Tag: Judy Le

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Coronavirus News

Tough call: Albemarle allows in-person learning for select students, while Charlottesville opts for all-virtual reopening

Charlottesville City Schools will reopen virtually for all students, while Albemarle County will allow a limited selection of students to participate in in-person learning. PC: Eze Amos

After weeks of discussion and debate, the verdict is in: Charlottesville City Schools will reopen virtually for all students, while Albemarle County will allow a limited selection of students to participate in in-person learning. Both districts finalized their decisions at school board meetings on Thursday.

During the division’s virtual meeting, ACPS staff detailed the division’s five stages of reopening. Superintendent Matt Haas recommended the board approve the second stage for the first nine weeks of school. Most students will begin the year learning online only, but the plan makes an exception for students with inadequate internet access that cannot be improved, those with special needs who cannot fulfill their individual education plans at home, and English learners with low proficiency levels in fourth through 12th grades.

These students—an estimated 1,000 to 1,500—will be put into pods of 10 or fewer, and paired with a learning coach, who will assist them with their online coursework. Everyone will be required to wear masks and adhere to social distancing within the school buildings, which will be regularly cleaned and disinfected, among other mitigation measures. Bus service will be provided for families who request it.

All students and staff members coming into the school buildings will be doing so voluntarily, Haas emphasized throughout the meeting. 

In the coming week, Albemarle will release more details on how it’s revamping virtual learning, which will include both asynchronous and synchronous coursework, and what actions it will take if a student or staff member involved in in-person instruction contracts COVID-19.

Ahead of Charlottesville’s virtual meeting, Superintendent Rosa Atkins recommended that the board approve an all-virtual model for the first nine weeks of school, pointing toward the rising cases and positivity rate in the area and many remaining unanswered safety questions. She emphasized that virtual learning in the fall would greatly differ from the experience offered in the spring, and would include a variety of new features, from social-emotional learning to peer engagement.

Both divisions will revisit their decisions in the middle of the first quarter to evaluate whether they will move forward with reopening, or stay in the same phase for the next school quarter.

Though all classes will be online, Charlottesville plans to host individual in-person, socially-distanced meet-and-greets with teachers, which students and their families will sign up for. Additionally, it is possible that a small number of students in great need of in-person instruction will be grouped into pods, and have classes in outdoor settings, said Atkins.

About 200 families in Charlottesville have indicated they need child care, she added. The division is working with community partners—including the Boys & Girls Club, Piedmont Family YMCA, and City of Promise—to figure out how to best provide assistance. Students could participate in virtual learning while at a child care center.

Feelings about virtual reopening were mixed in the county. Board members Judy Le and Ellen Osborne emphasized the various risks of in-person learning and lack of solid data on how the virus transmits between children, and preferred to start with stage one, or all-virtual classes.

“I just don’t feel like I can put our most vulnerable students into the middle of a grand experiment, and have them take that home to their communities,” said Osborne.

However, board member Katrina Callsen expressed concern for the families she has heard from who are unable to adequately participate in distance learning, particularly those from marginalized backgrounds.

The board initially did not agree to reopen under stage two, with members David Oberg and Graham Paige siding with Le and Osborne against the plan. However, Oberg changed his mind after a 10 minute break, and voted to approve it, along with Callsen, Jonno Alcaro, and Kate Acuff.

Albemarle parents and staff were also split on reopening plans, per the division’s latest surveys. Out of nearly 7,000 responses, 71 percent of parents ranged from “somewhat” to “extremely” concerned about sending their student to school for in-person learning in the fall, but 67 percent preferred that the division adopt a hybrid reopening model.

Meanwhile, 65 percent of staff respondents did not feel comfortable returning to the classroom. 

If the pandemic worsens in the area—especially after UVA students return—Haas has the authority to revert the division all the way back to stage one without approval from the board.

While the Charlottesville School Board’s vote approving an all-virtual reopening was unanimous, results from a phone and web survey were split. A majority of staff (about 60 percent) preferred an all-virtual reopening, but families showed nearly equivalent support for face-to-face and online-only learning. 

