Freeport school board votes against quicker return to in-person instruction

Freeport Area School Board on Thursday voted against changing the district’s back-to-school plan to allow students back in the classroom sooner.

At a meeting Thursday, several parents asked the school board to reconsider having students do remote learning only until at least Sept. 21.

The back-to-school plan could allow for students in about half the grades to begin hybrid instruction as soon as Sept. 21, while students in remaining grades could start as soon as Sept. 28. Under hybrid learning, students would spend two days a week in the classroom and learn remotely the other three days.

“Your decision to start us off remotely for the first two weeks has made us one of the most locked-down districts in this area,” said Paula Mason, whose son is a senior.

“There are things more frightening than coronavirus. It’s what we’re seeing happening in our own homes. Our children — they’re anxious, they’re depressed, they’re lonely. They need some semblance of normalcy,” Mason said, adding “there is no substitution for being in an actual classroom with a teacher and classmates.”

Several parents told the board they have experienced technical difficulties, struggled to help their child with remote learning while working and watched their children cry over the frustration of online classes. Many said the problem was magnified for elementary students, who don’t know how to use the technology on their own.

Mason’s son, Jack Mason, gave the board a student’s perspective.

“I want to go back to school. I want to be in school. I want to be with my teachers. Isolation sucks,” Jack Mason said. “People need people. Kids are suffering.”

School board member Christine Davies introduced a motion for all student to return to school buildings full-time on Sept. 21, which she said “would be the soonest that we could get the logistics set up.”

“I’m not excited about anybody staying online any longer,” Davies said, adding that parents who didn’t want their children to return to in-person classes would have the option to keep them home.

Others on the board argued that they should continue to follow the original plan, which had passed on a 7-2 vote.

Board members who supported following the original, phased reopening plan said it would allow them to flexibly adapt to coronavirus data and expressed concerns about the ability to adhere to social distancing guidelines if the school reopened fully.

Ultimately, the vote to scrap the existing back-to-school plan and move to fully in-person instruction on Sept. 21 failed on a 6-3 vote. Davies and board members Frank Prazenica and Gregory Selinger voted in favor of the motion.

“Unfortunately, we have to support the vote and move on,” Prazenica said Friday. “Our parents and our children want to go back and I represent them.”