Columbia teachers’ union recommends changing when online learning will be required

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

On Friday, the Columbia Missouri National Education Association offered follow-up recommendations to the Columbia Public School district's reopening plan order, which included changing the distance learning benchmark to 30 instead of 50.

In the recommendation from CMNEA, it mentioned that elementary and secondary students are equally susceptible and equally effective at transmitting the virus.

"This implies in our modification of the Minnesota model, the elementary school students should be moved into the category with the secondary students," the recommendation stated.

Right now Columbia Public School's learning mode matrix said if there are zero to 10 cases per 10,000 Columbia residents, students will learn in-person, if there are 10 to 49 cases students will be in a hybrid model, and 50 or more cases will require all virtual learning.

Noelle Gilzow, a teacher from Hickman High School, said the goal is to make the all distance learning benchmark 30, instead of 50.

CMNEA said in order to reach 50 cases per 10,000 it would require 650 new cases in a 14 day period, which is about 46 new cases per day.

CPS is tracking and posting the number on a website. It was at 29.5 on Thursday but has not been updated since county health officials reported a record 81 new cases Friday.

"For the safety of teachers and students at both levels it's more reasonable to have a number that isn't quite so critical to be the benchmark for switching over to virtual, that way we might hit that number without having breakouts in school populations," Gilzow said.

Superintendent Peter Stiepleman met with CMNEA Friday morning to review the new recommendations.

He said the plan is to discuss the recommendations further with the Board of Education and the Columbia/Boone County Health Department.