Mahomet-Seymour teachers are currently on a long-awaited holiday break after balancing remote and in-person learning during the first semester of the 2020-21 school year.
Since August, 69 students and 16 teachers have tested positive for COVID-19, including four in-school exposures, two of which were added to the Mahomet-Seymour COVID-19 dashboard this week.
Middletown Prairie had a total of 22; Lincoln Trail had 20; Mahomet-Seymour Junior High had 13 and Mahomet-Seymour High School had 27 positive cases.
As of Dec. 22., 428 students and 58 teachers had been placed under quarantine after being exposed to the virus during the first semester.
During the first 23 days of November, the Mahomet-Seymour School District reported 31 positive COVID-19 cases and compared to 24 positive cases in the first 22 days of December.
The Mahomet-Seymour Education Association (MSEA), the teacher’s union, asked the Mahomet-Seymour School Board to vote on staying with the hybrid learning model that the district implemented for first semester instead of switching to the four full-day learning plan, with a remote option, at the Dec. 14 school board meeting.
The MSEA filed a grievance with the district based on hazardous working conditions, after the board voted 4-3 to continue with the hybrid-learning model in mid-November after the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District recommended that Champaign County Schools return to remote learning until Jan. 5.
The union also filed a demand to bargain in October based on the plan to move to the four-day, in-person learning model for the second semester.
Because bargaining has not happened in open session, the public has questioned where the district stands on the second-semester plan.
Superintendent Lindsey Hall confirmed via email to parents on Dec. 18 that the district will begin on Jan. 6 as “full day for four days per week, Tuesday through Friday. Mondays will remain as a fully remote day of learning for all students.”
Hall wrote: “We successfully finished the first semester in our hybrid learning plan for the entire semester with no adaptive pause. This is because of the collective, team effort of EVERYONE–parents, students, staff and community. I offer my sincerest and deepest THANKS!”
That same day, the MSEA sent an email to its members describing a Dec. 17 meeting between the district and the union leadership.
“MSEA met last night for our third bargaining session, with the administration and some board members,” union leadership wrote. “MSEA presented them with a proposal to remain on the hybrid schedule when we return in January. The district rejected the proposal, and an agreement was not reached. The district continues to state that they will not bargain the decision to return to full in-person instruction, in January.”
The email goes on to say that because the MSEA and IEA (Illinois Education Association)-NEA (National Education Association) “counsel believe that we do have the right to bargain the decision to return to full in-person instruction in January an unfair labor practice charge has been filed with the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board.”
The Mahomet-Seymour Education Association said that the union agreed to pursue the hybrid learning environment—asynchronous Mondays, 2.5 hours in-person and 2.5 hours remote learning for K-5, and two-day-a-week in-person and remote learning for 6-12—in August when COVID-19 case numbers were “ less than half as bad as they are now.”
Since October, the teacher’s union has stated that social distancing capacity, which in some cases are not obtainable with 80-percent of the students attending in the hybrid model, will be cut “in half” moving to the second-semester plan.
“When/if members return in that fashion, the MSEA’s stance in regards to following CUPHD guidelines and recommendations remains the same,” the email states. “MSEA encourages all members to follow the CUPHD guidelines/recommendations as much as possible (i.e. social distance 6ft./”as much as possible” in the classroom and common areas, no sharing of student materials, no eating in the classrooms, etc.).
“The district has instructed that the priority should be for all staff to remain 6 feet from students at the expense of the student’s not being able to social distance from each other.”
Mahomet-Seymour Junior High Librarian Amanda McFarlane pleaded with the Mahomet-Seymour School board to remain in the hybrid model for the second semester at the Dec. 14 board meeting.
She started her statement to the board by noting that she loves her job and the colleagues, including Hall and Director of Instruction Nicole Rummel, she gets to work with on a daily basis.
“I don’t want you to think there’s any lack of respect on this end but I just wanted to voice some concerns I have this evening,” McFarlane said.
“I am just so proud of the work my coworkers and I have done in this district since March. I am so proud of our district initiatives in place to keep our students safe in school, including the new rollout of the COVID testing that started today (Dec. 14). Thank you, Nita (Bachman, District Nurse), for helping with that, as well.”
Her worry comes, though, from increased COVID-19 numbers throughout the district in November and December. She also reported that since November, 62 Mahomet-Seymour Junior High students had moved to remote learning.
In August, McFarlane thought that COVID-19 would run rampant throughout the district, even with the hybrid model. But, she said, we have worked so hard in our buildings, keeping things safe and keeping them clean.
“We the teachers have come together to create and adapt awesome lessons to reach all of our students hybrid and remote.
“As a librarian, I’ve been able to keep books going out to remote students. I’ve been able to visit classrooms, while other activities are needed to keep going in the library, and I’m still in communication constantly with students via email and social media, and I’m quote, ‘just the librarian.’
“If you think and extrapolate this time for 100, think about what my traditional teaching colleagues are doing. We are absolutely rocking this current model, we are keeping people safe and we are keeping them educated because of all the hard work and adapting we’ve done.”
Prior to the holiday break, McFarlane said that they witnessed Mahomet-Seymour Junior High School Principal Nathan Mills and Assistant Principal Doug Fisher work “tirelessly, trying to figure out where to put students trying to figure out how to keep them safe when we come back in January, rearranging rooms, tweaking and finding new places to eat lunch.”
McFarlane applauded them for the work but felt like they shouldn’t have to be doing that because the first-semester hybrid model has kept students and teachers safe.
“I know you want to keep our students safe,” she said. “I know you want the Mahomet-Seymour school district to be upheld as a beacon of excellence during this pandemic. And so far we have been, in my opinion. So why would we want to exchange the hybrid model, we’re in for a far riskier one for everyone back four days a week, except for those students who remain remote.”
“(The hybrid model) would keep us functioning at the highest rate we are functioning at right now,” she said.
According to the MSEA email, the union continues to pursue all avenues to push back on the full in-person instruction plan.
