Alternative New Hampshire School Reopening Plan Offered By Feltes

CONCORD, NH — A Democrat running for governor in New Hampshire has released his own school reopening plan to counter a plan released by the state's Republican governor and department of education earlier this month.

State Sen. Dan Feltes, D-Concord, unveiled the "Live Free and Learn Safe" plan Wednesday at the Statehouse calling it "a real plan" which allows school districts to make decisions about their 2020-2021 school year education plans with both guidance and mandates from the state.

The 19-page plan calls for mandatory face coverings or masks to be worn during school and on buses whether or not there are COVID-19 infections in a community or school district. It also sets up mandatory moves to remote learning in counties that have a case rate of 100 per 100,000 people or hospitalizations statewide increase by 10 percent or more via the three-day average during 14 days whether the communities in a district have active cases or not. The candidate's plan requires the state to pay for educators to be tested weekly on-site if they choose to as well as five cloth coverings purchased for every student, PPE for educators and plastic shields for bus drivers. Educator sick days, guaranteed in teacher contracts in nearly 100 SAUs in the state, will be paid for by the state. The state will also guarantee job protection for all educators, according to the plan, if they refuse to work in open schools and prefer to teach remotely. Meals would be prepackaged and eaten by students in classrooms under Feltes' plan while busses would have windows open at all times, weather permitting. Under the plan, the state would also be required to inspect for air circulation quality in every school.

"To face this, we can't just close our eyes and hope local school districts will be all right," Feltes, who launched his campaign in September 2019, said. "We have an obligation to give teachers and students and faculty and personnel on the ground the resources they need and the certain guidance they are calling for. Unfortunately, Gov. Sununu is not meeting this moment — and with less than five weeks to go. All parents and teachers and students wanted was certainty and last week, Gov. Sununu delivered chaos."

Feltes called 100 percent local control when it came to public health "a punt," a political stunt, and not leading the state in a time of crisis.

Ned Helms, the former commissioner for the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services and a long-time Democrat activist, heralded the plan as not only best for educators and students but also paving the way to better health care in the state overall. He likened the governor's plan to saying, "good luck," to school districts, especially in an everchanging environment of the pandemic.

"It is imperative that we do this as a state," Helm said. "Recognizing that different parts of the state are going to have unique features. But the starting point is to give them the checklist — what should we be sensitive to; how are we going to be gathering the right information?"

Sue Hannon, a Manchester teacher who is also the president of the district's teachers union, was also backing Feltes' plan. She thought Manchester should go to full remote learning for the safety of educators — even though they will want to be in the classroom with their students. Since the Queen City is the epicenter of the pandemic in the state and many surrounding communities have also had high infection cases, there was no way to ensure safety in reopened schools. Hannon pointed to the reopening plan for restaurants at half capacity with face coverings and said patrons were only there for short periods of time. But at a school, it can be as many as six hours — "and that's OK?," she asked. Flipping back and forth to open schools and remote learning did not make sense.

"If we have one plan, that parents can count on, they can plan for their workday and child care," she said. "A good starting point is this plan."

Emma Sisti, a Concord school district parent and public defender, was also supporting the plan. She said remote learning was difficult earlier this year but it was an emergency — so everyone did the best they could. But with a child with an underlying health condition, Sisti is concerned about safety but also understands the sacrifices made by families with remote learning. She also questioned how educators were going to be able to control social distancing between students when they naturally want to be around their friends. At the same time, she said, remote learning was unhealthy for students and difficult for families to juggle.

"The current plan that the governor put out, he put out late, it does not provide any guidance, and it hasn't help my district to develop a plan that can be implemented to keep my children safe and educated in the district and in their classroom," she said. "This plan does this."

The full plan is posted on Medium here.

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