SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - Salt Lake City students are expected to resume in-person learning for at least two days per week amid arguments by legislative leaders and attorneys representing parents.
If that plan changes, though, the Salt Lake City School District could lose funding under a bill that advanced at the Legislature on Wednesday, the Deseret News reported. The district is also facing a lawsuit.
The Salt Lake City School District Board of Education voted late Tuesday to adopt a proposal by interim Superintendent Larry Madden to enable middle school and high school students to return to in-person learning for two days per week beginning Feb. 8.
Prior to the vote, a 3rd District Court judge said Tuesday he will take arguments under consideration and soon issue a ruling in a civil rights lawsuit brought by parents seeking to force the district to return students to class.
Republican Senate President Stuart Adams told the Utah Legislature in his opening remarks Tuesday that the district has “no option for in-person learning,” claiming there is a “600% increase in students failing all classes, despite teachers’ best efforts.”
“With teachers now having vaccination priority, Salt Lake City School District needs to start face-to-face instruction now and give each student the best opportunities to learn,” Adams said.
Adams later said he did not want ramifications for the district, but he was concerned with “getting kids back to school and making sure they get good learning. And we’ll do whatever we can to try to help parents.”
School Board President Melissa Ford spoke in favor of the proposal for a limited return, which she said is based on data and science.
“I’ve appreciated that the superintendent has always taken a very cautious approach, as has this board to protect our community and but also how to educate children safely,” Ford said.
Board member Katherine Kennedy, the lone dissenter in the board’s 6-1 vote on the proposal, said members needed to discuss the risk of coronavirus infections that could result from sending students back to class.
“Our experiment is going to end in illness and possibly death,” she said.
Ford spoke Wednesday against the legislative a proposal that could reallocate funding if the district does not reopen as planned. But lawmakers in the GOP-dominated Legislature disagreed and gave an early nod of approval to the measure. Republican sponsor Sen. Todd Weiler said it is aimed at holding the district to the commitment it made to reopen secondary schools starting next month.
While some said lawmakers were bullying the Salt Lake City School District, parents called the legislature their “last resort” for their pleas to return to in-person learning.
For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some - especially older adults and people with existing health problems - it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and death.
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