Delmarva Parent Teacher Coalition calls on Wicomico County schools to transition to full-time, in-person learning by March 1st

WICOMICO COUNTY, Md. – The Delmarva Parent Teacher Coalition is calling on the Wicomico County Board of Education to reopen all schools for full-time, in person learning by March 1st. The coalition claims the district was under-performing even before the pandemic. They say now students need to be back in schools in order to improve their learning. In a letter sent to the Wicomico County Board of Education, the coalition writes, “The Wicomico County Board of Education has made decisions that are not in the best interest, safety, health, and respect of its citizens. As a result, unnecessary obstacles have been created by the WCBOE and actually deprived students of receiving a quality education.”

The letter goes on to make criticisms about the WCBOE’s development of its Recovery Plan, and asserts that students are learning only half of what they are supposed to. The coalition writes, “As we carry out independent educational assessments to measure proficiency in core subjects, we are discovering that actual grades and average GPA are much lower than reported by the WCBOE in its February 9th, 2021 board meeting.”

The coalition also writes that the WCBOE is not providing equal and equitable education for marginalized student populations. The letter reads, “As a result of the board’s decisions, discrimination has been created based on age, socio-economic status, race, disability, and obstructed access to education and the necessary resources for students to succeed.”

47ABC did reach out to Wicomico County Public Schools for a response to the letter. They sent back a statement that reads,

“We recognize the tremendous stress experienced by students, parents and other family members, and staff throughout this pandemic, and we are pleased to have been among the first to transition back to hybrid learning following the Governor’s announcement of new State guidance on the return to school. We will continue to follow CDC and MDH guidelines, including the requirement to physically distance 6 feet in classrooms and on school buses to ensure the safety of our students and staff. We will continue to assess those circumstances and make adjustments to other circumstances, including the slowly growing access to vaccine and the state’s promise of the availability of COVID-19 testing for school systems, as we work to return students to in-person instruction as much as we possibly can. Like all school systems across the country, we recognize the disruption to students’ learning that has inevitably occurred and are planning summer, after-school and other intervention programs to meet the individual needs of our students. We appreciate the tremendous support that we have received from the vast majority of our community as we work together to recover from the devastating impacts of the pandemic on every area of our lives, including education.”