Assuring that around 172 schools have been identified with “potential to reopen” in the first phase of the return to face-to-face classes, the designated secretary of the Department of Education, Elba Aponte Sants, pointed out that the The agency must ensure the effectiveness of health protocols at a time when the country has not yet experienced a substantial reduction in Covid-19 positivity rates.
Aponte Sants echoed the expressions made earlier by Noelia García, Secretary of the Interior, in the sense that the date of reopening of schools is not “written in stone”, but acknowledged that Wednesday 3 March would be an alternative.
“It could be March 3, to give an example. We have to move to this line that we drew, in early March. If we had to delay it so that an inconvenience arose as we will notify it. Today we are here, and I hope nothing happens, but if something happens we will have to make adjustments, “Aponte Sants said at a news conference after attending the weekly meeting of the executive cabinet.
To make up the list of schools that could reopen in March, Aponte Sants indicated that confrontation lists were established with the characteristics they must meet.
“We have two ‘checklists’, one for infrastructure and conditioning, which is what will be marked if the bathrooms are adequate, if they have cleaning materials, if you have the Covid protocol, if there is no risk of infrastructure in the halls […] In terms of the Covid protocol, following the guidelines of the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention), if they have thermometers, nurses, cleaning supplies, janitors, masks available to supply, if they have gloves . Let them master the tracking program, ”the designated secretary enumerated.
The screening program within the school system will be led by epidemiologists Encijar Hassan, Fabiola Creu and demographer Wilmarí de Jesús.
While the Department of Education does not plan, for now, to disclose the list of schools it considers to reopen, Aponte Sants expressed its desire that the kindergartens that finally open their classrooms be a “representative sample” of the geographical reality of Puerto Rico.
The Department of Education aspires to reopen “at least one per municipality, but it can vary. In Culebra we have a school, they are already vaccinated and, if the school is ready, it will start. Maybe in Las Marías the risk or Covid’s numbers are lower (so) we’re going to move here. There are several aspects we’re going to take into consideration for this determination, based on the recommendation that then (the Department of) Health gives us. ” held the official.
The agency has 856 planters, of which, until a few weeks ago, 53 were classified as unfit and 253 fit in part due to their infrastructure conditions.
Aponte Sants stressed that parents or guardians will not be forced to send their children to schools, but indicated that, in the case of teachers, they have the responsibility, by collective agreement, to go to kindergartens once summoned by the agency.
On February 5, the designated secretary reported, there will be a meeting to which all the unions of employees of the Department of Education are invited.
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“In the conversation we will have with the unions we will discuss the date on which some employees will be called, that this is a working condition,” he insisted.
At the press conference, the designated Secretary of Health, Carlos Mellado, said that “in two weeks” will be made public the plans and protocols to be followed by the nurseries that will reopen in March.
“There are some schools that are ready, both public and private. In these we are, evaluating the protocols,” Mellado said.
Faced with criticism from organizations such as the Teachers Association, which have demanded that the government focus its gaze on a reopening for the semester beginning in August, Mellado alluded to the views of experts such as the epidemiologist federal Anthony Fauci, the College of Surgeons of Puerto Rico and the American Pediatric Association, who have warned of the harm suffered by children who do not have the opportunity to receive face-to-face education for an extended period.
In this regard, the designated secretary insisted that schools play a key role for children in the nutritional and psychological aspects.
By excluding school employees from the administrative order which provided that, for four weeks, only Covid-19 vaccines will be administered to people over the age of 65, Mellado and Aponte Sants assured that this could be completed. phase for March 18th. At the same time, of the 55,000 teaching and non-teaching staff in public and private schools, 16,100 have received at least the first dose of the vaccine.
Of the 48,000 weekly doses that will be received starting next week, Mellado has indicated that there will be about 12,000 reserved for this population.