Some Portland schools reopen, others remain in distance learning

The George, Kellogg and Harriet Tubman Middle Schools will remain in distance learning until Jan. 27 to ensure COVID-19 health and safety measures. However, several other schools in the state’s largest district have reopened today. We hear details on the district’s strategy from Portland Public Schools Superintendent Guadalupe Guerrero.

The following transcript was created by a computer and edited by a volunteer.

Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB, I’m Dave Miller. We start today with Portland Public Schools. A handful of middle schools are still in distance learning right now because of COVID related staffing shortages, but several other middle and high schools in the state’s largest district have reopened as of today. The district has gotten pushback for closing schools, or for keeping them open; for not doing enough to maintain safe in-person learning, and for not providing enough remote options. Guadalupe Guerrero joins us to talk about all of this. He is the superintendent of Portland Public schools. Welcome back to Think Out Loud.

Guadalupe Guerrero: Good morning! Thank you for having me.

Miller: It’s good to have you on. I want to start with a few sentences from a recent Oregonian editorial, because they get at a fundamental question about what schools should look like these days. This is what the editorial board wrote:

“As the community now knows, from a plethora of research data and their own experience as parents, students do better socially, emotionally and academically when they attend school in person, aided by the structure of a routine, personal interaction with peers and teachers, and the reassuring sense of belonging to a community of their own. Remote learning is not an acceptable substitute, and we should stop regarding it as such, even in the thick of a pandemic.”

Do you agree with those statements?

Guerrero: As a school district leader, as a longtime educator and classroom teacher, I don’t think anybody would disagree that there’s no real substitute for that in-person experience that we want to be able to provide for our students. Whether that’s instructionally, whether it’s the kind of social/emotional development, social interactions, other school experiences such as extracurriculars, all of those experiences are only possible when we’re able to be on campus. And so for us, our goal has always been to try to maintain in-person learning wherever viable. And so what we’re confronting here, and continue to have to deal with, is as we monitor all those variables that make that in some cases not possible, how do we quickly pivot? How do we remain agile? Because in person learning is our preferred mode.

Miller: Recently, 36 nurses from the Multnomah Education Service District wrote a letter calling into question a lot of different aspects of the district’s safety approach, and with respect to closures, they wrote this:

“It’s clear to us that PPS either has no metrics for closing schools, or that the metrics they’re using are not being shared with school leadership.”

What are the metrics for school closures right now? How do you decide you’re going to close a particular school?

Guerrero: Well, one thing that’s been very helpful for us, as we’ve tried to be really prudent and responsible about this entire pandemic experience, is when it comes to the health and safety aspects of operating our schools, to stay in close consultation with numerous health and safety experts, public health experts, with the expertise that we also rely on to help us keep tabs on how COVID is affecting our local environment.

We’ve been very aggressive and assertive about making sure that our health and safety mitigation practices and strategies are in place. We have continued to make masks available. Social distancing has been emphasized. We put great effort into increasing ventilation. We’ve included screenings, testing for symptomatic educators, vaccinations. We’ve really promoted and made available and accessible, especially in communities where access may have been a barrier at school-

Miller: Pardon this interruption, but we can talk about those issues as well, and you are addressing a lot of the other issues that the nurses did bring up in that letter, which I appreciate. But to get back to this particular point that they brought up, they said the school has either no metrics for closing schools, or that the metrics they’re using are not being shared with school leadership. I’m curious what the metrics are.

Guerrero: Well, there’s a number of criteria that we’re looking at. One of those is our staff absences. Another is student absences. We are looking at possible infection cases that have been referred, that are being looked at. We’re looking at COVID spread in that school community. We’re in constant communication with our school principal in each of these cases, whether we’re deliberating a switch into remote learning or are thinking about a return to in-person. So we’re looking at a list of data. And we’ve made some of that available as data and information is available. You’ll find that also on our website, on our COVID dashboard, so parents can go track that as information becomes available.

Miller: The nurses alleged that individual school principals, who know their schools are unsafe because of high levels of positive cases and exposures, are left with no option but to continue in person instruction despite these risks. What’s your response to that very specific allegation?

Guerrero: Well, what we know is, we are asking everyone to screen for first symptoms. We have not found, and the data hasn’t sort of born out, that our school communities are sort of a locus. The community spread and surge isn’t necessarily happening within our school campuses. Our school campuses are those controlled environments where we can implement all of those mitigation strategies. But working with our principals, who oftentimes have a more accurate sense of each of their faculty members and referrals for potential infection that have been made to our local health experts, that’s what we’re considering, is what is responsible here in making sure that our students can return to in person learning in in a safe environment. So we are being very careful about those decisions, and we are working closely with our school principals.

