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Still focused on opening schools

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Framing it as a “moral obligation” to Rhode Island’s children, Gov. Gina Raimondo on Wednesday made perhaps her most forceful case yet for the push to return as many students to classrooms as possible starting next month.

The governor referenced her virtual conversation last week with infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, which was streamed on Facebook, in making her case.

“[Fauci] said something that really stuck with me and that kind of defines our approach,” she said during her weekly COVID-19 briefing. “He said that our position, everyone’s position, should be that we all try to the best of our ability to get kids back in school. I think that’s well said.”

She added: “That is our philosophy. I am not saying it is going to be easy. I am not saying it is going to be perfect. I am not saying every kid is going to be able to, or want to, go back to school … We are capable of doing great things when we need to, when we rise to the challenge and meet the moment.”

Raimondo last week announced the planned Aug. 31 start date for the new school year would be pushed back two weeks, until Sept. 14, with the decision on the manner in which districts will reopen their buildings also delayed.

The push to reopen schools has drawn sharp, public criticism from teachers unions, which favor a full distance learning start to the year. Some districts, too, have expressed concern over the magnitude of the logistical challenges involved in returning teachers and students to classrooms. In Warwick, the School Committee voted in favor of beginning the year virtually, which drew a strong rebuke from the governor last week.

State officials have said all families will have the option to start the year with virtual instruction. The governor has also said the nature of the reopening may vary by community, depending on a set of five metrics – including testing capacity and local prevalence of COVID-19 – that have been previously outlined.

Raimondo sought to strike a conciliatory tone during Wednesday’s event, acknowledging the concerns of educators as “valid” and reiterating the state’s commitment to ensuring school buildings are safe before in-person classes resume.

“We won’t force any teacher to work in a building that’s not safe. We care about you. We’re not going to do that,” she said. “But what we are going to do, as a moral obligation to these children, work as hard as we can and push ourselves to the limit to do all we can to get as many students in school as possible. That is my pledge to the people of Rhode Island, and I believe that’s the right approach.”

Asked if she foresees a “standoff” with teachers unions over reopening as mid-September draws closer, she said: “I don’t, because they’re working very well with us … They’re coming to the table to solve problems.”

Education Commissioner Angelica Infante-Green also spoke during Wednesday’s briefing, largely echoing the governor in style and substance. She spoke specifically, however, of what she said has gone unheard in the debate over reopening – families for whom distance learning was a “struggle,” for instance, and teachers eager to return to the classroom.

“We hear teachers that are nervous. We hear parents that are nervous … But what we don’t hear is the countless emails we get from teachers that they want to go back,” she said.

She added: “Many, many families have to go through the choice to either stay home from work or risk being able to put food on the table …Choice is a luxury that not everyone has.”

Infante-Green said districts whose plans did not initially include a full in-person return option have submitted new plans compliant with the Department of Education’s request. She said a priority has been placed on ensuring younger students, language learners and special needs children can return to classrooms.

More specifics regarding school reopening remain largely in flux.

Raimondo said, “each school district has to take the lead” in terms of securing necessarily safety and cleaning supplies, but “no one’s going to be left in the lurch.” She said this week, the state is distributing 600,000 masks, 10,000 gowns and 3,000 thermometers to Rhode Island’s school districts. Other issues, such as transportation and building ventilation, were not addressed during Wednesday’s event but loom over the process.

Raimondo did present a three-tier set of scenarios and action plans for responding to COVID-19 cases and outbreaks once school buildings reopen.

The scenario in which a limited number of cases are identified within a defined, stable group of students, for example, those who have tested positive would isolate and those considered close contacts will be asked to quarantine. In the more severe scenarios – either cases across multiple classes linked to school-based activity, or what is defined as “sustained community transmission impacting school” – those same protocols would be in place, but the Rhode Island Department of Health would respond and evaluate the need for additional steps, such as temporarily moving to a hybrid model or closing the school building.

“Once we get doing, there are going to be cases … A lot of thought’s gone into this, and we are prepared,” the governor said.

Elsewhere during Wednesday’s briefing:

* Raimondo announced a new campaign, dubbed “Take It Outside,” that will be focused on promoting outdoor activities in the months ahead. She said the Rhode Island Commerce Corp., Department of Business Regulation, Department of Environmental Management and Department of Health are involved in the campaign, and that there will be funding provided to support it.

