Queen Creek Unified School District opens for in-person learning

Classes at the Queen Creek Unified School District began this week, but not all teachers are on campus. We spoke with teacher Mark Degrow who is one of a few teachers who has submitted their resignation due to COVID-19 concerns.

Degrow who has been teaching for 41 total years and 5 years at QCUSD has decided to resign. His decision made as students head back to the classroom.

According to Degrow, the district is not following the advice of the Arizona Department of Health Services and the state school superintendent. One of his biggest concerns being the social distancing of students. Currently, Degrow is signed up to teach classes of up to 33 students five times a day for an hour.

Furthermore, Degrow says that teachers can be subject to penalization for resigning. Those penalties include a 3% contract payout to the district and the possibility of teaching certificates to be taken away if a teacher leaves before a replacement can be found.

When Arizona PBS reached out for comment QCUSD responded with the following:

“As a general rule, the district does not elaborate on personal matters. We can however confirm that all classes are staffed and we are not aware of any staff not showing up.”