'Our priority is getting students and teachers safely back into schools,' says Baltimore Public Schools CEO
As school districts across the U.S. grapple with whether to re-open classrooms for in-person learning amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Baltimore public schools are preparing to welcome kids back in January. Dr. Sonja Santelises, CEO of Baltimore Public Schools, joined Yahoo Finance to discuss the impact of the coronavirus on her school system and what she thinks should be the priorities of the incoming Biden administration when it comes to education.
Santelises, who oversees over 80,000 students, tells Yahoo Finance that most Baltimore families have opted for virtual learning, which remains a challenge students from low-income households, noting a study that found that 20,000 families in Baltimore had no broadband access.
“One of our major focus areas has been really shifting from what pre-pandemic was one device per for student ratio to now, over the past seven months or so, we’ve purchased 55,000 laptops distributed 47,000 of those directly to students and families, an additional 10,000 hotspots, and an additional 10,000 more that are coming online. It’s really forced us as an entire community, including our business partners, the philanthropic community, our elected officials, to really think about internet access.”
Baltimore has already begun the process of bringing some of its most vulnerable students back to the classroom, including English language learners, early learners, and students with disabilities.
Santelises tells Yahoo Finance that technology and safety are among the biggest concerns of Baltimore teachers during the pandemic.
“Whenever you’re talking about returning in person, safety is the first and foremost concern. So beginning this past summer, we started having small groups of students back, really practicing what some of those health protocols need to be, so that as we scale up, we’ll have them in place,” she said.
“We’ve also heard from our educators and our teachers some of the adjustments that need to be made to virtual learning, concerns about screen time, about professional development time. And we have a team of some of our expert teachers in Baltimore City that have been consulting with me directly about some of the changes we will be making to virtual learning,” she said.
Santelises, who has been brought up as a possible choice for Education Secretary, believes getting students and teachers back to school should be a top priority not only for Baltimore but also for the nation.
“I think a lot of what we’re focused on when I talk to my colleagues across the country, and I think that we’ve heard things about this from various sectors is how we come together as a country to signal that our priority is our young people and getting students and teachers safely back into schools — and how do we learn from what has occurred over the last seven months.”
Reggie Wade is a writer for Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter at @ReggieWade.
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