Arizona schools will delay reopening for in-person classes this year until at least Aug. 17 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Gov. Doug Ducey announced on Monday.
"We also want to bring as much certainty as possible for Arizona schools," Ducey said. "We'll continuously reevaluate this target date."
The state's schools usually open in early August, long before Labor Day. But a spike in COVID-19 cases in Arizona has made 2020 an unusual year: Schools are facing difficult decisions in reopening, including whether to offer in-person classes at all.
The state has more than 74,000 confirmed cases, with 3,000-plus new cases reported on five of the past seven days.
People younger than 20 make up about 11% of the cases.
The announcement means schools will not be able to hold in-person classes until mid-August, but schools could offer online instruction before the reopening date, Superintendent of Public Instruction Kathy Hoffman wrote on Twitter.
Ducey announced extra funding for K-12 schools last week to help with pandemic-related issues, but teachers and other school leaders criticized the move because it prevented schools from delaying start dates past early August.
In an interview with The Arizona Republic, Hoffman said she'd heard escalating concerns about reopening from parents and educators over the past few weeks.
"We were hopeful that schools could reopen and that with mitigation strategies that our schools could still offer in-person instruction," she said. "But more recently, it's become more clear that's not advised."
Hoffman said she's sad some students this year could miss out on the hallmarks of school, like group science projects and trying out new instruments in music class.
"We're going to see a lot more online learning than than we saw before," she said.
Worries about students, teachers
School districts in metro Phoenix began pushing start dates even before the governor's announcement.
Chandler Unified, the second-biggest school district in the state, pushed the beginning of its school year back by two weeks, from July 22 to Aug. 5. Due to its modified year-round schedule, the district is typically among the earliest to start each year.
The missed days will be made up by eliminating the first week of the district's October and March breaks.
Many schools are still finalizing their plans for reopening. The proposals that have emerged vary widely, although many offer parents and students the option of in-person or online classes, or a combination of the two.
Hoffman said she's confident that some districts and charters will be able to restart distance learning. But, she's concerned that rural schools and schools on the Navajo Nation may face steeper hurdles in reopening online.
Some schools have announced that students will be required to wear masks.
The Arizona Department of Education early this month released a roadmap for schools. But the document didn't require schools to implement anything. It instead offered broad suggestions.
Education leaders are also worried about a worsening teacher shortage, particularly if not all teachers return to the classroom due to concerns about getting sick.
An Expect More Arizona survey of educators conducted in late May found that 18% of those surveyed said they weren't sure if they'd return to the classroom at the beginning of the school year, while 3% said they were not planning to return.
"That's going to be one of our biggest challenges is finding ways to have adequate staff," Hoffman said. "It's just very scary for people. Our high schools, you have thousands of people in one building."
Announcement follows funding order
The governor's announcement comes on the heels of a plan announced last week to divvy up $269 million in federal funding to schools to fill in funding gaps created by the pandemic.
About $200 million will go toward a grant program designed to hold schools harmless for in-person or overall enrollment declines. Schools will not lose more than 2% of the funding amount they received last school year.
Schools can use the grants to reimburse themselves for expenses they've already incurred, according to state budget staff, as well as costs going forward, such as personal protective equipment.
But the order also received criticism for the strings the governor attached to the federal money. It requires schools to provide in-person classes for the same number of days per week as they did last school year, essentially preventing schools from delaying the start of the year on their own or moving entirely online for all or part of the year.
The order also does not address what school superintendents have said is a major gap in school funding. School funding depends on in-person attendance and schools get less funding for students who attend school online.
Some teachers said they're not comfortable with the idea of opening school for in-person classes in August if COVID-19 cases continue to climb at the rate they have in recent weeks.
Joshua Buckley, a Mesa social studies teacher and the president of Mesa's teachers union, said he teaches on a high school campus of 3,500 students.
"We miss our kids. We want to see them. But how do we do it in a way that safe when we're not getting any extra funding to hire more teachers or to have more space in order to have small enough class sizes?" he said.
Reach the reporter at Lily.Altavena@ArizonaRepublic.com or follow her on Twitter @LilyAlta.
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