During public comment, most speakers advocated for a hybrid model, particularly for younger students and those from marginalized backgrounds. 

“There is no clear consensus among families about the best path forward…I’m not sure why we are straying from the multipath system that was first designed,” said Richard Feero, who works for Abundant Life Ministries and lives in the Prospect community. “Choosing an all-virtual path to start the school year punishes working-class, predominantly Black and brown families in the city….Why not just give this small segment the option to have their children attend school in-person?”

During its school board meeting on August 6, Charlottesville staff will give a presentation with more details on how it will implement distance learning for students in special education, ESL, and preschool. 

Albemarle’s next meeting is scheduled for August 13.

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News

Cops out: City schools remove SROs, while county holds off

Ahead of Thursday night’s meeting, city school board member Lashundra Bryson Morsberger tweeted her support for kicking cops out of schools. PC: Eze Amos

In light of the ongoing protests against police brutality and systemic racism, school districts across the country have cut ties with police—including here in Charlottesville.

On June 11, Charlottesville City Schools announced it was discontinuing its memorandum of understanding with the Charlottesville Police Department, ending its current school resource officer program. Instead, the district says it will put the $300,000 allocated for its four SROs toward a new “school safety model.” Albemarle County Public Schools will also reexamine its relationship with police.

The decision was a hot topic during the city’s school board meeting, held later that evening. Many parents, teachers, and other community members hopped on the Zoom call, and all but one voiced their support of the decision to end the memorandum.

“The removal of SROs is an evidence-based decision,” said Christa Bennett, who has two children in the school district. “There is no evidence that they prevent more violence than they cause, and in some cases, [they] are contributing to a school-to-prison pipeline:” higher rates of suspensions, expulsions, and arrests for students of color (though they do not misbehave more than their white peers).

When her child attended Jackson-Via Elementary, Robin Francis claimed she witnessed this violence firsthand, when an SRO got physical with a small black child unnecessarily on two occasions. As a person of color, the incidents were “terrifying” for Francis to watch, and reinforced her belief that SROs “do not encourage a sense of community—[but] create a sense of fear.”

Putting police in schools has had a “direct effect on [the] educational progress, and mental and physical health” of black students, added Amy Woolard, an attorney at the Legal Aid Justice Center. Studies show police presence causes a drop in test scores, high school graduation rates, and college attendance rates for young African Americans, among other negative consequences.

Over the summer, the school board plans to host several feedback sessions, during which it will get input from the community, and the new program will be implemented by August 19, when the new school year begins.

While it remains unclear what the program will look like, CCS school board member Lashundra Bryson Morsberger hopes it will be supportive, rather than punitive, and thinks a lot more black counselors, social workers, and other support staff should be hired.

“Police in schools only serves to expose black children to the criminal justice system at a time when they should be able to make mistakes and learn from them, instead of being put into the system,” she says. “Security and safety can be accomplished in many ways, but it has to start with people from this community who know our kids and live in the same communities and neighborhoods.”

Leading up to its decision to dump the memorandum of understanding, CCS received hundreds of emails from students, parents, teachers, activists, and other community members calling for the removal of SROs, according to CCS Superintendent Dr. Rosa Atkins. Its equity committee, along with individual school board members, also reached out to many people and organizations to get their thoughts, both positive and negative.

Supporters of SRO programs argue that they keep schools safe, and help build relationships between students and law enforcement, which can prevent crime and acts of violence.

“On several occasions, the school resource officers were enlisted to ensure [my daughter’s] safety,” said Laura Brown, the only person who spoke against CCS’ removal of SROs during Thursday’s meeting. As Brown and the staff at Burnley-Moran Elementary worked to develop a treatment plan for her daughter, who is mixed race and has special needs, “the SROs were nothing but positive with her and provided her with much-needed security and reassurance.”

