Students able to opt out of in-person instruction — but not teachers and some are objecting

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Lt. Gov. Talauega Eleasalo Ale said some public school teachers have lobbied — even directly with him — against re-opening schools with in-person classroom instruction set to begin May 2 and that the governor is expected to issue this week a new COVID-19 declaration allowing the reopening of in-person instruction at schools, albeit with restrictions.

Talauega, who is also the Governor’s Authorized Representative (GAR), made the revelation during Monday’s COVID-19 Task Force virtual news conference, where Education director Talauega Dr. Samasoni Asaeli presented the local Education Department’s (ASDOE) staggered Hybrid/Blended Learning Plan for public schools from May 2 to June 10.

The Education director explained that under the plan — with the goal of “Safety First” — Early Childhood Education (ECE), Kindergarten, and Grades One through Four will continue virtual learning from home, just as has been done over the past couple of weeks.

However, Grades Five to 8 will be given the opportunity for in-person learning on designated days. “Because of the different sizes of elementary schools, we decided that the schools with small enrollments will have Grades five to 8 come to school, all at once — but on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays,” he explained.

As for Grades 5 to 8 on schools with high enrollment each grade level will have a day of in-person instruction: Grade 5 on Mondays, Grade 6 on Tuesdays, Grade 7 on Wednesdays and Grade 8 with two days on Thursdays and Fridays.

And the reason for Grade 8 with two days of in-person instruction is because students in this grade level will be transitioning into high school in the new school year. Data was also presented by ASDOE on enrollment of each elementary school — showing the schools with small enrollment and high enrollment.

For high schools: Each of the four grade-levels will have a day of in-person instruction, with Grade 9 on Mondays; Grade 10 on Tuesdays; Grade 11 on Wednesdays and Grade 12 on Thursdays and Fridays. 

Grade 12 with 2 days is because students are about to graduate and “we want to make sure that they get in-person time to work with their teachers so they can address some things that they are not able to address during virtual learning time,” the Education director said.

He also said that the schools are working on their own specific schedules, given the time frame for instruction so “we can implement this successfully.” Furthermore, a few changes and modification are needed to be made in the high school level “because there are classes that are mixed and so forth but in the elementary level it’s easier because they have self contained classrooms.”

ASDOE also provided a break down on each public high school enrollment for the specific days of in-person classroom instructions. And the department is finalizing “preventive procedures and protocols”, working in collaboration with the Health Department “to ensure that we are doing this in the safest way as possible and achieving the goal of providing some in-person learning time,” said the Education director.

For example, ASDOE is working on finalizing the “parent consent form” — which will solicit from parents consent to have students participate in in-person learning and giving approval for the schools to conduct COVID testing if needed.

He explained that students fully COVID-19 vaccinated may participate in in-person learning, while students with one-shot or no shots at all, will have to continue on with virtual learning from home.

However, he said if parents decide they do not want their children to attend in-person learning, even though fully vaccinated, “that is at the discretion of the parent to allow them to continue to attend school virtually.”

“So even in the days of in-person learning, virtual learning will be on-going at the same time for particular grade level for the benefit of students who want to continue with virtual learning from home,” he explained.

Another preventive protocol put in place, is that there will be check-points at schools: one entry and one exit point for all schools with personnel there to do the usual temperature reading; check vaccination cards and so forth.

According to the Education director, the department is finalizing procedures with DoH on what needs to be done if a student or staff comes in to school with symptoms, or if a student or staff develop symptoms while at the school campus. And DoH is conducting training this week for some staff from each school on the procedures, including COVID testing protocols.

The Education director emphasized that for students/staff who develop symptoms or become ill on campus, or show up with symptoms, ASDOE will follow protocols approved by DoH to ensure the protection and safety of students and others on campus.

ASDOE also plans to enforce masking, sanitizing and social distancing — not only in classrooms but also on school grounds.

Meals for in-person instruction days will be delivered directly to the classrooms by the school lunch program and students will have their meals in the classroom “to minimize roaming around… campus,” said the Education director.

As for students participating in virtual learning from home, ASDOE is working with villages to identify places were the school lunch program can distribute the meals out in the villages with the help of the pulenuu.

On the issue of school transportation, school buses will transport students, enforcing masking, sanitizing and social distancing. ASDOE is finalizing plans to have one-student per seat-row on the bus; and sanitizing of school buses before and in between trips.

This week, ASDOE is holding training with a local company to train school personnel on how to properly sanitize classrooms, high traffic areas in the school, and all the school buses.

According to the lieutenant governor, the ASDOE’s plan has been approved by the governor, subject to fine tuning for the rest of this week until school starts on Monday.

Talauega, who is also chairman of the task force, reiterated what he said in previous news conferences that this decision by the governor to re-open schools “is because of his grave concern about the education of our youth. These last two months has been difficult for them and the governor is very concerned about wasting the minds of our students.”

“So that’s why we’ve decided to implement this procedure to provide our students, especially those who are in 8th grade and 12th grade, who will be moving on to the next level of education, that they are prepared,” he said.

He noted that there are concerns from parents on the safety and security of their children and teachers as well. “Those are understandable but I ask for cooperation and assistance so that we can allow this process to happen and educate our students so that they are prepared to handle the rest of their lives,” he said.

Talauega then revealed that some ASDOE teachers have already contacted him, even directly, to “try to lobby against reopening schools” and he asked these teachers, “to please work with the director, work with your supervisors and the principals to make this work.”

“Our duties as teachers is to teach. Please I ask you to remember that — your calling as teachers is not just a job but a calling from God to teach our students so that they can be well educated,” he said and revealed that the governor will issue a new COVID-19 emergency declaration later this week.

And the new declaration will officially remove the prohibition of in-class learning to allow ASDOE as well as private schools to open schools for in-class teaching, he said, noting that it will come with restrictions.

“As you know, students of certain age are not eligible for the vaccination, so we will make sure that they are protected and not subjected to the virus during this time,” he explained.

The new declaration, he said will also provide some easing of restrictions in terms of public gathering.