If We’re So Smart, Why Are Our Schools Closed?
A perspective from Lindsay Kelly
Chapel Hill prides itself on being a university town, full of some of the brightest minds in the state, and yet, somehow, we are about to earn the title of “North Carolina school district most resistant to science.” Despite the local, national, and international data that make it clear that it is safe to reopen schools, Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools will be one of the last districts – if not THE last school district in North Carolina — to offer our children the opportunity to attend school in person. As a community, we should be outraged that the needs of our children have remained unmet for nearly a year, and we should be ashamed of ourselves for electing a school board that lacks the leadership to address the challenge at hand.
When our school buildings closed last March, there were lots of unknowns about COVID-19 and erring on the side of caution seemed wise. But that is no longer the case. We have real data from schools and districts across the state and country who reopened this fall and found a way to keep their students and staff safe. We have proven evidence that risk mitigation strategies, like masking, social distancing, hand hygiene, case detection, and quarantine protocols, work. We have clear guidance that we do not need to wait for vaccines to reopen the doors to our school buildings.
Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools has long been considered one of North Carolina’s best school districts and, year after year, new families flock to the area because of this great reputation. But over the past year, the school board has turned its back on the thousands of families who have indicated that their children are suffering and not having their educational needs met through remote learning. The Board has also failed to acknowledge the hundreds of families who have fled the district to enroll their children in private schools, charter schools, and neighboring districts with schools that are open.
And, while our neighbors in Orange County, Chatham County, and Durham County have prioritized a swift and meaningful return to school, the most Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools will offer is the possibility of a hybrid return to school at the end of April, contingent upon their self-generated list of safety indicators. This return would allow elementary students like my first grader go to school two days a week, receiving approximately six hours of live instruction across those two days, for a grand total of 16 days of in-person instruction this school year. That’s outrageous and insufficient, especially given the reality that our elementary schools have been allowed to fully open and operate 5 days a week under Governor Cooper’s Plan A designation since October of 2020.
But somehow our school board thinks they know better than our elected officials, the science and medical community, and the other 99 counties in this state. Perhaps this hubris is due to the fact that we are a university town full of bright minds taught to poke holes in arguments and interrogate the data they are presented with. But are the researchers and academics in this town ready to start the study on how negatively our students have been impacted by this extended school closure? Because it’s not going to be pretty and the outcomes for our kids are not going to be equitable. It’s time for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools board members to stop their fear-mongering and political theatre and step up to the plate to offer our children the “sound basic education” that they are entitled to under North Carolina law. Anything short of that is criminal.
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