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A28 u.s. news
Diamars 26 Juli 2022

Some schools hit hard by virus make few changes for new year

2022 and 2023, and I’m sure to pull in central office staff, ing answer for me.”
there are going to be times combine classrooms, or tem-
when more folks are going porarily go remote, district Schools cannot afford more
to be absent and there will spokesperson Marissa Or- disruptions that distract them
be times when everything is banek said. from the critical work of
OK.” helping kids catch up, said
The district has switched to Thomas Kane, an education
“We certainly hope we don’t a new staffing agency and policy researcher at Harvard.
have to go to that extreme, aims to fill 90% of substitute Students at lower-income
but it is an option should we requests this year, said Or- schools that were doing re-
need to consider it,” he said. banek. They also now have mote learning for more than
over 100 supplemental teach- half a year lost the equivalent
Teacher shortages remain a ers, substitutes who show of 22 weeks of learning, he
major concern, even bigger up at the same school every said, while higher-income
than COVID-19 itself, said day in case of last-minute ab- schools lost 13 weeks.
Dan Domenech, executive sences.
director of AASA, an asso- “We’ve experienced a his-
(AP) - As a new school contagious omicron variant ciation of school superinten- One parent, James Fogarty, toric widening in achieve-
year approaches, COV- point to few specific changes dents. saw his elementary school ment gaps between Blacks
ID-19 infections are again in their prevention efforts. age children go back to on- and whites, between Latinx
on the rise, fueled by high- “That is the greater concern line learning several times last students and whites, be-
ly transmissible variants, Among them is Baltimore – that they will have the nec- year in Pittsburgh, a district tween high- and low-poverty
filling families with dread. County schools, where the essary staff to man all the that saw 46 disruptions in the schools,” he said. “If we don’t
They fear the return of a number of days that indi- classrooms, to man all the second half of last year. He get active in trying to close
pandemic scourge: out- vidual schools in the district programs – which will only hopes the district and com- those gaps, they’re going to
breaks that sideline large couldn’t offer in-person be made worse if there is an munities can identify prob- become permanent and there
numbers of teachers, close learning added together to- outbreak of COVID,” he lems earlier and work on bet- will be huge consequences
school buildings and force taled 159 in January, accord- said. ter solutions, like identifying for kids.”
students back into remote ing to data from the private backup options for families.
learning. research firm Burbio, which Philadelphia’s schools illus- Schools are hopeful disrup-
tracks over 5,000 school dis- trate how disruptive surges “How do we build systems tions will be less likely as
Some school systems around tricts nationwide. District of- can be. Beginning in Janu- that are flexible to meet the many districts have invested
the country have moved to ficials said they did not see a ary the virus caused 114 city shocks when they happen in better ventilation and vac-
bolster staffing to minimize need to change protocols. schools to go remote for an other than just like saying to cines are available to children
disruptions, but many are average of around eight days families, ‘Good luck, you’re as young as six months old.
hoping for the best without “We don’t anticipate signifi- each — a total of 920 cumula- on your own and I hope Besides ramping up hiring
doing much else differently cant changes to our plan; we tive days of remote learning, you don’t get fired because of substitutes, some of the
compared with last year. don’t anticipate significant more than any other district you have to miss your shift districts that were hit hardest
disruptions,” said Charles in Burbio’s data for January job,’” said Fogarty, the execu- last year have been making
Even some of the districts Herndon, a Baltimore Coun- through June. tive director of A+ Schools small changes to their proto-
that had the most disrup- ty Public Schools spokesper- in Pittsburgh, an organiza- cols.
tions to in-person schooling son. “What we’re expecting Amid shortages of substitute tion that promotes equity in
amid the spread of the highly to see is waves of COVID in teachers, schools were forced schools. “That’s not a satisfy-

US to plant more trees as climate change kills off forests

(AP) — The Biden admin- est Service to plant 1.2 billion last year to about 400,000 retary Tom Vilsack said in a
istration on Monday an- trees over the next decade acres (162,000 hectares) an- “Our forests, rural communi- statement announcing the
nounced plans to replant and after President Joe Biden nually, officials said. Most of ties, agriculture and economy reforestation plan. “Only
trees on millions of acres in April ordered the agency the work will be in western are connected across a shared through bold, climate-smart
of burned and dead wood- to make the nation’s forests states where wildfires now landscape and their existence actions ... can we ensure their
lands as officials struggle more resilient as the globe occur year round. is at stake,” Agriculture Sec- future.”
to counter the increasing gets hotter.
toll on the nation’s forests
from wildfires, insects and Much of the administration’s
other manifestations of broader agenda to tackle cli-
climate change. mate change remains stalled
amid disagreement in Con-
Destructive fires in recent gress, where Democrats hold
years that burned too hot a razor-thin majority. That’s
for forests to quickly regrow left officials to pursue a more
have far outpaced the gov- piecemeal approach with in-
ernment’s capacity to replant cremental measures such as
trees. That’s created a back- Monday’s announcement,
log of 4.1 million acres (1.7 while the administration
million hectares) in need of considers whether to declare
replanting, officials said. a climate emergency that
could open the door to more
The U.S. Agriculture De- aggressive executive branch
partment said it will have to actions.
quadruple the number of tree
seedlings produced by nurs- To erase the backlog of deci-
eries to get through the back- mated forest acreage, the
log and meet future needs. Forest Service plans over the
That comes after Congress next couple years to scale up
last year passed bipartisan work from about 60,000 acres
legislation directing the For- (24,000 hectares) replanted