Miller: Is it the case in Portland Public Schools, as it is in many other districts we’ve talked to, that the single biggest reason that schools are being closed is that there aren’t enough teachers in those schools?

Guerrero: Well, I don’t think it surprises anybody. We’ve seen that in almost every sector of our economy and society across the country and here locally, you can’t run a restaurant if you don’t have staff. It’s no different in our schools. We know that our educators, our staff in every section, whether it’s bus drivers or nutrition workers, that they too are oftentimes being impacted by COVID. They may be infected, or need to quarantine or isolate themselves. They may have a family member who’s impacted, they may be taking care of a family member. All of those possible reasons for not being able to report for in-person instruction, of course, is an important factor for why sometimes staff absences are greater in some particular schools than others.

And so we have to marshal and redeploy our assets, our resources, other staff, to try to shore up some of those staffing absences. So, when student absences are up and staff absences are up, sometimes we do have to make that decision to transition that school community into remote learning.

Miller: The scenarios for staff absences that you just outlined seemed very different from what was alleged in an email sent out by the head of Human Resources for the district last week to teachers, essentially accusing some of them of misusing sick days with the intention of creating school closures. Can you explain what exactly the district is alleging that some teachers have been doing?

Guerrero: What I can say is, whether it’s through the last two years of this pandemic or even pre-pandemic, a school system is built around the instruction that our dedicated educators provide. And I have great respect and admiration for our teachers and all of the other people that keep the school system going. And so overwhelmingly, our educators have shown incredible dedication, flexibility, adaptability. They’ve made transitions to distance learning. They, in addition to lesson planning, have to think about how those health and safety protocols get reinforced in the classroom and on the school campus. And so that’s how I think of our school teachers, in that they really are pulling out all the stops to be present for our students. They understand how important in-person learning is, and that relationship, and having students in front of them.

So, that’s what I would say about our teachers reporting to work. And I do think that sometimes, that they’re not able to be there in person, for some of the reasons that I listed.

Miller: Everything you said, that doesn’t jive with what’s been reported in this letter to teachers from the head of Human Resources, Everything you’ve just been talking about says you respect teachers, they’re doing great, they’re working their hardest, are doing their best. But the letter to teachers seems to be saying the exact opposite, that in some cases, they are misusing sick days with the explicit intention of creating school closures, which is a serious allegation to make. Are you saying that that’s not the case, that you disagree with the head of Human Resources?

Guerrero: Well, what I can’t comment on are some limited investigations where there might be instances where there was some level of staff organization. I don’t think that’s the general norm for any patterns of staff absences that we see. It’s important that all of our employees understand some of the contractual obligations in that area.

Miller: Let me put it to you this way: if it’s limited, nevertheless, it was still important enough for this to go out to all teachers as a kind of warning? “Hey, only use sick days if you really need them, because we think some of you are using this in inappropriate ways?”

Guerrero: I can appreciate that the message, certainly, probably didn’t apply to the vast majority of our teachers, and it didn’t land well. I want to make sure and underline that that’s not reflective of the high regard with which we hold our educators.

Miller: As I’m sure know, the teachers’ union did not take kindly to the letter. They wrote an angry letter back, and they included this line, that the letter from the head of Human Resources “Demonstrates how out of touch PPS administration is with what’s happening in our schools, and lands as an attempt to blame educators for the district’s own failure to honestly and proactively address the current staffing crisis and public health emergency.”

I’m curious, Guadalupe Guerrero, about the bigger picture here, because I don’t remember a time when the relationship between teachers and the district was as publicly strained, as publicly terrible. Obviously, it’s a crucial relationship, there needs to be at least enough trust for schools to work. What do you see as a way forward, a way to improve this very publicly strained relationship?

Guerrero: What I’m observing, and this has been a conversation that I’ve been having with many of my colleagues across the country and here in Oregon; during this time of a pandemic, when public education seems to be taking a bit of a political background, or there is a lot of stress out in the community, and K- 12 education seems to be a focal point for a lot of the anxiety, the stress, the challenges that people are feeling. I prefer never to think of the work that we’re trying to do, the shared goals that we have here at PPS or in the field of public education, I don’t think of those as an us-them scenario. We can only accomplish the work and the goals that we have for our students, by working closely with our labor partners. We’ve tried to do that. We’ve tried to be a leader during this pandemic. I can think of many examples to illustrate that. It is an active relationship that we have to be in with our teachers’ union. I am in regular contact with them as well. And we have to resolve a path forward, together. And that’s my commitment, is to continue working at that.

