When Sinton Independent School District assistant superintendent Dana Allen received                                   guidelines on reopening her districts’ schools, there was a lot of emphasis on low death rates                           among children. There was virtually nothing in place about keeping at-risk adult employees                             safe from the spread of COVID-19.

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 As schools across Texas open up for in-person instruction, positive COVID-19 cases have risen steadily for both students and staff. To make matters worse, many rural districts with fewer resources are forced to overwork their educators into balancing on-campus and online learning.

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AN ADMINISTRATOR'S DILEMMA

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Sinton is a town of 5,401 people just north of Corpus Christi’s Nueces County, which saw 

nationwide news coverage as it reached some of the state’s highest case rates per capita in late

July. With no hospital in the county and limited resources, many locals were forced to visit

Corpus Christi even as the second wave hit- bringing back just over 1,500 cases into their own

rural San Patricio County. As case levels continued to rise, Allen and other educators across the

state were tasked with finding a way to please the public’s wishes to reopen schools while

keeping in mind the safety of their employees.

 

Allen said that lack of compassion for educators from the state was unsettling and put her at

an uncomfortable spot between giving kids a proper education and keeping her own employees

safe from infection.

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“A lot of times, the stuff that we were getting the documents from the state or the CDC said that if the kids get coronavirus, they’re not getting that ill, and I give them that,” Allen said. “But there was just not a lot of concern for the teachers. So yes, I want to educate children, that’s what I’ve dedicated 30 plus years of my life to, but I also have 400 people that I’m the employer to and I have to be able to provide a safe environment.”

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Although the mortality rate in children is 16 times lower in children 5-17 as compared to 18-29 year olds, it is 10 times higher in 40-49 year olds, according to a CDC study. The average age of teachers in the United States is 42 years.

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For Allen, COVID-19 death rates are more than a statistic. Several Sinton ISD educators have tested positive for the virus, but Allen said that what is more alarming is the amount of teachers’ family members who have passed.

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“At the end of the day, if you really talk to any educator, they want to be in a classroom with their kids, but they also don’t want to bring it home to their families or get it themselves,” Allen said. “We’ve had employees that had it, but more problematic is that we’ve had employees that lost a brother or family member. We had one employee lose both their parents within a week, so you’ve got to be really sensitive.”

 

Many districts are also tasked with giving in-person and online instruction, meaning teachers often have twice the workload for the same yearly salary. 

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DOUBLE THE WORKLOAD, DOUBLE THE DANGER

                                                         

                                                         For Fairfield Junior High girl’s athletic coordinator Stacy Bachtel, catering to both groups of                                                                   students means she often works for hours after school and well into the weekend. Bachtel, who                                                             also teaches 7th grade English, said that she and other teachers are overworked and unable to                                                               keep up with increasing demands.

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                                                          “I don’t see how we can keep doing it this way,” Bachtel said. “The curriculum that we’re                                                                         teaching will need to lighten up or we’re going to be neglecting the kids that are virtual, or                                                                       something just won’t get done. With the increased hours that are added to the planning and                                                                   grading, just somewhere is lacking. I just don’t see how we can keep doing it.”

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                                                      Like Sinton, Fairfield ISD is a rural district that has seen an uptick in COVID-19 cases and students that are required to quarantine for contract tracing. Most subjects are taught by one teacher, meaning that employees with preexisting conditions may be required to keep working in-person despite a higher risk of infection.

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Bachtel said that she is not sure whether teachers with preexisting conditions would be able to work from home, but she knows limited staff would make it more difficult.

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“If I had underlying health conditions and went to my district and said, ‘I do not feel comfortable doing this, I feel like you should allow me to work virtually,’ I’m not sure what they would say,” Bachtel said. “I feel like they should consider our health, but with the limited number in staff we have, it makes it hard. At our junior high and high school level, we only have one seventh grade reading teacher. One teacher can’t teach everything.”

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In response to scarce staff and resources, some smaller districts have opted to take out online learning entirely, putting many students at risk but alleviating some of the burdens that the schools may not have been able to handle. 

Bachtel said that she understands why certain districts are ending online learning despite the risk and that she thinks the move might be beneficial to Fairfield ISD.

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“I think with the small numbers and limited staff, that this part has been much harder with smaller districts,” Bachtel said. “I can see why those districts have decided to make that hard decision to not allow virtual learning to healthy students because it’s put such a toll on our teachers.”

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MORE THAN TEACHERS

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Educators are not the only ones tasked with more responsibilities and unsafe conditions amid the pandemic. Fairfield ISD Chief of Maintenance Cecelia Sweeney has had to bear the brunt of increased sanitation procedures while also losing staff due to health concerns.

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“I’ve been at this school since 2004 and this is the first year that I’ve felt like this,” Sweeney said. “When we first started school this year I literally had to take a day off leading into the weekend because I was so tense.” 

