Because of concerns from staff and families, the Jefferson City School District is no longer considering classifying teachers as essential employees to help with its staffing shortage.
The district had planned for the Board of Education to vote on a proposal Monday that would give approved teachers who were identified as close contacts of a COVID-19 patient the option to return to work after a seven-day quarantine period.
Teachers would be able to return to work if they weren't showing symptoms and if they followed guidelines from the Cole County Health Department and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention such as wearing a mask, social distancing and being screened regularly.
After receiving survey results showing concerns from staff and families, district leaders decided to not move forward with the proposal.
The district received more than 27 pages of comments from staff and 45 from families with the survey results.
Superintendent Larry Linthacum said district leaders are reading every comment.
"The bottom line is there are some concerns, and so we listen. And so at this time, we do not think asking for your approval for this resolution is the right thing to do," Linthacum said at the board meeting.
Of the 27 pages of comments from staff, five were general comments, 20 were comments against the proposal, and two were comments that were for the proposal, Director of Quality Improvement Brenda Hatfield said.
Many staff members commented the proposal showed a lack of concern for teachers and the health of staff and families, and some commented they don't believe it follows CDC guidelines, noting many of the rules - such as social distancing - make it impossible for a teacher to carry out essential duties, Hatfield said.
There were also concerns about contact tracing, and some employees expressed that they should have more information on cases within the buildings. Some staff members also shared a desire to reconsider a hybrid or distance-learning model.
Families expressed concerns about community spread, the health of families, asymptomatic people, testing issues, and that a teacher cannot perform essential duties while social distancing.
Families also commented they would like additional communication on COVID-19 cases and that they want to know how close cases are to their child specifically. They also commented that they believe teachers should be required to follow restrictions outside of work, distance learning options should be further explored and that the district should figure out how to hire more substitute teachers.
Thomas Jefferson and Lewis and Clark middle school began distance learning this week due to a significant staffing shortage from teachers being quarantined from COVID-19 exposure outside of school and a lack of substitute teachers available.
Linthacum said the district will consider options to hire more substitute teachers.
"We're going to come back and we'll revisit this, but right now, we'll focus on trying to be creative and finding subs through our HR Department and working with our building principals to do that," he said. "We will continue to make plans for the effective distance learning if we deem that necessary."
The survey asked staff how comfortable they would feel personally about returning to work after a seven-day quarantine period and how comfortable they are with their colleagues returning to work after the seven-day quarantine period with protocols followed.
As of 4 p.m. Monday, 669 staff members responded to the survey. Most of them marked that they would feel "extremely uncomfortable" on both questions.
Of these staff members, 36 percent said they would feel comfortable or extremely comfortable about personally returning to work after a seven-day quarantine period, 11 percent said they're neutral, and 54 percent said they would feel uncomfortable or extremely uncomfortable.
Slightly more people would feel more comfortable with themselves returning to work than a colleague. When asked how comfortable they would feel about their colleagues returning to work, 35 percent said they would feel comfortable or extremely comfortable, 9 percent said they're neutral, and 56 percent said they're uncomfortable or extremely uncomfortable.
As of 4 p.m. Monday, 1,345 families responded, including 624 secondary families and 721 elementary.
The survey asked families how they would feel if teachers returned to school with protocols but no test and how they would feel if teachers returned with protocols and a negative test result.
Around half of elementary families (51 percent) responded they would feel extremely comfortable or comfortable with teachers returning to school with protocols but no test, and 37 percent said they would feel uncomfortable or extremely uncomfortable.
Half of the secondary families responded said they would feel comfortable or extremely comfortable with teachers returning to school with protocols but no test, and 40 percent said they would feel uncomfortable or extremely uncomfortable.
Of the elementary families, 65 percent responded would feel comfortable or extremely comfortable with teachers returning to school with protocols and a negative test result, and 27 percent responded they would feel uncomfortable or extremely uncomfortable.
A slightly higher number of secondary families (70 percent) said they would feel comfortable or extremely comfortable with teachers returning to school with protocols and a negative test result, and 3o percent said they would feel uncomfortable or extremely uncomfortable.