Miller: At a recent school board meeting. Board Chair Michelle DePass raised the question of why schools serving some of the district’s most vulnerable students have been the first to move to remote school. Do you have an answer to that?

Guerrero: Well, absolutely. As a superintendent of color in particular, just one of five in the state of Oregon, I’m very conscious and sensitive to issues of equity, racial equity in particular during this pandemic. I think we have to remind everybody that COVID has disproportionately impacted our communities here in Portland, especially communities of color. And so I’m also very mindful of how our schools also are impacted during this pandemic. This is why we have gone through extra effort and great lengths to try to shore up those schools where infection cases might be up, where vaccine rates might be lower, where student absences might be greater, to make sure that we have additional personnel there.

I’m glad that last spring, we were able to identify new state and federal resources in addition to our own general fund to additional support staff in some of those same school communities. That includes extra nurses, social workers, counselors, teachers, making sure that schools that are oftentimes disproportionately impacted, not just by a pandemic, have the additional, more equitable supports that they need. So the fact that we’re observing that infection rates were higher in some schools versus others is pretty consistent and reflective with what we’ve been seeing in this pandemic across all sectors.

Miller: How much of this has to do with the staffing of substitute teachers?

Guerrero: Well, as in most school systems, we’re very appreciative of our substitute teachers. They make themselves available, sometimes Monday through Friday, sometimes only on certain days. They sometimes live on one side of town, they prefer to work on one side of town. So we recognize that some of our schools may be in further corners of the city. What we’ve tried to do is to sort of mitigate; when substitutes are less likely to take jobs at certain schools, we’ve dedicated what we call building subs in those schools. So there’s always extra staffing in places where substitutes are less likely sometimes to take jobs in certain schools. We’re well aware of that. But it is true that sub uptake rates at some schools, that’s not equally always the case.

Miller: Along similar lines, we’ve got a comment on Facebook from Beth Fry, who wrote: “What can members of the community do to support students in schools?” For instance, she wrote “I’m retired and I have some time, although I could not commit a full day to be a substitute teacher, which I understand is a real need right now. But I could do something else.”

What could someone like Beth do?

Guerrero: Well, I always appreciate when there’s an experienced educator out there, a retiree, someone who has institutional knowledge who’s worked in the field of public ed. Those are exactly the kinds of candidates we hope will consider, and thank you for the opportunity for a public announcement here, Portland has been very assertive about trying to identify additional personnel, including leveraging this new flexibility to bring aboard emergency licensed substitutes. That includes, just since the winter break, an additional 120 substitutes with people just like the one who just wrote in saying I’ll help out, and I can help cover a class. Now of course, we always prefer the stability of a teacher, but a licensed retiree or someone who has worked in the field of education or who has a content area expertise, those are perfect candidates for substitute teachers. So we’re continuing to create incentives, pay signing bonuses, etc., to try to encourage folks to step in and help out as we try to navigate getting through this pandemic.

Miller: I’m gonna turn briefly to vaccination rates. It’s something that you mentioned in response to the letters from the nurses. And you noted that 85% or so of older students are vaccinated now, but the fact is that 15% are not. I should point out, these are not PPS numbers. These are Multnomah County overall numbers. We can assume that there’s a fair amount of overlap, but they’re not exact. But for students ages 5 to 11, fewer than 50% of students are vaccinated right now. Do you stand by the district’s decision back in November to not call for a vaccine mandate for students now?

Guerrero: Well thank goodness we’re here at Portland Public Schools, in Oregon. Other places around the country, and locales even in this state, don’t see the kinds of vaccination rates that we have here. And we attribute that to a populace that understands what an important protective measure the vaccines and boosters can be. And we’ve really tried to encourage that access. So you have seen posted a whole calendar listing vaccine clinics being made available for students and their families, particularly in communities where we know healthcare isn’t always there for our families. And for our younger students, we have also continued to make vaccine clinics available.

To the question, there is variability there. We did decide to pause for a moment around a mandate, and continue to focus on education and accessibility with clinics, in conjunction with many of our healthcare partners and providers in the area. And we know that this is going to be an important question statewide, and for our public health leaders, just as they consider other compulsory immunizations like measles and rubella and the other traditional immunizations. And we know that there’s a 10 or 12 step process that needs to be playing out there. This is one of those instances where we thought we’d pause and redouble our efforts on being proactive and preventative. And I don’t know where this will go, as far as being compulsory, vaccine mandates for students. But in the meantime, we’re going to stay focused on continuing to increase the percentage of students who do have the vaccine.

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