5:15 p.m. update:
Scot Krause has been a teacher for 8 years, the last five at Pine Middle School.
“I am frustrated by antagonistic comments district administrators are making about the various employee associations," Krause said. "The recent attack on the principals’ association was especially embarrassing and representative of the tensions within the district.
"Many incredible educators that have been assets to this community are frustrated. I think about the teachers I admire and respect and, at least in private conversations, I wouldn’t describe one of them as overwhelmingly positive. The most optimistic teachers I know seem hesitant, doubtful and worried at best.“
Kristen Dehaan, special education teacher for Washoe County School District, said, “I am a concerned about our most vulnerable students, our CLS (comprehensive life skills) students, our strategies students, many of them need diapering.
"There has been to no guidance on how to safety do this. We cannot let our pre-K through 12th grade students sitting in wet and dirty diapers but here we are with not even a week until school starts.”
4:55 p.m. update:
Amanda Rodriguez, a teacher at Reed High School, said the district needs to be honest with families.
“There is no way students can be six feet apart,” she said.
She said classes will have 22 students and there is no possible way to keep high school students that far apart in the classroom space.
Calen Evans, a Washoe County School District elementary school teacher and the president of Empower Nevada teachers, grew emotional addressing the board.
"The safest place for them to be is in school," Evans said of the board's reasoning for reopening schools. "We don’t need anybody to tell us. We have been screaming about it for years.
"Now everyone is so concerned with the mental health of our students."
He said the board needs to acknowledge the social and political pressure there was to open schools.
"We are not scared anymore. We are going to speak out because obviously no one else will. We are done being intimidated by the district."
4:40 p.m. update:
Jennifer Douglas Trunnels, a teacher at Stead Elementary School, has taught for 21 years. She addressed the board:
"As we know there are more effective coverings for your face and less effective coverings. I have been informed by my administration that I can’t send information to families on what is more effective."
She was told she has to accept what kind of masks kids wear even if she can provide them with a better one.
"I can ask students to change clothes if they aren’t in the correct uniform but I can’t ask students to change their mask if their mask is not effective."
"I am being prevented from providing a safe environment."
Amanda Rodriguez a teacher at Reed High School, said the district needs to be honest with families.
“There is no way students can be six feet apart,” she said. She said classes will have 22 students and there is no possible way to keep high school students that far apart in the classroom space.
4:30 p.m. update:
Several teachers have stood up in the public comment period and spoken out against reopening schools on Monday.
Mendive Middle School teacher Darren Fleck told the school board that Superintendent Kristen McNeill lied and should resign. He said McNeill knows that principals are not ready to open schools and his "jaw dropped" when McNeill said she wasn't aware of any principals who were not ready to open schools on Monday.
Fleck has been a teacher for 21 years.
"My principal today doesn't know if he is going to have to rewrite his schedule," he said.
He said all the board has to do is ask the area superintendent what the plan is for opening. "Trying to do it within one week is going to be a disaster," Fleck said.
Teacher Selena La Rue told the board that they are sending teachers, staff and students into a situation they don't understand.
"I have one question for you: How dare you? How dare you sit in the safety of your homes and vote to send our staff and our students into the jaws of peril? Into a situation which you will never face and which clearly you do not understand," she told the board.
"I watched as the Washoe County Health Officer presented concrete evidence and solid scientific data to support his assertion that schools should offer distance education for the start of the school year," La Rue said. "He made the case so clearly that I was certain no rational person could disagree. And yet, 6 out of 7 people on this board rejected his conclusions out of hand. Refused to even listen to his evidence or try to understand his reasoning because they disliked his conclusions from the outset."
"Our schools are not ready to reopen safely. And I promise you, no one is more upset about that than our teachers. We more than anyone want to be in our classrooms with our kiddos. Teaching, learning, and growing together," she said. "But not at any cost. Not at the cost of our lives, not at the cost of our students' lives, and not at the cost of their families' lives."
"Each of you has been contacted by teachers across this district with reports of safety violations. Desks at high schools which are 3 feet apart, students not socially distancing when they pick up their schedules, rooms not being sanitized regularly, the list goes on."
"The district has had 5 months to plan, but still can't give us basic information. Look at the district FAQ page. It is filled with "to be decided later" or "site based decision." Well, guess what? School starts in 6 days. We are past "to be decided later" and the district can't continue place the entire burden of reopening on the shoulders of their principals. It's not feasible, not sustainable, and will lead to great harm when we open our doors next week.
"What will it take you to listen? 1 death? 10 deaths? 100 deaths? Stop this madness. I urge you to delay the opening of schools. To believe in medical science and to protect our staff and our children. If you continue to fly in the face of evidence and willfully ignore the warnings of your staff, the blood will be on your hands."
3:55 p.m. update:
About 100 teachers, current and retired, gathered in front of Spanish Springs High School on Tuesday to protest re opening schools, saying their health and safety is not being taken into consideration
Teachers chanted “I don’t know is not an answer.”
Debra Harris,who teaches at Wooster, said the school has not had air conditioning for a week and air is being recirculated.
“This is insane. This cannot be a safe condition during COVID,” she said.
Teachers said they have less prep time, and schedules are still fluctuating daily
“Basically there’s no education happening to my mind because we haven’t done a single second of lesson planning, because you don’t know what you’re teaching," Harris said.
She said the focus the last week was on cleaning and hand washing. She added that most classrooms do not have sufficient cleaning supplies yet.
3:45 p.m.
Teachers and school district employees are protesting outside of the Washoe County School Board meeting that starts at 4 p.m. at Spanish Springs High School.
The Reno Gazette Journal will stream the meeting live and provide updates from the rally and the meeting.
The Washoe Education Association, which represents about 2,500 teachers, and Empower Nevada Teachers, a grassroots group of local educators, are organizing a "line the streets," to protest the opening of school on Monday.
Read more: WCSD explains how transportation, school lunch will work
The meeting is being held in the theater at the Sparks high school, which has the room to meet COVID-19 meeting restrictions.
Only 50 people will be allowed inside the theater at a time. The district said it has set up overflow rooms for people to watch the meeting and wait for a turn to speak.
Both the union and the Empower Nevada Teachers were encouraging people to participate in public comment, the first in-person comment that will be heard by the board since it went to virtual meetings in March.
Previous public comment for meetings since March could only be submitted via email and were not read aloud during meetings.
The board is expected to hear an update on reopening plans. The district will open more than 100 schools on Monday.
Delay not an option
There is no option for the board to reverse its decision on schools opening at tonight's meeting, according to the district.
The board is planning to discuss and may decide on coming up with a threshold for number of cases a community can have for schools to be open.
The Washoe County Health District had recommended rate of infection at 100 or less cases per 100,000 before school opens. Washoe County's case rate is 1,220 per 100,000 people.
"The plans remain in place to begin in-classroom learning for our students in elementary schools, and hybrid model for students in middle- and high school," the district said in response to questions from the Reno Gazette Journal about if Superintendent Kristen McNeill could decide to delay opening schools.
The RGJ asked if the board decides on the threshold if that could automatically close schools, but was told the decision to open Monday would not be changed.
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