Cheralyn Crawford, a mother of four, isn’t sure what she’s going to do the next few weeks after Maryland announced public schools would be closed starting Monday to prevent against the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Crawford, and a number of other parents interviewed Friday morning around Magnolia Middle School agreed that the school closures were unnecessary. A week off might have been warranted, but two weeks is too long.
They were also frustrated there was next to no notice of the closures before they happened, which left Crawford in search of a daycare and a plan for what to do on a limited budget.
The mother of four said the schools “sprung it on” her, calling 30 minutes after Gov. Larry Hogan’s Thursday afternoon press conference to inform her of the closure. She and her husband will have to alternate taking off from work. Some of her children also received lunch at school, adding more expenses to an already tight balance.
Her youngest — a 2-year-old, bundled up in a car-seat at the rear of the sedan as Crawford dropped off her middle-schooler at Magnolia — could stay with her grandmother, but her other children, 7, 11 and 14, would require some parental supervision. Many others are dealing with the same issue, she said, so she imagined it would be hard to find a friend to keep an eye on the kids.
“It is going to be a big burden,” she said. “Everybody is having the same issue; there is nowhere else to turn.”
The school told Jamie Tressler that homework would be assigned during the interruption. Her 17- and 14-year-old are old enough to stay home unsupervised, but she is glad they will have schoolwork to do.
“They are going to have chores,” she said wryly. “It is not going to be a vacation.”
Students will bring home instructional materials to be completed during the systemwide closure, according to a robo-call to parents that went out Thursday.
Jumar Jefferson said his son told him about the closing when he came home Thursday. Now he has to call his boss and figure out when he can take time off from his construction job to watch his son.
The 12-year-old’s mother also works, Jefferson said, so they will have to coordinate times to take off work.
“It is going to be hard,” he said. “We are going to have to switch it up.”
After dropping his 9-year-old son off at Bakerfield Elementary School in Aberdeen, Arkeen Davis said he thought fears of the virus were exaggerated. He works at the Boys and Girls Club, which is also closed, but plans to put his time into another part-time job at IHOP.
He said he did not worry about the virus, which he thought was not as threatening as advertised, but recognized that fatalities in Harford County could presage trouble.
“It will become real serious if somebody dies [in Harford County],” he said. “I will give it a week, then everything will be back to normal.”
He was glad to hear homework would be issued for the duration, though saddened that many major and college-league sporting events have been cancelled.
“I am just worried about the kids,” he said.
Some parents though, like Tom Brochu, said he was anticipating the closures.
“Honestly after seeing how things have gone in other countries, it was just a matter of time until schools here were called off. I honestly don’t look for them to go back until mid- to late April,” said Brochu, who has three sons – one at Havre de Grace Middle and two in Havre de Grace Elementary.
He said it was disappointing that, nationwide, there aren’t tele-education programs already in place for instances like this.
“I mean Hurricane Katrina 15 years ago should have started the planning process for a long term school cancelation event like this,” Brochu said.
Bill Berg, who has a daughter at Havre de Grace High School, said he was fine with “whatever it takes to get the spread under control.”
“I’m all for proactive approaches. I think that these aren’t knee jerk reactions to the virus spreading,” he said. “I believe that this has been in some sort of emergency plan at the federal government, CDC or World Health Organization level and once it got to a certain point they started recommending a course of action.”
Berg and his family didn’t have any plans for spring break — Harford had planned to close Friday, April 10 through Monday, April 13 — but said he could see how it would be an inconvenience for many families that planned trips.
“But I look at it as being proactive to prevent against an even larger outbreak,” he said.
Callie Yeager, a mom with two sons at Meadowvale Elementary, said she’s fearing how late into the summer students will be attending school to make up for any time missed.
“I’m assuming we’re going to be going late [in June] to make up for the two weeks,” she said.