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For every child presenting symptoms- from vomiting to coughing or even sneezing- Sweeney and her staff are called to clear the classroom, wipe down everything and spray with an electrostatic sprayer. No students are allowed in the classroom for 30 minutes as they wait in “holding rooms” for the room to be cleared. If a student tests positive, which has happened on multiple Fairfield campuses this year, the room is locked down for 24 hours.

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Alongside everyday maintenance tasks, Sweeney’s team now cleans several classrooms daily but has a smaller staff as many quit due to health concerns. 

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“Sometimes I might clean somewhere in the elementary school and just get out of the parking lot before they’re already calling me back in,” Sweeney said. “We have to treat everything like it’s a COVID-19 symptom even if it isn’t because we just don’t know.”

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The most worrying part for Sweeney, however, is knowing that many coworkers and administrators do not believe in COVID-19 and are not actively thinking about solutions for the future.

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“A lot of them don’t even believe it’s real, they think it’s political,” Sweeney said. “It is scary, and the scariest part is the not knowing what we are going to do and how are we going to get this under control, that’s tremendously scary to me.”

 

For Comal ISD speech language pathologist Emily DeCarlo, the pandemic has meant that parts

of her job role have had to fundamentally change. 

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DeCarlo treats students from multiple campuses at Comal ISD, a large district that serves the

rural areas of Comal County. Like other teachers, DeCarlo has had to learn to split her time

between online and in-person learning, but on-campus instruction has proven to be more than

just a COVID-19 risk for DeCarlo and her students. With masks on, DeCarlo said she is unable to

demonstrate proper pronunciation techniques  and instead focuses on broader communication 

skills.

 

"Everyone's wearing masks at school, so what's hard about teaching speech skills is if the kids can't see how I say the sound, it's going to be a lot harder for them to imitate," DeCarlo said. "Because of that I'm not really targeting super specific things right now, but just general communication skills, sharing ideas and answering questions and being able to express yourself more generally."

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DeCarlo said that online sessions have actually proven to be more helpful for both her and her students.

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"Right now, targeting speech articulation skills is easier online because I don't have to wear a mask and neither do the students, so I can demonstrate how to form a sound with your mouth and your tongue and we can practice that," DeCarlo said. "Now, the child also has visual feedback of themselves, and so I've told a lot of parents if your kid's just working on speech, it's often better to do teletherapy for this time period."

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Online learning is unwanted or unattainable for many Comal County students. With the pandemic becoming an increasingly political topic, DeCarlo said that some families disregard the risks of in-person instruction. In addition, DeCarlo said that other families may lack the resources or supervision to keep their kids at home, especially among Spanish-speaking households. 

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"It depends on the parents' view of COVID-19 and their ability to facilitate learning at home, but really I think the bigger decision maker for families is whether or not the student can successfully participate with distance learning at home," DeCarlo said. "For a lot of the bilingual or Spanish-dominant families, their students are going to school because parents have to work or they think that they'll have a better education opportunity at school."

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As a rural county, many households also struggle with Internet connectivity and system overloads, making online sessions hard to access. 

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"I would say at least 20 percent of my online sessions will cut out," DeCarlo said. "It's impossible to know if it's the school district Internet service being overloaded or if it's a child's Internet service at home. It definitely adds a hurdle."

 

SAFETY INFRACTIONS, LACK OF DATA INSPIRE TEACHER'S UNION

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Of the 508 rural districts in Texas, as student cases go up, staff cases rise as well. The TEA began releasing district data on Sept. 20, but many specifics including campus data and safety infractions were not reported. The Texas American Federation of Teachers, a teacher’s union, took it into their own hands to release an interactive map of cases, deaths and safety violations across the state.

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The tool, released Sept. 10, was made in response to the state not releasing campus data and is designed for teachers and others to track unsafe working conditions.

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Since the map was created, there have been nearly 500 reports of safety infractions made by educators and others, putting both students and employees at risk.

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Despite these reports of safety violations and dangerous working conditions for employees, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton made statements that local health officials have no authority to close nearby schools due to rising COVID-19 cases. In response to Paxton’s statement as well as perceived inaction from Governor Greg Abbott, Texas AFT has created a petition directed at Abbott to disavow Paxton’s “power grabs” and create safer school environments.

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On the local level, many teachers, including Bachtel, have taken to speaking out at school board meetings.

Bachtel said that even if she doesn’t test positive for COVID-19, the stress of a double workload and safety protocol will have long-term effects on her health.

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“I feel like personally the stress is what (the school board) will be able to listen to me about,” Bachtel said. “I want our district to listen to just our stress load and how stressed we are, to take that into consideration and alleviate some of that. It hasn’t affected my health yet, but in the long run, I could see how it could.”

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As cases increase and little to no adjustments are made, educators are forced to adapt to the fast changes that come with COVID-19 life, Bachtel said.

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“You have to be totally flexible, because really it’s not even just one day at a time anymore,” Bachtel said. “It feels like it’s almost minutes at a time that things could change. You get one call or text, and it changes everything.”

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For information about cases, deaths and safety violations in campuses statewide, click here.