Open and Shut?

There's a controversy in my area--and probably in yours, too--about whether schools should open with in-person learning or only with on-line instruction. There appears to be a small but vocal group arguing that it is perfectly safe for kids to return to the classroom as long as masks, social distancing, etc. are part of the protocol.

On one level, I agree...but I don't think the people advocating in-person school have really considered what that means. In my area (and I suspect in most others), classrooms are designed to hold 20 to 30 desks at normal spacing--call it four or five rows of desks, each with just enough space for a chair between each desk in a row and an aisle of maybe four feet between rows. Change that spacing so that there's six feet between each desk in all directions and how many desks can you put in that room? Half as many? Less? Let's call it half--that means we need twice as many classrooms to hold the same number of students. And, assuming one teacher for every room, twice as many teachers.

While it might be possible, I suppose, to hire double the number of teachers (or maybe some para-professionals) to cover those extra rooms...where are the rooms going to come from? The school buildings were built with X number of rooms. I suppose gymnasiums and cafeterias might be utilized to some extent, but that leads to questions of noise control, classes interfering with each other, etc.

And so far, we're really only talking about elementary school conditions, where students largely stay in one room for the whole day. What happens in middle schools and high schools, where students change rooms four to six times a day (depending on schedules)? How do you maintain social distancing in the hallways? I've heard suggestions that students remain in place and teachers move from room to room...but different classes require different equipment, different books, different configurations.

Doing any of this will require more spending, and schools are already increasing budgets for other COVID-related expenses, such as cleaning and PPE supplies. I'm already seeing complaints in the local papers about rising school taxes, especially from people who seem to think their taxes should have gone down since the school buildings were closed for three months this year.

I'm sorry....but even in the best of all worlds, in-person learning in a safe way is probably impossible before January at the earliest.