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Elementary students will be at school while junior/senior high students keep on distance learning at home, a decision rendered in a three-hour school board meeting Monday.

The Grand Coulee Dam School District Board of Directors voted 4-1 to have third- through sixth-grade students return to physical school two days each week in alternating groups, but that 7th- through 12th-grade students must still wait to return, possibly until the second semester starts Feb. 1, 2021.

Kindergarten through second-grade students began going to physical school part time Oct. 19.

School board Director Carla Marconi voted against the motion, having wanted to stick with only k-2 students in the physical school and to wait before approving for grades 3-6 to come back to in-person classes part time. 

The decision came towards the end of the meeting that ran over three hours long. 

The meeting, held via Zoom, drew 60 participants to start, and still had 58 participants three hours and 20 minutes in.

Prior to the decision, during the public participation portion of the meeting, two Lake Roosevelt teachers, husband and wife Derrick and Pam Johnson, who have two children in the district, made Powerpoint presentations to argue against bringing students back into the school.

Pam Johnson, who currently teaches 9th- and 10th-grade English, presented statistics related to COVID-19, noting that deaths from it in the United States are more than the population of Spokane.

She said screening students and staff prior to entering the building won't catch the 40% of people who don't show COVID symptoms, nor those who spread the disease before showing symptoms.

Making life-and-death decisions, she said, isn't something school board members and superintendents typically make at board meetings.

"Please make this decision with these somber facts in mind," she said. 

Derrick Johnson, who teaches high school science, argued that it doesn't make sense to bring students back to school during cold-and-flu season amidst "the worst pandemic in 100 years."

A slide showing future projections of COVID data from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington showed a projected increase in cases in both the United States and Washington state, in particular during the second quarter of school, which starts Nov. 9.

He said bringing kids back to school places the community in danger, noting that kids get sick during the fall and winter, and having them attend school increases their exposure to germs.

With the holidays coming up and traditionally celebrated inside, many grandparents won't stay away from their grandkids during that time, Johnson reasoned. He said exposing the students to more germs prior to the holidays is irresponsible and will increase exposure of elderly people to COVID, as well.

He also showed maps of local counties, with five counties surrounding the school, and argued that using only Okanogan County's COVID rate isn't sufficient. He offered far more specific data.

Using the combined populations of Nespelem, Coulee Dam, Grand Coulee, and Electric City which is 3,494, (Elmer City wasn't on the list), and the statistic that those communities had five cases in the past 14 days, Johnson came up with a local COVID incidence rate of 143 cases per 100,000 population, with 75 being the maximum number to allow in-person schooling. 

The five local counties that send students to the district - Grant, Okanogan, Lincoln, Douglas, and Ferry - with a combined population of 201,683, have seen 352 cases in the past 14 days, making for a COVID rate of 176.

"By opening up, we are only increasing the exposure," Johnson said.

The board members thanked the Johnsons for their presentation.

Later in the meeting, board members took turns weighing in on the topic. 

"This is a tough situation," Director Rich Black said. "None of us want to see people get COVID19 or see people die, but we also know the value of education."

"We don't have a crystal ball," Board Chair George LaPlace said. "We don't know where [COVID] is going. We can only ask the local community to wear masks and don't cough on people so we can get the kids back to getting their education. We want them to be safe, but also to get their education, and that's the decision we're facing as board members."

A paper hanging in the window of the entryway to the elementary school provides a rundown of the questions asked of every person entering the building. Answers are recorded on a form, along with a temperature scan result.

The board discussed the flu season, the complications in older students' class schedules making it harder to bring them back, the experience in older students making them more capable of distance learning, and younger students being in greater need of in-person learning.

Director Ken Stanger suggested Feb. 1, the beginning of the second semester, as a possible return date for junior/senior high students.

Junior/senior high students struggling with distance learning, and a lack of participation from many students, were discussed as reasons to bring them back, but the board ultimately decided to wait.

Superintendent Paul Turner was disappointed the board didn't choose to bring back seventh- and eighth-grade students.

"I think you're doing a great disservice to this group," he said.

LaPlace said, "I still think a phased approach is best. We don't know what's going to happen. Slow, like a turtle, is the best way."

"There's no perfect solution," Black said. He felt bringing back third through sixth grades but waiting for junior/senior high were reasonable decisions.