Others see the programs as a waste of money, among other criticisms. According to the Justice Policy Institute, most situations involving SROs can be handled by school officials. Though SROs have been ushered into nearly half of the nation’s schools to prevent mass shootings, they’ve also been present at many of the schools where shootings have occurred.

Many, including the Charlottesville Black Lives Matter chapter, have called on CCS to use the extra $300,000 to hire more teachers and counselors—particularly those of color. It could also fund the recently eliminated elementary Spanish program and other positions that were cut, suggested several parents.

After receiving numerous messages from the community calling for the removal of cops from schools, the Albemarle County School Board discussed its SRO program during its meeting Thursday evening. But ACPS plans to finish revising its memorandum of understanding with the Albemarle County Police Department, and may conduct an independent review of the program before moving forward with a decision, as suggested by the district’s Superintendent Matt Haas.

While the county school board agreed to discuss the issue again during its June 18 meeting, most of its members, including Judy Le and Katrina Callsen, supported removing the district’s five SROs, and funding mental health resources.

“I hear our black brothers and sisters, some of whom have been risking their lives in the streets for weeks to protest the generations of trauma from overpolicing and brutality,” said Le, who represents the Rivanna District. “How can being faced with the embodiment of that trauma every day make for a safe and positive learning environment?”

“When I’ve asked questions about it in our division, I’ve been assured that there are infrequent arrests made in our schools, which is great,” she added. “But it leads me to ask: ‘Why do we have the SROs at all? Why are we paying $265,000 for them each year?’”

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How much do cops cost kids?

By Ben Hitchcock

Charlottesville City Schools and the Charlottesville Police Department have discontinued the school resource officer program, which means that the $300,000 the schools were paying the police department can now be put toward other ends.

The school district’s total budget is well over $80 million, so $300,000 for cops in schools might not seem like much. But vast portions of those millions are tied up in fixed costs like real estate and building maintenance. The actual, everyday experience of students is determined, in large part, by budget decisions made on the margins.

For example, earlier this year, when the coronavirus’ economic downturn forced the district to tighten its budget by $1.16 million, CCS decided to cut, among other things, the entire elementary school Spanish program. Eliminating Spanish for elementary schoolers saved city schools $500,340.

The school district’s preliminary funding request for the 2020-21 fiscal year, released in January, gives a loose sense of the district’s aspirations, and also how much those aspirations might cost. CCS and the city spent the ensuing months haggling over whether these additions would be possible. This isn’t meant to suggest that the elimination of the SRO program means these positions will be filled, but the numbers below show the scale of the SRO program in comparison to the district’s other unfulfilled needs.

$300,000

School resource officers program

$97,076

Engineering teacher for Buford

$97,076

English language learners teacher

$75,820

Specialist for annual giving to solicit donations from affluent town residents

$43,470

Part-time orchestra teacher for Walker Upper Elementary

$41,525

Support for social-emotional learning program at Clark Elementary

$16,250

Art supplies

 

Updated 6/15

Categories
News

A different perspective: New faces in county school board race share a focus on equity

Juliana Ko Arsali and Judy Le are competing for the Rivanna District school board seat being vacated by Jason Buyaki.

Editor Judy Le and realtor and former educator Juliana Ko Arsali are vying for the Rivanna District school board seat being vacated by Jason Buyaki.

The two women share a passion for equity and accessibility, and both want to expand school resources and support services, as well as tackle the county’s racial achievement gap.

“In my experience, I’ve seen children thrive when they feel safe and supported. [This] is a way to close the achievement gap.” says Arsali, 33.

Prioritizing social-emotional learning, Arsali seeks to provide easy access to counseling, build empathy into the elementary school curriculum, and expand middle and high school peer advising programs.

Le, 43, wants to better support working parents by expanding the county’s afterschool care program,“which right now has a huge waitlist.”

“People [also] are not being served well by the buses. I would work to make our transportation system serve our families [and] the drivers better,” says Le.

Le’s other priorities include improving services for students with special needs and hiring more diverse teachers.

