The Washoe County School District (WCSD) board of trustees spent hours Tuesday discussing continuing challenges faced by its staff and students and new directives passed down last week by Governor Steve Sisolak.
Absenteeism and falling grades are cause for concern
Nearly a quarter of elementary school aged children in the Washoe County School District were chronically absent during 2020. More than twice as many high school students–51%–were chronically absent. Chronic absenteeism, according to the district’s definition, is missing 10% or more of school days in a year. That’s 18 days or more during the school year.
The absentee numbers remained largely the same across learning models; however, student demographics revealed a stark difference between students of different racial backgrounds. In 2019, 11% of white students were chronically absent. In 2020, that number jumped to 28%. Students of all races showed a sharp increase in absenteeism, 52% for Native Americans, 46% for Hispanic students, 54% for Black students and 57% for Pacific Islanders.
Trustees questioned the validity of these figures, noting that many of them have heard from students and their families that they’ve been marked absent during distance learning when they were in fact attending classes. Staff acknowledged those kinds of technical issues but said teachers and students have been able to clear up most of them.
Absenteeism and the challenges presented by remote learning have also had an effect on grades. The number of high school students failing three or more core classes doubled from 7% in 2019 to 14% in 2020. Across all grade levels, 28% of students had at least one failing grade in 2020.
The school district has been working to develop a two-year plan to address students’ academic struggles, but board members and other district officials also hope that Sisolak’s Emergency Directive 038, signed on Feb. 17, will have some immediate effects upon absenteeism and, hopefully, in turn, academic performance.
Included in the governor’s directive are measures allowing for greater capacities in schools and the resumption of additional activities, like full-contact sports.
“Having back some of the sports, being able to have activities on a small level, and having some of those carrots for those students and traditions, that they have been missing all year, will keep them engaged,” said North Valleys High School Principal Desiree Mandeville.
Image: Eric Marks / This Is Reno
Benefits and challenges presented by new directive
The board made several decisions surrounding the governor’s directive, including directing Superintendent Kristen McNeill to come up with a plan to allow buses to operate at 66% capacity and allowing for a safe number of spectators at sporting events and other school activities like plays. These changes will come along with strict COVID-19 mitigation efforts, including regular testing for athletes, coaches and staff for sports. Buses will continue to be cleaned in between each run with students. They will operate with their windows open, weather permitting. Seats on buses will continue to be assigned.
Trustees also heard from district staff about the challenges and concerns that come along with attempting to increase school capacities during the final quarter of the school year—from employee considerations to nutritional services and budget concerns.
According to district Chief Human Resources Officer Emily Ellison, among the school district’s 8,000 employees attitudes concerning a return to in-person learning still vary widely from negative to positive. Teacher and staff perceptions are not the only concern. There’s also the consideration of some 338 employees who are on a leave of absence and the substitute teachers who’ve been brought in to fill their roles.
Schools will now be allowed to operate at 75% capacity based on the fire code capacity of each space within a school site, or 250 people, whichever is less. However, a return to that might lead to some teachers seeking to end their leaves of absence early—and the school district would have to determine how to handle this while meeting its contractual obligations as set forth in bargaining agreements with the teachers’ union.
Increasing school capacities to 75% could also cause problems with classes and could lead to some students being switched into different teachers’ classes mid-quarter.
Lianka Soliz, director of Nutrition Services, told trustees that there would also be complications within her department to address if school capacities were increased.
“The biggest factor with that is going to be our current staff shortages,” she said. “Those of you who were here in the fall, you probably recall that we just went through a pretty significant reduction in force, so you might be thinking, ‘What do you mean staff shortages?’”
Soliz explained that while the district has been able to bring back a large portion of the full-time, benefited staff to Nutrition Services, fewer than half of part-time workers who’ve been asked to return have accepted the offer. She said this isn’t surprising as many of these people have found new employment and may not be incentivized to come back to work at the district with the end of classes only a few months away.
An increase in the number of kids in schools would likely cause issues with the district’s food supply chain. Soliz explained that the district purchases about 20% of its food through federal commodities and that those orders must be placed six weeks out, meaning the district would not be able to change the amount of food it expects to receive until near the end of instruction prior to summer break.
In light of the potential complications to many school district departments, trustees opted not to change current learning models for the time being. In the meantime, district staff will continue working on plans for bringing more students back into classrooms and will present again to the board of trustees on March 9.
