This commentary is by Jim Murphy of Montpelier, chair of the Montpelier Roxbury School Board.
As a board chair who has served throughout the Covid pandemic, I am deeply concerned that Vermont’s schools are at a breaking point and immediate measures need to be taken to alleviate the immense strain on our teachers, administrators, staff and students.
I do not say this lightly or without recognition that Vermont, with the leadership of the governor, has done well in these most difficult of times. I praise the governor’s early response to the pandemic — his swift actions to impose masking and social distancing requirements, a strong push to have Vermonters vaccinated, and other measures that have made Vermont one of the safest states in the nation.
Indeed, last year, strong and science-based safety measures allowed most schools in Vermont to have substantial in-person school — something that was not able to occur in many parts of the nation.
This year is different. Early summer expectations that the vaccine would allow for a relative return to normalcy were dashed by the Delta variant, which, while disproportionately impacting unvaccinated Vermonters, saw Vermont’s numbers rise to levels seen during some of our most stringent state requirements.
Unlike last year, when the administration’s response was science-driven and firmly put safety first, the response this fall has been more mixed. The administration put out confusing guidance on issues like masking and social distancing that left many hard choices to school administrators without clear support from the state.
However, most of the factors placing stress on schools are harder to account for than many of the challenges faced last year, but no less real. These include the cumulative effects of strain on teachers, administrators and staff who have been asked to go above and beyond for too long without a clear end in sight; the stress of the constant anxiety of living with an unpredictable and potentially deadly virus; students who are experiencing high-needs behavioral issues that are exacerbated by being in their third school year with restrictions that are hard on developing kids; and a mental health system not currently equipped to keep up with the mental health issues our students are facing.
Perhaps the greatest stress is the inability of schools to staff positions across the board — from teachers to custodians to food service workers to instructional and behavioral assistants. This inability is not due to financial constraints; it is due to a labor shortage.
To add to the strain, many districts are contending with controversies around masking, critical race theory, and other issues that have led to a toxic political atmosphere with school administrators and teachers taking the heat.
To make matters worse, programs with good intentions — like weekly Covid testing — that the state has asked schools to do have come with high workload burdens and inadequate staffing help. Testing students is key to keeping schools safe, but without human resources to do so, it means that already strained school workers have more on their plates.
The effects of this crisis are showing. Even more is put upon our school workers, with superintendents, principals, teachers and other school staff being asked to serve lunches, administer Covid tests, clean the school before and after hours, and spend increasing time managing student behavioral and mental health issues.
With this comes the wear and tear of stress and the feeling of helplessness that occurs when dedicated, caring people are put in situations where they are overwhelmed by impossible demands.
There are no simple solutions. But the first step to solving a problem is recognizing it. And this is a step I have not adequately seen from the governor or Education Secretary Dan French.
I encourage Secretary French to conduct a listening tour of school boards and hear from board members and school administrators about the challenges that are being faced by schools. I encourage the state to give thought to how it can give schools meaningful support and ensure that its actions are alleviating the situation, not adding more to the plate.
The dedicated people who care for our kids and schools have done a top-rate job during the most challenging of circumstances. But their heroics cannot be sustained.
We must, as a state and as individual communities, work together to help bring our schools and the people who work hard for our children through this current phase of the pandemic.
