Masks prevent the spread infection to other people. The current state guidelines to have staff wear masks and not the students demonstrates a view that teachers and staff are not worth protecting, that staff lives do not matter. Arguments that children rarely show symptoms ignore the at-risk age status of many teachers and staff. Forcing those staff members to protect themselves by resigning, taking leaves of absence, or retiring before they intended constitutes age-based discrimination. If we reopen school buildings, we do not have the capacity to social distance student desks and maintain full-size classes. Many teachers cannot afford to work a different schedule from their children, with staff working every day and children only attending alternating or half-days. Forcing teachers and staff who are parents to resign or take leaves of absence also shows a problematic disregard for staff lives.

Reopening the buildings for all will cost you teachers, leaving administrators to scramble through online interviews to fill more positions than there are candidates, spreading our teacher shortage from high-need categories (special education, math, science) to every category.

Please consider separate policies based on student age, SpEd needs, and ELL status. Keep the majority of older students learning online, spread the younger students, high-needs special education, and English language learners across all buildings to allow for both full-time schedules and social distancing. A teacher may still be covering two shifts of their class, but the other part of the schedule would be in a school and could be supervised by a substitute or IA, both jobs which can be filled by a greater variety of people and qualifications than hiring new teachers.