Pence, DeVos visit Triangle in push for schools to reopen

"We've got to get our kids back to school. We've got to get them back this fall," Pence said at Thales Academy. "It's best for our kids. It's best for working families. It's best for North Carolina and best for all of America."

"We believe every student in North Carolina and across America must get back to school," DeVos said. "It's not a matter of if schools reopen, it's a matter of how they do so safely."

Hilary Herman-Pagliolo, senior administrator at a Thales school in Knightdale, said flexibility has been critical. Teachers are working to retrain students to get used to social distancing and wearing masks while at the same time adjusting their schedules to take time out for cleaning.

"There's a lot of things that are the same here for the kids. It's just different procedures, for the most part," she said.

Ashley Bahor, who heads a Thales junior-senior high school in Rolesville, said the older students also need to learn new routines and why they're being done. Teachers also need to rethink how teens who are social can collaborate safely.

Fourth-grade teacher Allison Combs, whose class Pence visited, said her students have been excited to be back, and she's grateful to be teaching in class, even with the added responsibility of maintaining social distance and keeping everything clean.

"Virtual learning was challenging. We made it work because that's what we had to do," Combs said. "But losing that interaction with students made the work even harder. ... Just having those interactions and building those relationships, it's a lot easier when you're here in person."

Pence and all members of his team had to pass a coronavirus test Tuesday before visiting the school, officials said.

President Donald Trump and DeVos have threatened to withhold federal funding from K-12 schools that don't allow all of their students to return to physical classrooms in the coming weeks.

Gov. Roy Cooper announced this month that public schools may offer a mix of online and in-person instruction, though districts can choose to offer fully remote learning.

“We don’t respond to those kind of threats,” Cooper said in a July 14 news conference of the Trump administration's consideration of withholding federal funds.

Many area school districts have elected to start the year with online classes only after both parents and teachers expressed concern about holding classes amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

DeVos blasted districts that don't give parents an option for in-person classes, saying they are ignoring the needs of parents and students.

"Parents and kids can't be held captive to others' fears or agendas," she said. "Education needs to rise and meet the needs of each and every student."

School choice provisions need to be included in the pandemic relief package being debated in Congress, she said. That would allow parents to take the funding state and local governments provide and apply it to a school like Thales where they can go to school if their local district is providing only online classes.

"I think the secretary is right that, if schools aren’t reopening and parents feel like they want their children in schools, they ought to have that opportunity to do that," Republican 8th District Congressman Richard Hudson said.

Hudson accompanied Pence and DeVos on the trip from Washington, D.C., as did 6th District Congressman Mark Walker and 7th District Congressman David Rouzer, who are also Republicans.

But Keith Sutton, chairman of the Wake County Board of Education, said all schools need support right now, regardless of how they respond to the pandemic.

"This administration should provide the same rigorous support for the nation’s public schools, whether they open for virtual or face-to-face instruction," Sutton said. "All parents want to be assured that their students receive high-quality instruction in a safe and healthy environment."

Thales founder Bob Luddy said the schools have been "flooded with calls" from parents who want to get their children back in school.

Kelly Ellis said she's ecstatic that her children are in class at Thales, noting that they weren't as motivated when they had to do remote learning in the spring.

"She returned to school, and within that one day, she came back joyful and happy and relaxed," Ellis said of her daughter. "That translates to a happy parent and a relaxed parent. ... We are hearing that from a lot of parents."

Denise Kent, an administrator at Franklin Academy, a charter school that Luddy also founded, complained about the "Plan B" mix of in-person and online classes her school has to follow as a public school. Franklin Academy is dividing its students into two groups: one will go to school on Mondays and Tuesdays and the other on Thursdays and Fridays. Students learn remotely for the three days they're not in class.

"It will not be beneficial for working families. It's going to be difficult to manage," Kent said. "You're wasting all of this time trying to figure out all of these [safety protocols]. We need all of our kids in school ... five days a week."

Pence agreed, saying, "Part of opening up our schools again is putting teachers back where they belong – in front of a classroom, where they can make the most difference."