At midnight, after hours of confusing back and forth, the Ann Arbor School Board voted to modify the district's reopening plan so that, for most kids, schools wouldn't reopen for in-person learning *at all.* https://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/2021/02/ann-arbor-school-board-to-vote-on-plan-for-most-students-to-finish-year-virtually.html

The Board did so after hearing hours of comments from anguished parents who are desperate to get their kids back into the classroom. The Board did so without even *surveying* parents to find out what they thought.

The refusal even to pretend to take seriously the concerns of parents who have been stretched past the breaking point is galling. The dereliction of responsibility to our kids is tragic.

The only constituency that seems to move the board is the teachers' union. But the point of teachers having a bargaining unit is that you *bargain* with them. You don't *capitulate* to them.

If you want to get a sense of how a strong leader enters into those negotiations, look no further than Lori Lightfoot in Chicago. She got her teachers back in the classroom -- and safely. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/14/us/chicago-mayor-lori-lightfoot-on-what-she-learned-from-battling-the-teachers-union.html

I get the concern that teachers here haven't been vaccinated yet. We should move that along (though the CDC says, rightly, that it's not necessary to reopen). But AAPS is going to close schools even *after* vaccination happens. There is no excuse for that.

Not only is it contrary to any possible science about transmission or risk. It's also a chilling statement about the school board's values. Any conjectural risk, any possibility of harm, is too much -- kids be damned.

Our kids are suffering. Our parents are suffering. What does it say about our values if restaurants are open, if high-school sports are being played, but kindergartners are still sitting on zoom?

What's become clear to me is that the school board does not represent the community. It represents teachers. And I love teachers. I was a middle-school teacher myself! But they're not the only ones who have interests here.

The school board should reject the misbegotten motion it adopted at midnight last night. It should instead vote to approve a date to return all preK-5 kids to school -- and then hustle to make that happen.

I'm beside myself with frustration and sadness and anger. Our kids will be out of school for *15 straight months* if the Board's proposal is adopted.

That's unacceptable for kids. It's unacceptable for the community. And it should be unacceptable to people who think of themselves as educators.

/fin