Gov. Ducey, Kathy Hoffman: All Arizona schools to close through March 27

Gov. Doug Ducey and schools superintendent Kathy Hoffman announced Sunday that all Arizona schools will close through March 27 starting Monday. 

"The safest place for children during this time is at home," Ducey and Hoffman wrote in aletter. "They should not be cared for by elderly adults or those with underlying health conditions, including grandparents and other family members."

The pressure is on for schools. Superintendents are confronting a growing list of unknowns with the prospect of extended school closures.

Arizona's largest teacher's union called for all students to stay home over concerns about the spread of the new coronavirus earlier in the day. 

"While any school closure can be disruptive, it is reckless to pretend we are sending our teachers, staff, and students into safe environments Monday morning," Joe Thomas, president of the Arizona Education Association, wrote in a letter to Gov. Doug Ducey on Sunday. 

Thomas' letter also called for more action from state leaders, including a "detailed plan of support" for students, educators and families during extended school closures. It asks legislators to call a special session to address the crisis. 

Calling a long-term closure of Arizona schools "inevitable," school district superintendents and other school leaders also urged legislators and the governor to take action in a separate letter to state officials on Saturday night.

About 40 education leaders, including the superintendents of the Tucson Unified and Phoenix Elementary school districts, signed a letter asking for funding support from the Legislature, flexibility in how many school days are required, and for state testing to be canceled. 

"A clear plan for a long-term, statewide shutdown is critical," school leaders wrote in the letter.

While governors and public health departments in nearby New Mexico and Utah closed schools statewide to try to slow the spread of coronavirus, Ducey and officials from the Arizona Department of Health Servicespreviously did not call for widespread closures.

The decision to not to mandate closures, which also included Superintendent of Public Instruction Kathy Hoffman, received criticism from some over Twitter and Facebook. Other parents online have criticized schools for deciding on their own to close.

Many schools have already announced closures, often after pressure from their communities. Mesa and Scottsdale community members pressured both districts to close in petitions late last week. Both districts capitulated and canceled school. 

Questions facing school leaders 

Schools are in a bind. Leaders weighed this weekend whether closure could hurt communities more than help them, by depriving students and families of resources like free meals and safe childcare.

"It's a little bit like battle zone triage," Roger Freeman, superintendent of the Littleton School District in the West Valley, said. "The first thing first was deciding if you were going to be open or not the open. Most people were reluctant to be open because they were afraid of who they put at risk." 

Now, Freeman said, schools are asking for state help to address the consequences of closing. 

Some of the same questions raised around school closures now were raised during the weeklong #RedForEd closure, like the dilemma over how to feed kids. But the coronavirus adds a layer of complication: Securing enough perishables is difficult when grocery stores are seeing shortages.

"All of the resources come with a price tag," he said. "We want to be able to feed kids, but we don't have a year's worth of supplies in a bunker for Armageddon." 

According to Arizona Department of Education spokeswoman Morgan Dick, the state recently secured a waiver from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and can begin serving school breakfast and lunch as they would in the summer.

That program provides the funding for schools in low-income areas to serve meals and snacks to anyone 18 or younger. 

But, schools are also determining ways to keep social distancing protocols in place while serving meals. Scottsdale Unified, for example, is offering "driver-through" service, where parents can pick up meals from their car windows.

Questions for state lawmakers, Ducey

Many of the issues confronting school leaders can only be answered by the Arizona Department of Education, state lawmakers and Ducey. 

The superintendent letter asks state lawmakers to: 

• Support funding for 180 and 200-day school years, even if schools aren't able to hold school on that many days because of the closures. That would allow schools to continue paying staff members. 
• Ensure that paying hourly staff members, which include classroom aides, custodians and bus drivers, is not considered a "gift of public funds" during the closures. School leaders are worried they won't legally be able to pay hourly staff what they normally would if school is shut down. 
• Allocate extra funding to pay school employees if the school year has to be extended. 
• Consider sending money for schools and community centers to become childcare centers for families during the closures. 

It's also unclear if the schools will have enough time to complete mandatory state testing.

School leaders called for testing to be completely canceled. The testing period begins on March 30 and concludes in late April. AzM2 scores (formerly the AzMerit test), determine state letter grades, which are mandated by law. The federal government also requires state testing and it is unclear if the U.S. Department of Education would waive that requirement during this crisis.

State law requires schools to be open a minimum of 180 days. Mark Joraanstad, executive director of the Arizona School Administrators Association, said if that requirement isn't forgiven, schools would have to conduct "extensive makeup into the summer." 

Graduating seniors might also struggle to earn enough credits, if enough school is missed, he said. 

Joraanstad has worked in schools for decades. He's never seen schools face such extended closures. 

"There's a real desire to keep schools open, to keep instruction going, to keep feeding students, to keep paying staff members," he said. "Yet there's also the pressure on the other side... It's a balancing act... They're choosing not to jeopardize public safety." 

Reach the reporter at Lily.Altavena@ArizonaRepublic.com or follow her on Twitter @LilyAlta.

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