BOE hears testimony from teachers, guardians on distance learning

HONOLULU — With schools starting the new academic year in two weeks, educators pled with the Board of Education members on Thursday to offer distance learning at public schools statewide.

Rebecca Hadley-Schlosser, a special education teacher at Nanaikapono Elementary School on O‘ahu, said she spent the last school year teaching face-to-face and online simultaneously.

“I can’t believe that we’re just two weeks shy of school starting and teachers reporting back to work to bring up this discussion on how we’re going to implement things for this next school year,” Hadley-Schlosser said. “I think we need to offer parents the opportunity to choose to keep their children home and participate in online learning if that’s what they want.”

However, Hadley-Scholoseer is not in favor of teaching simultaneously again this upcoming school year. She had 11 students in her classroom and eight at home through distance learning.

“They stayed in my class all day long,” Hadley-Schlosser said. “This meant that they had too long into their homeroom during homeroom time. This also meant that myself and my EA (educational assistant) had to log into every single homeroom at the same time, to be able to assist our students as needed. I ended up using my two personal computers, both my school-issued and two additional monitors.”

It took her almost twice as long to get through a lesson, she said adding that students also had WiFi connectivity issues.

“I felt like I was running a race but no end in sight,” Hadley-Schlosser said. “Please, if you’re going to offer an online option, we need to have the staff to be able to do that and be only focusing on teaching students online so that those of us who are in the classroom can focus on our students.”

Nathan Reyes Oda, a special education teacher at Ewa Makai Middle School, echoed Hadley-Schlosser by talking about his experience as a parent with a special-ed child that had a great online teacher from the mainland that also worked simultaneously.

“Let’s move the lens onto the teacher who had my son,” Reyes Oda said. “I won’t mention his name, but it was the second year he had my son. He was a younger man who loved Hawai‘i with every intention of making this place his home. He loved the kids in his class.”

According to Reyes Oda, when kids were allowed back on campus and parents were allowed to choose distance learning, his son’s teacher had kids in class and online in five different grade levels ages 5- to 9-years-old, ranging from nonverbal to those with attention disorders and autism.

“This was a nightmare, nobody should be teaching this,” Reyes Oda said. “So when this resolution asked us to consider the feasibility of offering distance learning at a state or complex level, to reduce the burden on individual schools, I think it should be mentioned about a huge burden and workload increase on the individual teachers that already happened. He quit and moved back to the mainland. We lost a good one.”

Meanwhile, the Special Education Advisory Council believes that in-person learning offers the best benefit to a majority of students with disabilities.

“We also hold that some students with disabilities actually performed better over the past year with access to quality distance learning,” said Martha Guinan, chair, and Ivalee Sinclair, Legislative Committee Chair of SEAC.

According to SEAC, some kids with disabilities succeed with distance learning because they have the ability to select the most convenient and preferred time of learning.

When students select the pace of learning, it reduces anxiety with social and emotional issues related to attending school in person, according to SEAC, and the students have the ability to revisit the material as well as have the ability to retake quizzes and tests.

Guinan and Sinclair said there was better attendance for students who face barriers related to health transportation or caring for family members at home.

Hawai‘i State Teachers Association’s President Osa Tui, in written testimony, said HSTA supports directing the DOE with families who want their children in a full distance learning program.

“This should be at the case, at a minimum, until such time that school communities can reach herd immunity and all students have adequate access to vaccinations,” Tui said.

Susan Young, an O‘ahu grandparent of a 5-year-old boy, shared the same sentiments.

“I support distance learning in public schools for children under the age of 12, who are not eligible to receive the COVID vaccine,” Young said in a letter.

Last year, Young said she homeschooled her grandchild while taking care of her elderly parents.

“I’m very afraid that my grandchildren will be exposed to the virus, by my grandson attending school in person,” Young said. “I am also fearful of my parents being inadvertently exposed by community spread (by her), as I see my grandchildren every day, and I visit my parents.”

BOE member Kaimana Barcarse said with less than two weeks until school starts, parents need to know what options are available to their children.

“And I also want to suggest we stop calling it ‘full’ distance learning, instead we call it “distance learning” so we can offer partial-distance learning too,” Barcarse said. “For the teachers working simultaneously, at the state and complex level, if there are ways we can accommodate their needs, we need to state it in the resolution.”

Chairperson Catherine Payne said there is a discussion on whether or not children should wear masks in or outside of the classrooms, however, she said the board will rely heavily on the Department of Health’s guidance.

The board will discuss plans for the next school year on Wednesday, July 21.

This article was updated Friday, July 16 at 9:53 a.m. for clarity.