Following weeks of contention 

over the lack of in-person education 
in Ann Arbor Public Schools, the 
AAPS Board of Education voted Feb. 
24 to begin phasing in a hybrid plan 
for in-person instruction starting 
March 25. 

The district, which has been 

fully remote since March 2020, 
will continue to offer an online 
learning option for families who 
wish to remain online. Around 750 
community members listened in to 
Feb 24’s vote.

“The question has always been a 

matter of when we will return, not if,” 
AAPS Superintendent Jeanice Swift 
said. “We recognize that this time 
has presented significant challenges 
for everyone. Our children need 
in-school learning opportunities, 
our staff and parents who’ve worked 
so valiantly at kitchen tables, across 
this community, and everyone has 
made so many sacrifices.”

On Feb. 22, six Ann Arbor City 

Council 
members 
and 
Mayor 

Christopher Taylor signed a public 
letter to the BOE urging AAPS to 
return to in-person and hybrid 
learning. 
Citing 
the 
negative 

repercussions of keeping schools 
closed on students’ mental health 
and wellbeing, the city officials 
asked the BOE to begin serious 
discussions about reopening schools 
as soon as possible.

“The 
extended 
absence 
of 

in-school 
learning 
harms 
the 

emotional and mental state of 
students 
and 
stresses 
already 

stressed families,” the letter reads. 
“These harms are universal, but 
they 
are 
compounded 
among 

homes with young students and 

community members who are 
resource-deprived or who have 
special needs.”

This City Council letter came 

after Swift announced in mid-
January that remote instruction 
would continue indefinitely due 
to confirmed cases of the more 
contagious B.1.1.7 variant among 
University of Michigan students and 
ongoing vaccine shortages. 

The district will begin Stage 

One on March 25 by phasing in 
PreK-12 students who learn in “self-
contained classroom placements,” 
meaning students with special 
needs will work in small groups 
with special education teachers. 
Stage One also includes preschool 
students, Young Five students, 
kindergarten students and small 
groups of students in grades 6-12. 

Stage Two begins on April 5 and 

includes first and second grade 
students. Stages Three and Four 
both begin on April 12 — Stage 
Three allows third, fourth and fifth 
grade students to return, and Stage 
Four begins a phased return of all 
students in grades 6-12. 

On 
Feb. 
23, 
AAPS 
leaders 

announced a partnership with 
Michigan Medicine and Integrated 
Health 
Associates 
to 
quickly 

vaccinate teachers and staff in 
mass vaccination programs this 
coming weekend. Swift said this 
decision significantly impacted the 
reopening recommendation and the 
Feb. 24 vote. 

Swift said vaccinating teachers 

and staff and offering frequent 
testing to students were two key 
components in creating the hybrid 
plan. To mitigate potential spread, 
Swift announced that the district 
will also be able to offer in-school 
rapid testing for students, which 
aligns with one of the new Centers 

for Disease Control and Prevention 
guidelines for reopening schools. 

“This is critically important, as 

an extra layer of protection and of 
confidence for our parents, and for 
students and for staff,” Swift said.

The district is also planning for 

a “robust” summer program, with 
further details being announced in 
March, Swift said. Swift said the 
district is planning for a full return 
to in-school learning in fall 2021.

“I also want to declare our intent 

on a full return to school in the Ann 
Arbor Public Schools this fall, a full 
five days per week of instruction 
for students and staff,” Swift said. 
“Certainly, if there is any unforeseen 
event that would change that 
ability, we would be the first ones to 
immediately be in communication 
with our trustees and with our 
community on any change, but that 
is our intention.”

Some Ann Arbor residents and 

AAPS parents said AAPS’ choice 
to remain all virtual since March 
2020 placed a heavy toll on many 
children, particularly those with 
learning disabilities who rely on 
professionally-trained staff. Ann 
Arbor residents have also raised 
concerns about the disproportionate 
effects COVID-19 has placed on 
families of color, particularly Black 
families, which can further widen 
the disparities that exist for people 
of color.

The 
Ann 
Arbor 
Board 
of 

Education voted to approve the 
hybrid plan 6-0, with Trustee 
Ernesto Querijero abstaining from 
the vote, saying that the time change 
of the meeting could violate board 
policy.

After the vote, the Board of 

Education reconvened at 7 p.m. to 
hear public comments from over 
200 submissions. All names and 

comments were submitted prior to 
the vote to phase in the hybrid plan 
and were given 15 seconds to be read 
aloud to the Board.

Allison Plagens wrote the school 

year has been very upsetting for 
her family, and urged the Board 
to provide transparency for the 
decision-making process to reopen.

“We feel trapped by your school 

system,” Plagens wrote. “As a low 
income family we have weighed the 
pros and cons of staying in AAPS 
and if we are able to leave due to 
what has happened this school year. 
All my family wants in honesty at 
this point.” 

Yuriy 
Goykhman, 
a 
parent 

of a second grader at Eberwhite 
Elementary School, shared concerns 
about the district’s previous actions.