It’s been an unusually contentious couple years for the Albemarle County School Board, where a movement to ban Confederate and other hate symbols from the district’s dress code led to months-long debate and six arrests. Buyaki, who expressed concerns about the ban, made waves for wearing a Confederate tie to one of the meetings about hate symbols (and for questioning the science of climate change and fossil fuels). He is not seeking re-election.

Both candidates say they will bring a unique perspective to the school board, citing their diverse backgrounds and accomplishments.

After attending college in Illinois, Arsali joined Teach for America and moved to Thoreau, a small town on the edge of the Navajo Nation in western New Mexico, where she taught middle school math for three years.

Her perspective on education completely changed when one of her students committed suicide.

“A lot of my other students were just shaken by it and were questioning what’s the point in learning algebraic equations when they’re going through so much at home,” says Arsali.

She decided to quit teaching and start a nonprofit community center, which offers counseling, tutoring, and afterschool activities in an effort to prevent youth suicide.

“We revitalized an old building [and] partnered with organizations, like the Boys & Girls Club,” says Arsali. “We were able to create a comprehensive program to provide a safe place for the students.”

After serving as the center’s executive director for three years and sitting on the board for several more years, Arsali moved back to her home state of Florida. There, she served on the town of Lantana’s education council, and participated in the Palm Beach County Schools’ task force on black male student achievement.

In 2017, Arsali and her husband, who graduated from the University of Virginia law school, moved to Keswick, and Arsali completed her master’s in educational leadership. She is currently a realtor with Frank Hardy Sotheby’s International Realty. Last October, they welcomed a baby girl.

“A big part of me running is to be a good example for her,” says Arsali. “I’m really driven to make sure that our schools are the best they can be, not just for my daughter but for every child in our system.”

Le also wants to make the school system better for her son, who is a fourth grader at Hollymead Elementary.

“When I saw that there were so many equity gaps in our schools, I realized that it can’t just be someone else doing it,” says Le. “We all have to step up and do what we can.”

A native of Iowa, Le graduated from Northwestern University with a degree in journalism. Over the past 24 years, she’s worked in newsrooms as a designer, editor, and reporter. Before moving to Albemarle with her husband in 2015, she worked at The Virginian-Pilot newspaper in Norfolk for 16 years.

She’s currently the managing editor of the University of Virginia’s alumni magazine, director of communications for the UVA Alumni Association, and on the board of the Literacy Volunteers of Charlottesville/Albemarle, which teaches adults to read and write in English.

Le says her experience as a first-generation American (her family left Vietnam the day Saigon fell) gives her a different perspective on school issues, and makes her stand out as a candidate.

“I [also] have a child in our system. I understand what it’s like to be a parent of a student here. I’ve also spent more time [and have volunteered] more in our community,” says Le.

Arsali says that her years of experience in education, as well as her master’s in educational leadership, set her apart from Le.

“I’m the only candidate that’s been in the classroom,” says Arsali.

Le has been endorsed by the Albemarle County Democratic Party, Indivisible Charlottesville, the Local Alliance for Urban and Rural Advancement, and several lawmakers. Arsali has not received any official endorsements.

All school board candidates in Virginia run as independents.

Other open seats

In the county school board’s only other contested race, Anne Elizabeth Oliver is challenging incumbent Jonno Alcaro for the at-large seat.

A financial services professional, Alcaro has worked with students on the board’s anti-racism policy (though he initially was reluctant to approve a ban on Confederate imagery, over concern that it violated the First Amendment). He seeks to increase students’ access to resources and learning spaces, as well as their exposure to trade and technical skills.

Oliver, a real estate agent, says students deserve a safe, inclusive environment. In addition to hiring more diverse teachers, Oliver wants to put a bigger emphasis on mental wellness and counseling in schools.

Meanwhile, incumbent White Hall representative David Oberg is seeking re-election and is unopposed, and Ellen Osborne is running unopposed for the Scottsville seat being vacated by Steve Koleszar.