With the exception of New York City public schools, all other large city school districts are opening using ‘Remote Learning’ while thousands of small suburban school districts are opening or considering opening for in person instruction.

The nation’s leading doctors and scientists at the CDC with the support of the AAP (American Academy of Pediatricians) and the White House have given very specific guidelines school districts must adhere to in order to open.

The purpose of this article is to highlight and examine the numerous layers and highly coordinated efforts needed to safely and effectively operate a school during the COVID-19 Pandemic while adhering to the CDC and the nation’s leading Pediatricians at the AAP.

Let’s highlight and examine the numerous levels of personnel and supplies needed to safely and effectively operate schools according to these national guidelines.

A- Titles of required school personnel

1- Custodians

2- Food service employees.

3- Transportation personnel

4- Student Management Services

5- Teachers

6- Administrative Assistants

7- Administrators

B- The student to staff ratio for each level of professional personnel is based on 1000 students per school.

This is the average number of students in elementary, middle and high schools combined then divided by three.

Some schools are much larger and some much smaller. The average of 1000 students per school can be adjusted for your specific school and resources but the ratios will be very close. You can find the size of your specific school and district on your state or school district websites.

1- Custodians: 250 to 1

2- Food service employees: 200 to 1

3- Transportation personnel: 40 to 1

4- Student Safety 250 to 1

5- Teachers: 34-50 to 1

6- Administrative Assistants: 175 to 1

7- Administrators: 250 to 1

As we see, the ratio of school personnel to students is extremely imbalanced. This imbalance speaks to an antiquated system in normal times (which we’ve known but ignored.) but in the reality of the COVID-19 Pandemic, this severe imbalance has been exposed and schools are now compelled to follow CDC and AAP guidelines.

The fact that prior to the COVID-19 Pandemic schools succeeded (in spite of the significant imbalance of the student to school personnel ratio) is a great tribute to students, parents and school personnel.

So, what are the real challenges with returning to in person learning during the COVID-19 Pandemic?

The challenges are many (which we will explore) but with depleted resources (and the numerous additional resources needed) the uncertainty of schools being able to adhere to CDC and AAP guidelines is at best, an uphill battle.

This enormous challenge is a result of the overly crowded physical and spatial ratio of students to students and students to personnel and is comparable to going to a sporting event, concert, movie or the theater, each of which have banned during this Pandemic.

Opening schools during the COVID-19 Pandemic while keeping entertainment venues closed is contrary to the guidelines and plain old common sense.

What is needed to keep your children and school personnel safe for a school to reopen?

Keeping your children safe in accordance with the Pandemic guidelines by the CDC and AAP will place an inordinate physical and financial strain on our schools that simply cannot be met without an substantial influx of new funding.

For example, the Yonkers Public School District in NYS will need nearly $11,000,000 to acquire the PPE supplies mandated by the CDC to reopen safely. In addition to the 100 school personnel it recently laid off due to the COVID- 19 Pandemic must be rehired and many new school personnel must be added.

Understanding the School District Landscape

New York State alone has nearly 700 school districts serving nearly 3,000,000 students. Even using a conservative number of $2,000,000 per school district for PPE supplies New York State would need roughly $1.500,000,000 in new funding for school districts.

Like Yonkers, the $2,000,000 per school district does not take into account all the personnel each district has laid off (who must be brought back) and possibly two to three thousand more school personnel statewide to be hired to implement the CDC and AAP guidelines.

The costs listed above might also include minor repairs such as broken windows but would not include such things as the repair of or installation for new portable HEPA air filter systems NYS is highly suggesting (and some unions demanding these air filtration systems such as the Yonkers Federation of Teachers is) for each classroom.

The cost of a portable HEPA air filtration system per classroom costs approximately $1300.00 In New State there are nearly 5000 schools.

Each school has an average (on the low side) of 30 classrooms. The cost for HEPA air filtration systems for schools would cost in the area of $200,000,000

These are low and bare minimal figures and do not include much larger and elaborate systems for halls, stairwells and bathrooms.

Let us examine the following normal routines that are no longer normal during the COVID-19 Pandemic:

1- Arrivals and dismissals: Whether children ride public school buses or public city buses to and from school all transportation vehicles must meet the CDC and AAP guidelines for social distancing and air filtration.

This would require refitting each city and district school bus while adding two to three times the vehicles presently in use. Also required will be the checking of temperatures before students enter school.

This will create a log jamb of students possibly reaching out into the streets as they must maintain social distancing. This would also result in having to close traffic for student safety
impacting people needing to go to work who use public transportation or their own cars.

This means that all businesses would not be able to start on time as people will not be able to get to work on time if streets have to be closed in order to accommodate children going to school.

What of emergency services if streets are closed? This will have a significant impact on safety and on an already severely strained economy.

If people cannot get to work; their medical appointments or other routine business (until all students are in school each morning) this will create havoc on society.

Student dismissal will be a mirrored effect as student arrival but with an extra twist. Who decides the order in which students will leave?

Between the new arrival and dismissal procedures of adhering to social distancing requirements, the school day could easily extend two hours longer in the morning and two hours longer in the afternoon. Depending on the size of your school, much longer days will be needed in varying degrees to meet these mandates. In addition, temperature checks and social distancing means that your children will have to stand in all sorts of weather such as rain, snow, sleet, cold and extreme heat before they are allowed in school. With school hours having to expand (and not for instruction) society will need 28-30 hour days!

2- The use of school Bathrooms: In this scenario we immediately see that social distancing is not possible. In order to comply with social distancing mandates students will not be able to access bathrooms as needed.

Schools will need a monitoring system for bathroom usage and additional personnel to implement it which raises privacy concerns and other health issues.

Do parents or students want monitors inside bathrooms making sure that students wash their hands or limit their use of the bathroom to a specified amount of time?

Implementing a plan for students to use the bathroom following CDC and AAP guidelines for social distancing would be impossible. Schools simply do not have enough bathrooms to follow the mandated guidance.

3- Nutrition Services for students: School reopening plans are calling for students to eat at their desks. How will custodians clean up nearly two thousand meals per day without interrupting instruction and without hiring dozens of additional custodians?

Let us also consider where students will wait while custodians clean their desks and the floors after each meal? Social distancing will not be possible.

Serving students in at their desks could take hours while having students eat in the Cafeteria is impossible. Eating in school cafeterias do not meet social distancing mandates school cafeterias have bench style or round tables.

Refitting the tables with plastic partitions would cost untold sums of money, and if it could be done, there is not enough time to do it.

Who will deliver the two thousand meals daily to students without hiring dozens of additional food service personnel? Such a process could take hours and remember most schools do not have elevators for food service personnel to use to transport hundreds of meals per floor.

4- Implementing Instruction: School reopening plans are calling for students to remain in one classroom all day and require teachers to travel from room to room in order to limit contact in the halls and stairwells but who will supervise students during teacher transition times?

5- Who will substitute for teachers when they will not expose themselves to such an environment of uncertainty and chaos? Now districts will have to pay Teachers using their sick time and substitute teachers.

Our summary is that untold amounts of new resources based on the CDC and AAP guidelines will be needed. The school day will be extended significantly for students to arrive, eat their breakfast, lunch and be dismissed safely. Somewhere between meals, arrival and dismissal, teachers (for those who show up) will try to find time to teach.

We must not forget the havoc to people’s lives this will create as they enter and exit school each day and the spread inevitable spread of COVID-19!!

Isn’t more sensible, cost effective and safe from every perspective to keep schools closed until we truly have COVID-19 under control?