Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Kathy Hoffman discusses Reopening In Person Instruction in the Grand Canyon State

At an early afternoon Press Conference with Ylenia Aguilar, the President of the Osborn School District Governing Board and Dr. Jason Vargas, the President of the Arizona Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Kathy Hoffman discussed the progress of reopening all Schools in the Grand Canyon State for In-Person Instruction. 

Please click below to watch the event.

During her comments, the Superintendent thanked all Arizona Educators and School staff for doing their best and working as hard as they could to make learning possible for children during the last year with the Coronavirus Pandemic.

Ms. Hoffman then updated the status of school instruction in Arizona, saying:

“As of this month, nearly 60% of our state’s public schools report offering either hybrid or in-person learning with many more schools making plans to resume in-person instruction in the fourth quarter.”

Moving forward, Superintendent Hoffman, in both her prepared statements and responding to journalist questions, cited several factors in reopening more schools for in-person instruction. Those factors are:

  • Following the newly released CDC guidance on school reopenings which recommends strong mitigation measures like masking, social distancing, and creating school schedules (hybrid for example) and classrooms that allow for children being six feet apart.
  • Emphasizing academic instruction over extracurricular activities.
  • Educators and school staff getting vaccinated. During the question and answer session, Osborn School District Governing Board President Aguilar cited the fact that 90 percent of that district’s instructors have been vaccinated as a reason that district will reopen for in-person instruction for the fourth quarter.
  • Local conditions on the ground like the severity of COVID 19 spread in the area, the numbers of teachers vaccinated, improvements to school building infrastructure like ventilation systems, and community planning/decisions on how to move forward.
  • Prioritizing opening elementary schools first where the prospects of Coronavirus spread is considerably less than in high schools.

The Superintendent also called for building back trust and restoring stability with all school stakeholders, especially those in hard-hit pandemic communities like “Latino, Black, and Indigenous students and families.”

To accomplish this, Ms. Hoffman relayed:

  • That all schools have been notified about how much funding they will receive from the latest COVID 19-CARES Act relief bill passed in December. Please click below to see how much your child’s school district will receive.

FY21 Elementary & Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER II) Fund Allocations – Public (1)

  • The need for the State Legislature to fully fund the $45 million in the State School Safety Grant Program which will enable traditional and charter school districts to hire needed counselors, social workers, and school psychologists.
  • The necessity to create, based on local needs, academic enrichment programs like extending the school day, providing affordable or free summer school, or hiring reading specialists and other tutors to help children, especially those who suffered from the digital gap-divide over the last year, catch up on the subject knowledge matter and skills they were not able to receive during the pandemic.

During the question and answer session, the Superintendent did say that students would undergo year-end school assessments as mandated by law. Ms. Hoffman stressed that:

“We are doing everything to be flexible (like expanding the testing window and reduced test length) strongly encouraging everyone at the school level to make the testing environment as safe as possible.”

She said that these assessments, where schools will not be held accountable for, are a necessary metric to measure where children may need to catch up after this last year and the resources needed to help them.

The children, families, and educators in Arizona have endured a lot of stress over this last year with the COVID 19 Pandemic.

Hopefully, in-person education in Arizona will resume in as many local areas as possible as the new CDC guidelines, the declining COVID numbers, and increased vaccination supplies and distributions point the way forward.