COVID-19 has presented a serious challenge to Cibola County. The infrastructure wasn’t where it needed to be to deal with the massive increase of internet usage, and it certainly wasn’t set up to help the people in especially rural areas. Because of this, many of Cibola’s students were left behind.
The Grants/Cibola County School District Board had the impossible task of deciding whether it was safe for students to return to the classroom. They made these decisions from behind a computer screen because it was not safe enough for them to meet in person.
When COVID struck, and especially in preparation for the 2020-21 school year, G/CCSD did everything that they could to make internet more accessible for students by giving them hotspots and computers, and the community rallied to set up free internet access locations across the county, only to return those very same students to the classroom just a few months later.
The school board voted, 3-2, to allow students and teachers back in the classroom. They did this via an online meeting at a time where COVID numbers have literally never been higher. COVID-19 is not the flu, it is signif icantly more deadly. Cibola County is not a community of privilege. Many residents live with grandparents, parents and other children, and no person deserves to be put at undue risk.
If it is not safe for the elected officials of the school board to meet in person, how in the COVID-infected world is it acceptable to cram a school building full of children and staff?
Schools are supposed to be institutions of education, a safe place for children to grow and become better citizens, not places for disease to fester, and spread.
Cibola County is seeing its highest number of COVID-19 cases since the beginning of the pandemic. As of October 26, Cibola County has 252 active cases, and that number is growing every single day. Now is the time for vigilance, not drowsiness.
COVID-fatigue is real, and we’re all trying to cope with it; now is not the time to wave the white-flag. That would do nothing but lead to the death of Cibola’s citizens. The cost of a human life is not worth the comfort of knowing a child is in school.
The City of Grants is at least consistent. They require their employees to perform job duties in-person and their council meets in-person.
The Village of Milan closed their offices and when a person must go in, the village is very socially distanced. Their meetings are closed to the public but broadcast to the community.
The Cibola County Board of Commissioners operates in-person at a heavily reduced capacity, and the commissioners meet through Facebook Live. These decisions help slow the spread of COVID-19. The county is also operating early voting at the building on Roosevelt Avenue.
The Grants/Cibola County School District requires their staff work inperson and the elected leaders of the district meet online.
“It is really important that people understand that students are there [in the classroom 50 percent of the time] by the family’s choice,” GCCSD Superintendent Max Perez said.
Perez speaks the truth. Cibola County needs to buckle down to beat the virus, so that it may safely reopen. But that will not happen unless we come together by staying apart, including wearing a mask when not around people in our home. Together we can get through this. The question is if we want to make it through with a lot of dead citizens or not. That depends on all of us.