AUBURN, Maine — The Auburn Public School District's reopening plan isn't sitting well with a second grade teacher and the vice president of the Auburn Education Association, Bree Crocker.
"The biggest problem is safety," said Crocker.
The school committee voted to give parents the choice to choose between keeping their kids home, or a hybrid plan, where students are in school two or four days a week.
"You could have one child that's going all four days that is not going to be with those two separate cohorts, so we're now not keeping them separate anymore, so now kids are going to be more at risk," said Crocker.
But Crocker said that model wasn't the original plan. She said the school district proposed a hybrid model to break it up, which she and other approved of. The committee voted it down.
"We thought that the school department and parents and teachers who are the committee, put a lot of work and thought into it," said Crocker.
The superintendent said she met with the teacher's union on Monday and looks forward to continuing to work with them.
Parent Stephanie Haider let her incoming middle school student choose which option he wanted.
"He talked to his friends first to see what they thought about it," said Haider.
She said he chose to be in school four days a week. Although she's happy he won't be learning completely remote, she does have reservations.
"I am a little concerned about the hallways. And there's the bussing. No one has discussed the bussing," said Haider.
Meanwhile, Crocker said she and other teachers will be participating in a friendly demonstration before the school committee meeting on Wednesday, in hopes the committee will reconsider the original plan.
The superintendent is proposing to push back the start date of school to September 14, because she said her district does not have enough personal protective equipment.
She said she is also looking to use money from the 'COVID Relief Fund' to put in a new ventilation system at the high school.