“With so many empty promises, 

denial of science and compete 
disregard of the needs of a large 
portion of the community AAPS 
leadership and the board have 
lost the trust of the community,” 
Goykhman wrote. “AAPS families 
are leaving the district in droves – 
it is very difficult to find housing in 
nearby districts and all the private 
schools have long waitlists.” 

Though most of the comments 

urged AAPS to approve the hybrid 
plan, 
Nicole 
Turcotte-Ruiz, 
a 

mother of a first grader in AAPS, 
expressed doubt about the success 
of the proposed model to return to 
the classroom. 

“The proposed Hybrid Model 

that has teachers instructing both 
in-person and virtual students 
simultaneously seems ambitious 
at best and more likely downright 
impossible,” Turcotte-Ruiz wrote.

Daily News Editor Kristina Zheng 

can be reached at krizheng@umich.
edu. 

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AAPS votes to offer hybrid in-person 

learning beginning March 25

ANN ARBOR

Decision comes after weeks of contention on going back to the classroom

KRISTINA ZHENG

Daily News Editor

In an email to The Daily, 

University 
spokesman 
Rick 

Fitzgerald said the University 
does not track graduation rates 
and other indicators of student 
success by high school. 

Business 
freshman 
Marcel 

Wong is one of the many students 
in his class that came to the 
University from Northville High 
School in Northville, Mich. In 
2019, the University accepted 150 
students from Northville High 
School, and 101 chose to attend. 
Wong said that coming from a 
high school where many students 
attended Michigan made it easier 
for him to adjust as a freshman.

“Having 
a 
community 
of 

people not just in your grade, but 
older ones as well that are already 
here and can serve as a potential 
friend or mentor, is definitely a 
big plus with an in-state feeder 
school,” Wong said. 

With a median household 

income just over $110,000 per 
year, many Northville students 
are able to take some of the 21 
Advanced Placement classes or 
the IB curriculum their high 
school 
offers. 
These 
classes 

provide students a way to earn 

college credits in high school and 
often match collegiate academic 
rigor, but the $100 price tag 
on exams poses a barrier for 
some students. According to 
the 
College 
Board 
website, 

some “qualifying” low-income 
students are eligible for fee 
reductions, though the cost is 
still $53 per test.

Wong 
said 
he 
thinks 

his 
AP-packed 
Northville 

curriculum prepared him well 
for college. 

 “I think being exposed to those 

harder classes early and learning 
good 
study 
habits 
definitely 

assisted 
in 
transitioning 
to 

college classes and workload,” 
Wong said.

In contrast, LSA sophomore 

Adelaide Ward went to Ludington 
High School in the small town of 
Ludington, Mich., with a total 
population of just over 8,000. 
Ludington High School offers 
eight AP courses. Out of her 
graduating class of 172, only 
three ended up attending the 
University. Ward said that she 
experienced a difficult transition 
her freshman year because her 
high school did not challenge her 
academically.

“I 
100% 
struggled 

academically during my first year 
at Michigan,” Ward said. “Public 

high school curriculum was 
pretty easy for me, so I wasn’t 
used to having to actually study 
for tests and dedicate a lot of time 
to each class.”

Additionally, Ward said she 

experienced a culture shock 
during her first year at the 
University. Coming from a small 
town, Ward said she had not had 
the same experiences as other 
students who came from bigger 
cities or other regions of the 
world. 

“My high school class of 

172 maybe had 10 people of 
color, and my hometown is 
extremely 
conservative 
and 

heteronormative,” 
Ward 
said. 

“I had little interaction, until I 
came to Michigan, with people 
of 
different 
races, 
religions 

other than Christianity, beliefs 
different from right-leaning, and 
the LGBTQ+ community. I feel 
as if I adjusted pretty quickly, 
though, because I always felt out 
of place in my hometown.”

Business senior Brianna Byard 

also came from a small town in 
Michigan, where she attended 
Tawas Area High School. Like 
Ward, Byard said her high school 
curriculum was not rigorous 
enough to effectively prepare her 
for college. 

“I had just as much of a brain 

as most of my peers (in college), 
it just hadn’t been used in the 
same capacity in my high school,” 
Byard 
said. 
“There 
weren’t 

many academically-challenging 
courses in my high school besides 
three AP courses.”

Byard also said her high 

school provided little support for 
students applying to college, since 
there were few standardized test 
preparation resources available. 

“We had no SAT tutors within 

a 2 hour radius, or any type of 
school-led SAT prep,” Byard said. 

Byard 
said 
she 
felt 

disadvantaged coming from a 
small high school when many of 
her peers at the University had 
attended feeder schools. There 
was a steeper learning curve to 
adjusting to college life because 
of this discrepancy, Byard said.

“The social capital ... my 

peers had, that of knowing 
many students already at school, 
knowing the norms already of 
social life at college or knowing 
what makes a successful college 
student,” Byard said. “I had to 
learn from scratch to cultivate 
my own social capital to enable 
myself to be a part of the 
community.”

FEEDER SCHOOL
From Page 1

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

