Governor David Ige and Hawaii State School Superintendent Dr. Christina Kishimoto  announced changes in the plans around school opening on August 17.  Schools on O’ahu will open on August 17, but will do so with four weeks of online learning only.   The state had 200 new cases of COVID-19 on O’ahu today, and that island now has more than 1600 active cases.  This directive only applies to public schools on O’ahu.

Kishimoto said that this week, she will have discussion with the neighbor island leadership teams and ultimately, the school principals, to discuss how the neighbor islands will open.  She said  each island is different, with different levels of COVID-19.  She said she had met with the neighbor island Complex Area Superintendents in advance of today’s announcement so they understood that O’ahu, with its large number of COVID-19 cases, would be first.  And since each County is different, each County may have a different requirement and plan.

Regarding O’ahu, Kishimoto said the new plan was developed by the Complex Area Superintendents on O’ahu.  Kishimoto said there are different phases of the opening on O’ahu:

—First phase: for the first four days of school from August 17 through 20, students will physically return to school, to connect with teacher, and practice learning on a distance learning platform and address connectivity.

—Second phase:  Aug 24 to Sept 11, there will be all distance learning. Teachers and staff will be working on site.

—Third phase:  starting September 14, the DOE team will work with the Department of Health to determine whether the O’ahu schools can return to the planned “blended learning” models, a combination of in-person and online instruction, with not all students at any school at the same time, and students learning from home some days in the week.

For students without adequate internet service at home, there will be limited learning labs at schools so students may do “distance learning” on devices from the school.

For special needs students, if they cannot be in a remote learning situation, they will come to school.

Students without wifi, there will be limited, learning labs at the schools until they can access wifi at home.

Kishimoto said the DOE did a survey and 75% of the families with students do have a device (IPad, computer) at home for students to use. There are 139,000 devices available for loans from schools if students need them.  The district has also distributed 5,000 “hot spots” and have 11,000 more to distribute if needed to provide connectivity.  She said connectivity across the state is not the responsibility of the Department of Education, but that the state needs a statewide solution.

Gov. Ige said the DOE, DOH, and the Mayors are working on the metrics to be used if students or staff get COVID-19, and to decide whether it’s appropriate to close a school that has opened.  The CDC has guidelines, but they are fairly general.

Earlier in the day, Corey Rosenlee, President of the Hawaii State Teachers Association, which represents teachers throughout the state, hosted a press conference calling for the Governor and School Superintendent to take the outbreak of COVID-19 on O’ahu seriously enough to move the opening of all schools  to online learning only.  “Hawaii can no longer pretend we are not in the middle of a pandemic and somehow our keiki and our teachers are impervious to this virus,” said Hawaii State Teachers Association President Corey Rosenlee during a virtual press conference.

Rosenlee said there are 180,000 students in the public education system across the state.   O’ahu has 114,000 students. Rosenlee said the Big Island has around 23,000.

Photos are Gov. David Ige and School Superintendent Dr. Christina Kishimoto at the August 7 press conference.