted to the ‘chat’ window:
About 20% of our parents don’t want to return.
“But hopefully, they are going to enroll?” the Governor stressed. “That’s the key. We don’t want to lose those families — I mean, for your count. You want them to enroll, and be comfortable. ‘It’s okay. You kid doesn’t need to attend in August. They can come in October or November.’ Or maybe they will come back in January. If there’s a vaccine…
“We want to create a way to start them out online, integrated with the classroom. Because you don’t want to lose 20% of your families. I mean, you can’t… Right?”
A school that loses 20% of its student enrollment would presumably need to cut 20% of its staff.
For any school, that would be a disaster.
Bill Hudson began sharing his opinions in the Pagosa Daily Post in 2004 and can’t seem to break the habit. He claims that, in Pagosa Springs, opinions are like pickup trucks: everybody has one.