By Mary O’KEEFE

The discussion of reopening school campuses continues and means that Glendale Unified School District is reviewing a lot of data gathered from numerous surveys, task force committee meetings and emails. Data continues to be collected from surveys sent to parents and students, and meetings between stakeholders and GUSD administrators.

Members of the Glendale Teachers Association have voiced their concern and disappointment with the district’s administration for not reaching out to them for input; however, according to Superintendent Vivian Ekchian, outreach efforts have been, and continue to be, made. Data from these meetings is what the district has been using as it moves forward in the reopening process.

With guidelines due to COVID-19 changing on a daily, sometimes hourly, basis it has been a challenge to keep up on all the new information concerning the pandemic.

“We had been told the health risk remained low,” Ekchian said. “That was on Feb. 26.”

As all now know, that was not the case. To keep abreast of changes, Ekchian said she is in constant touch with Los Angeles County Public Health personnel.

Since the early days of the pandemic, Ekchian sent out information on the district’s COVID-19 response via email and posted information on the district’s website. The district let families, staff and students know everything from canceling field trips to extending spring break to canceling school altogether. Changes didn’t happen all at once but as Public Health released more information on how COVID-19 was spreading throughout LA County decisions at the district level were made.

On March 4, Ekchian sent a directive to GUSD students, families, employees and the community that field trips would be postponed but sporting events, open houses and parent meetings and clubs could continue.

“On March 10, I sent another message [to the same group] that we are preparing to extend spring break for additional days, if necessary, and that was because at that time the information was really coming on a daily basis,” she said.

Ekchian has a long list of emails that were sent out to all stakeholders as the district moved closer to the inevitable decision of closing schools. During this time Ekchian said she did reach out to teachers and staff.

The district created a task force to work on how the future of education would play out. On Wednesday, in fact, there was a meeting of the Return to School Committee that included teachers suggested by GTA president Taline Arsenian, Ekchian said.

Ekchian said she understands this is an unusual time and acknowledged that stress is affecting everyone; however, she firmly stated there has been ongoing communication among teachers, staff and herself. She has responses from Arsenian who thanked her and the district for her response to issues like the tentative agreement that had been reached between the GTA and the district.

The task now is to include all stakeholders and to gather opinions from parents, teachers, classified staff, administrators, students and the community as the district moves forward in reopening schools. COVID-19 has presented challenges not only to GUSD but also to districts across the nation and the world. This is why Ekchian feels data from stakeholders and conversations with those same stakeholders are so important.

The data that has been shared by classified employees and teachers and information from parents made it clear that childcare would be needed when students head back to school. On Wednesday, the first childcare program began at the district for its classified employees, which include custodians since they have gone back to the campuses. This is something that is now free for employees and Ekchian said she is hoping it will remain free as the district expands to help parents and teachers when all return to school in August.

There was a presentation at a recent GUSD board meeting on back-to-school options but Ekchian said there has not been a definitive decision made on what program will be chosen.

“Let me be clear: we have not made a decision of the type of schedule [the district will include],” she said.

The choices that have been discussed include a regular back-to-school scenario in which nothing changes, a totally remote learning option and a hybrid of half the students attending in-classroom school on some days and the other half attending on other days. This would also include virtual learning. The latter would allow the most options for adjustment for social distancing and for any changes that may occur with LA County COVID-19 guidelines.

The data collected so far is being reviewed. The classified and certified employees’ surveys were sent out between June 17 and June 24. Almost all employees responded. When asked if they feel confident the district can bring them back to work safely, 12% of classified employees indicated they “disagree/strongly disagree” and 31% of certified employees [teachers] indicated they “disagree/strongly disagree” with the statement.

Data continues to be gathered. The most recent surveys were sent out last week to parents and students with deadlines for completion and return of July 10. As of Wednesday, over 8,000 parents had responded. There are also two virtual meetings on July 8, one at 11 a.m. and the other at 5:30 p.m. All are welcome to join the virtual community meetings at www.gusd.net/ReturnToSchool or by visiting facebook.com/GlendaleUSD.

Opinions or questions about the reopening of the schools can be shared by emailing ReturnToSchool@gusd.net and information can be found at
www.gusd.net/ReturnToSchool.

At present Ekchian said she is pleased with the response from the surveys with thousands of employees and parents responding thus far. 

  Mary Okeefe