LANSING, Mich. — Sen. Dayna Polehanki (D-Livonia) has issued the following statement regarding her appointment to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s Return to Learn Advisory Council, established on May 15 by Executive Order 2020-88, that is tasked with providing recommendations to the state on how schools might safely reopen this Fall:
“As a teacher, you work diligently and hope you’ve provided your students every opportunity possible to succeed. When they return to school for the upcoming school year, our students, teachers, and faculty will face unprecedented changes to not only the way they learn, but also how they learn and in what environment that learning takes place.
“I am very humbled to be a part of the solution and look forward to offering my expertise as a teacher with nearly 20 years of classroom experience. I also thank the governor for creating this council in due time so the best and brightest can come together to create reasonable, practical solutions for our schools. This is an all-hands-on-deck situation that will require a creative, collaborative approach. I am confident that this group will rise to the challenge and deliver results, and I’m excited to be a part of it.”
The council — comprised of 20 members, including students, parents, frontline educators, administrators, and public health officials — will report their recommendations on how students, faculty, and staff can safely, equitably, and efficiently return to school to the COVID-19 Task Force on Education within the State Emergency Operations Center.
The formulated recommendations and roadmap for an eventual reopening will include:
- Performing outreach to ensure the voices of stakeholders are included in the discussion of implementing the 2020-2021 school year in these challenging and uncharted circumstances.
- Ensuring experts in public health and epidemiology are informing the discussion of safety returning to school.
- Recommending actions to remove statutory/administrative barriers to delivering education before we are at Phase 6 of the MI Safe Start Plan.
- Recommending actions to develop and improve systems for remedial support for students who experienced learning loss during the spring and summer.
The State of Michigan will also partner with a national nonprofit organization called Opportunity Labs to bring national expertise to this project.
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