Education Week - September 9, 2020 - 3

Vol. 40 * Issue 4 * September 9, 2020

Flint, Mich., Staff Go
Door to Door to Find
Missing Students
This is an above-and-beyond story about a district for which the word
"beleaguered" could be called an understatement.
Staff members in Flint, Mich., have been making house calls to track
down students who have not been participating in online instruction.
Their efforts are paying off. In recent weeks, the staff has been able to
find about 1,200 students. The schools were down 2,000 students when
classes began Aug. 5, Assistant Superintendent Kevelin Jones said. The
district expects to have about 3,800 students this year.
"That had never happened to us before, and so we said, 'We need to
do something. We need to connect,'" Jones said.
The district also has been unleashing robocalls and using social
media to contact families. And it had more people manning the phones
as more parents have been calling in.
"We're out here making our best effort making sure [parents] know
we're here to deal with any barriers you have in getting your child in
school and whatever we can do to help doing that," he said.
"Understanding these are unprecedented times," Jones said, the
district will continue efforts to find students in the following weeks
if necessary.
Times have been tough in the city. School enrollment has dropped
precipitously in the past 15 or so years. More than half its children live
in poverty. The automaker GM still has a presence there but not like it
once did. And on top of all that, starting in 2014-15, Flint families drank,
bathed, and cooked in their homes with lead-contaminated water for 17
months before the problem was discovered and the water supply shut off.
Lead is dangerous, especially for children, and can result in learning
disabilities. At present, 1 in 4 students is eligible for special education
services-numbers that are likely to rise as the youngest children exposed to the water reach school age. A recent settlement with the state
is expected to provide significantly more money to beef up special
education services.

Bus Drivers Walk Out
Over Student Safety;
Firing Threatened
A Mississippi school district said it will fire nearly half its bus drivers who walked off the job in protest of a reduction in work hours,
pay-and the safety of students.
Drivers said the Columbus school system is threatening the safety of
the children they carry.
"We're still upset about our pay and how we were treated," said Renarda Dent, one of the drivers. "Right now, our main concern is safety.
They don't have enough drivers to do the routes safely. There's no way to
social distance when they're doubling and tripling routes."
Dent also said the district isn't correctly cleaning the buses.
On Aug. 24, 21 of the district's 46 drivers refused to drive their routes,
leaving parents and the district scrambling to arrange transportation.
Assistant Superintendent Glenn Dedeaux said he believes the district
can adequately operate its routes with the remaining 25 drivers.
But drivers said doubling routes means students will likely be two to
a seat with every row taken, raising the risk of spreading COVID-19.
"There's no way you're going to social distance when you're putting
two or three routes together," Dent said.
The Columbus district opted out of a contract with a bus company
and started its own transportation department this fall, hiring the company's former drivers.
School board members approved a revised salary schedule, based on
a schedule that reduces driver hours from six to 4.5 per day and a
four-day week.
None of the drivers said they could complete their routes in that
amount of time. Dedeaux said 4.5 hours was just an average, and drivers would be paid for all work.

OPINION

4 As COVID-19 Spreads, Bands and Choirs

Face Tough Choices

18 Owning Success

7 Teaching Social-Emotional Skills
Amid COVID-19

19 Finding the Confidence to Speak Up
20 Empowering Youth Voice

8 How to Prevent Student Cheating

21 Teaming Up to Beat the Pandemic

During Remote Learning: 4 Tips

10 'There's Just No Way': Teachers With Kids

DEPARTMENTS

Strained by Lack of Child Care

2 Briefly Stated

12 As Teachers Livestream Classes,

Privacy Issues Arise

22 Letters to the Editor

16 Laptop Delays, Zoom Glitches, Equity Gaps:

23 EdWeek Top School Jobs

Remote Learning Faces Big Challenges

VIDEO

'The World is
Watching Us':
High School Students
Reflect on Police
Brutality Protests
High school students nationwide
have organized and participated
in protests against police
brutality and racism. Hear why.

www.edweek.org/go/
video-protests

MAP

SNAPSHOTS

MAP

A-F Grades,
Rankings for States
On School Quality

School Districts'
Reopening Plans

Where Has COVID-19
Closed Schools?
Where Are They Open?

See which states had the
highest scores on the "Quality
Counts 2020" final report card.

www.edweek.org/go/
qc20-map

See a working list of how over
800 of the nation's school
districts plan to reopen this fall.

www.edweek.org/go/
district-snapshots

This national map tracks
each state's mandates or
recommendations on K-12
school closures and openings
related to the coronavirus.

www.edweek.org/go/
map-open

www.facebook.com/edweek

@EducationWeek

video.edweek.org

www.linkedin.com/company/edweek

www.edweek.org/go/instagram

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Education Week - September 9, 2020

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