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Monday, Februar y 15, 2021 | Vo l u m e 1 2 5 | I s s u e 2 2
ABQ teachers union ‘surprised, alarmed’ by plans to resume in-person K-12 classes Safety of students, parents remains nebulous with return to learning amid pandemic
By Jasmine Casillas & Gino Gutierrez @jaycasillas @GGutierrez48
John Scott / Daily Lobo / @ JScott050901
Two students hold up signs protesting Albuquerque Public Schools’ plans to restart in-person classes.
John Scott / Daily Lobo / @ JScott050901
A car parked outside the Albuquerque Public Schools administrative building where protesters gathered to urge APS to keep schools closed.
One week after Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced that K-12 schools across the state can return to in-person learning regardless of their red to green risk designation, most elementary and secondary students remain at home. While the announcement came as welcome news to a number of students around the state, many teachers were skeptical, suspicious or downright bewildered about the abrupt about-face regarding convening groups of five or more people while the coronavirus vaccine is still slow to roll out. “All of the members of the union were surprised at the early date,” Ellen Bernstein, president of the Albuquerque Teachers Federation, said. According to the New Mexico Public Education Department (NMPED), reopening schools would allow all schools to choose from one of three options for in-person learning. The first option would allow schools to implement a “hybrid model” and bring back up to half of their students at a time, provided they’re in accordance with social distancing guidelines and organize students into smaller classroom groups. “The hybrid model allows schools to divide their student population into at least two cohorts, bringing back up to 50% of students at a time. Cohorting cuts in half the number of students who would have to quarantine if one member tested positive for the virus,” according to NMPED. The second option would see school districts with fewer than 100 students allowed to bring back students at a ratio of five students for every teacher. The last option would allow districts who are not ready to implement a hybrid learning environment to expand small group instruction to all grades with up to 50% of their students participating at a time. Bernstein said the union had been working collaboratively with Albuquerque Public Schools and the state Board of Education on a learning model that would take effect after Bernalillo County had met the state’s requirements to be considered at the
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Teachers page 2
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