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Portsmouth — Tamara Shewmake is a working mother of three who, like many parents, has had to decide what’s best for her kids during the pandemic. She’s also a member of the Portsmouth School Board, which means her job is to help decide what’s best for the city’s 13,000 public school students.
She spoke about how she’s juggled those roles in an interview Wednesday with The Virginian-Pilot, a day before the board will make one of its most consequential decisions of the past year.
Portsmouth is fully virtual and the only school district in the state that hasn’t made plans to bring back at least some students for in-person learning.
The School Board previously agreed to resume in-person learning once the rate of positive coronavirus cases in the city fell below 10% for 10 straight days. After Gov. Ralph Northam asked districts to figure out how to bring at least some kids back to school buildings, the board is reconsidering its plans.
When Superintendent Elie Bracy presented a proposal last week to bring back elementary and middle schoolers in April, some board members, including Shewmake, were sharply critical.
Shewmake said she didn’t want to be a “hypocrite” and vote to resume in-person learning if she wasn’t willing to send her own children back.
Here are excerpts of her conversation with The Pilot.
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Tell me a little bit more about you and your children and how this last year has gone.
We’ve had to deal with the transition. I have a 17-year-old, a 13-year-old and a 10-year-old. Over the course of the last year, it’s been a lot to undertake.
My youngest daughter — she is one of those who are very personable. She missed being in-person and seeing her friends on a daily basis. She wanted to start back last March.
My middle child, my son, this particular transition has given him flexibility to figure out what works for him. He hasn’t had any complaints regarding the virtual setting. He actually likes it. He feels like, I know what I need to do, I’ll go ahead and do it.
My oldest daughter, she has a few challenges. This has been a real transition for her and it has really affected her because she is one of those learners who really needs the one-on-one. What that meant for me was to get her additional help in addition to me having to take more time and make sure that she’s understanding her studies.
My husband thankfully — his job went remote. But my job (as chief administrator for the Portsmouth commonwealth’s attorney) is on a hybrid schedule, and we rotate who goes into the office and who works from home.
It’s been a lot.
The rate of positive cases in Portsmouth has gone up and down over the past year. How have your thoughts on reopening changed as a result?
It has fluctuated so much and been so inconsistent that I have not ever felt as if it was time to go back to in-person. One of the things that we agreed to was to ensure the metrics were below 10% for 10 days. That has not happened.
You said last week that you don’t want to be a hypocrite. You’re wearing one hat as a parent of children in the district and another hat as a school board member. How do those two roles intersect in your decision making?
I want to ensure that i’m doing my part to keep everyone safe and no, I don’t want to be a hypocrite. My kids are not going back right now.
I have had an influx of teachers (who are) parents that live in other localities begging and pleading for me to make the right decision because their locality didn’t. They’re telling me about all these COVID cases that they’ve had or are currently having with them returning back to in-person school. It’s just ridiculous.
If I’m not sending my child back to school, why would I think it’s safe for anyone else’s child?
The other thing is, we keep saying, ‘OK, let’s give parents an option.’ But the problem is we’re not giving the teachers an option.
I get that we’re on a downward spiral (in the rate of positive cases), which is awesome. I wish that could happen sooner than later. But I think people are taking for granted that the world has just experienced a traumatic ordeal. This is not something that you can simply recover from overnight.
A majority of students are Black in Portsmouth, a community that’s been harder hit by the pandemic. Board members have talked about how the city, because of its demographics, is different from other localities. What role does that play in your decision making? How has political pressure factored in?
In the beginning of the school year, other districts were talking about returning. And we were steadfast on not returning because we were looking at our numbers. We did it because we understand some of the challenges that our communities face. I think we’ve been doing what was right from the very beginning, and we didn’t yield to what others were doing because their situation was not necessarily our situation.
You can’t look (only) at overall data and not look at specific neighborhoods and specific communities.
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Did you come to your decision as a parent first or as a board member?
I’m a parent first. I’m a board member for four years, and if they re-elect me, maybe four more years. But I am a parent forever. I will take into consideration any other information that I am provided as a board member, but just like people should operate as a human being first and then whatever your title is second, that’s how I operate.
What do your kids think of your decision to keep them all-virtual even if the district comes back in person?
It’s funny because my middle school child, he came to me like, “Mom, you’re sending us back to school?” and I was like, “What?” “You voted to send us back?” I said, we haven’t voted yet. He’s just like, no, let’s not, because he likes the flexibility of it all. My youngest, she wants to go back.
But I can’t go off (what they want). A lot of things that my kids wanted to do pre-pandemic, I wouldn’t let them do because they’re children and they don’t necessarily know what’s best for them. I’m making the decision based on safety. We don’t need to be in a hurry to return.
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Sara Gregory, 757-469-7484, sara.gregory@pilotonline.com