“We know this virus spreads much easier indoors than outdoors,” she said, calling for Rhode Islanders “to help come up with creative ideas to move activities outdoors.” That includes schools, she and Infante-Green said.

Raimondo said she will “have a lot more to say” about the new campaign in the coming weeks. * Raimondo devoted a portion of Wednesday’s briefing to the subject of COVID-19 testing, an area where she said Rhode Island remains a “national leader” despite a “fight for resources” across the country.

The governor said Rhode Island has conducted approximately 440,000 COVID-19 tests to date, and more than 234,000 individual Rhode Islanders have been tested. Since the state entered phase three of its reopening process in July, she said, its test-positive rate has been “consistently below 3 percent.”

Raimondo said the average wait time for test results has decreased in the last month from roughly five days to about 2½ days. She said new agreements the state recently reached with a pair of private laboratories will significantly increase its capacity of tests with a guaranteed 48-hour turnaround time.

Raimondo also praised health officials for their work on responding to COVID-19 outbreaks – “I give the team an A in this regard … Every outbreak, and there have been many, many, has been kept limited” – and said surveillance testing has lowered the rate of infection in nursing homes significantly since the early days of the crisis. In May, she said, 20 percent of Rhode Island’s cases were associated with nursing homes. In the first two weeks of August, she said, that figure was less than 5 percent.

“That’s a stunning improvement,” she said.

The governor shared a graphic seeking to “simply” the steps through which to seek a test. People who are symptomatic, she said, should contact their doctor, a community health center or a respiratory clinic. People with symptoms, she said, should be able to get a test within two days and receive results two or three days later.

Those who are not symptomatic but fall into one of several groups – close contact workers, people between the ages of 18 and 39, people who are traveling between states – can schedule a test by visiting portal.ri.gov.

Raimondo also said the state has acquired five additional rapid result testing machines for use in the school reopening process. The existing 10 rapid machines, she said, are being deployed “strategically” at hospitals, nursing homes and places where outbreaks have been identified. * Wednesday’s COVID-19 data update showed 79 new cases, a positive-test rate of 2.4 percent based on 3,310 additional tests. Three more Rhode Islanders have died in association with the virus, bringing the state’s toll to 1,027. Eighty-two Rhode Islanders were hospitalized due to the virus on Wednesday, with eight being treated in ICUs.

“We’re doing a little bit better,” she said, noting Rhode Island has gone more than a week without a daily case count of more than 100.

Raimondo said state inspectors have observed improvements in terms of mask-wearing and distancing compliance at businesses, parks and beaches. Bars, she said, continue to be an area of concern, with 15 percent of establishments not meeting distancing guidelines and 17 percent still having “customers too close to bartenders.”

“Our compliance has increased a little bit, and you see it in the numbers … Let’s keep it up,” she said.

Reiterating that the 15-person social gathering limit remains in effect, she said: “Fifteen means 15 … We just have to stay strict around that gathering limit.”

schools, Riamondo

Comments

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  • leekhat

    In general I think the state, led by the governor, has done relatively well in dealing with this situation. I happen to agree, however, with the Warwick school committee's choice of just accepting that full distance learning is the prudent way to start the school year, with an eye to doing in-person instruction for some special education students. I did that in the summer and the ratio of teacher-to-student was around 1:3 and that worked well. Our school also ran a summer school for non-special needs students with a ratio of about 1:8. However, the governor's comment that "15 means 15" will not be the case this fall since I was told by my school principal that we are not obliged to keep to that limit in our classrooms and that is the decision from the RI Dept. of Education.

    Monday, August 24, 2020 Report this

  • Justanidiot

    bestest thing to do is to close all public education until the pandemic is cured. the kids will only be slightly stupider than now, and they will still be able to run the fryalator at burger king.

    Monday, August 24, 2020 Report this

  • perky4175

    schools should not reopen covid cases keep going up on account of the rioters she is not a truthful govenor and the school commisioner is just as bad she didnt like it when a reporter asked her about a comment she made saying we may lose a few she denied saying it but who knows where did the reporter get his infor mation she got pretty upset

    Thursday, August 27, 2020 Report this