By Samuel Strait, Reporter at Large- January 10, 2021 It seems after an embarrassing report of substantially more "D's" and "F's" being awarded in the local school district, our dear leader, Jeff Harris, has agreed to reopen the local public schools. Granted last Spring's debacle should have provided ample food for thought when it did not go as advertised. Yet, the local school district has wasted a further half year of schooling in a vain attempt to pay homage to what did not work in the Spring. I don't suppose it ever occurred to the brain trust housed at the district office that offering on line learning will only work if a child is engaged in learning. Gauging by the results of most year's evaluations in the Spring testing, one would have to conclude that many of the district's students are not likely to be engaged with academic subjects particularly while "safely" at home. I mention the Spring test results as generally below the State Mean Average not with pride, but as a mechanism to encourage better results from not only our young people, but the teaching staff and administration as well. Still when I am greeted by words from the Chief Administrator, Mr. Harris, where he is more concerned about Covid-19 than the dismal report out of the district regarding grades, I wonder just exactly where his priorities are. In a normal school year various viruses and illnesses are a part of time in school. As such children are often kept from school to deal with such issues. Teachers are not immune to this phenomena as well. Ever since I was a child, and I am sure for centuries before, this was part of the risks of going to school. Why now is it any different, when we have been blessed with very little impact from Covid-19, particularly in those who are school aged youth. Unless we have a multitude of 65 year old, or older teachers, the risk has been clearly shown to be minimal for them as well. At this point in a normal flu season, there very likely would have been far more instances of illness. When adding seasonal colds and other childhood ailments, Covid-19 issues seem rather insignificant. Oh, that's right, somehow the common flu and common cold have not appeared this season like it has for centuries…. One final thought, as we have never come close to less than 15% of ICU capacity, why was in person schooling eliminated in the first place?