Keeping Our Kids Safe
By R. M. Carkhuff
Nothing is easy in the era of a global pandemic, especially returning to school. With many factors to consider, one of the most important is mitigation measures -- what is the school division doing to prevent the spread of COVID?
Hopewell City Public Schools’ mitigation measures were already the most strict in the region, and when concerns from the community arose regarding them, they were revised to be even more efficient. And, in the wake of division-wide school closures due to insufficient staffing on Friday, August 20, 2021, mitigation was cracked down on even more diligently.
In a few short hours a testing event for Hopewell City Public Schools employees was up and running, and “less than five” positive cases came back, according to what Dr. Hackney learned from contacts at the VDH.
Following this event, a resolution was drafted and voted into action by the School Board on Monday, August 23, 2021. This resolution requires that all Hopewell City Public Schools employees either fully vaccinate, or submit to weekly, professionally administered COVID testing. The vaccine is not mandatory, but if employees elect not to vaccinate then the weekly COVID test is required.
While some folks, understandably, do not feel comfortable having their children return to in-person school, others are feeling confident that, truly, Hopewell City Public Schools are doing all they can to ensure the safety of all students, faculty, and staff.
“I think Hopewell is doing everything possible to mitigate,” said a science teacher at Hopewell High School. She is a biologist and believes that schools should remain open for those who want an in-person option. “The measures that were discussed by Dr. McClain or Dr. Hackney, I think we are doing everything possible.”
She’s not the only one. A School Board Office (SBO) employee has a student at Harry E. James elementary school, and she will continue to send her student to school, in person, despite the COVID cases that continue to come up.
“I feel confident with my daughter being there because I know that, number one, we’re going above and beyond what’s necessary,” she explained. “Even talking to my daughter, asking her, ‘Okay, so what’s happening?’ and knowing that their desks are spread [out], knowing that she’s sitting at her desk for lunch and not congregating in the cafeteria all on top of each other … that makes me feel comfortable knowing that.”
Continuing, she said, “I know that she’s hand sanitizing, I know that she’s wearing her mask all day, and I know that her teacher is doing her due diligence and making sure her students are safe.”
The employee at the SBO is not the only parent who feels comfortable with what Hopewell City Public Schools are doing to keep our students safe. A teacher at Dupont has children in a different division, and she said the differences in mitigation strategies are “stark.”
“The thing that has stood out to me as a teacher in Hopewell, and the parent of students in a different district, is the way that Hopewell has really committed to going above and beyond what’s recommended and required to try and keep our kids safe,” she began.
“When I compare it to some of the things that my own children will be doing when they get into school in the next couple of weeks, it was very stark how much more seriously Hopewell has taken the welfare of our kids, and the importance of going beyond just what’s mandated for us to do.”
This teacher went on to explain what it’s like to take a look around the classrooms in her school: “I see students in masks and face shields, I see plexiglass barriers, I see the custodians come by my room [frequently] and wipe things off that nobody’s even touched, just to be sure. We’re using seating charts that keep kids clustered based on how they go home in the afternoon."
What is she not seeing? “I’m not seeing those same kinds of considerations being taken by some of the other folks around us.”
Folks on the ground, in the schools, are seeing the commitment to exceptional mitigation measures pay off. As the teacher at Dupont said, another thing she’s found interesting this year is “despite the amount of concern about kids needing to be masked in school, our kids are having zero problems wearing masks.” She noted that students are “playing, they are participating, they are making friends, they are having the social connections they need to have, and they are requiring minimum reminders to pull their masks up and keep them over their nose.”
At Hopewell City Public Schools, the focus is on students, and how to keep them safe while keeping them in school. For families who do not feel comfortable with transmission rates and mitigation measures, virtual options are being expanded. Each school has contacted its community with the next steps on how to apply for the expanding virtual options. Parents are welcome to contact their child’s school to inquire further about these options or their student’s application status.
Families are always welcome to learn more about Hopewell City Public School’s mitigation measures on the COVID-19 Resource Center webpage.