CTA : Schools Must Be Safe

CTA President E.Tobey Boyd. 

"We have said all along, California cannot reopen schools unless it is safe. That applies to all schools on county watch lists or not, and to schools districts seeking waivers from adhering to CDPH guidance, but counties are on that watch list for a reason. 

Governor Gavin Newsom was absolutely right when he emphatically said in Monday’s news conference that he doesn’t 'believe anyone should be forced to put their life and health at risk, period. Full stop.' 

Given the exponential increase in COVID-19 cases, the record number of deaths in just the last month, the growing number of counties on the state watch list, and so many unknowns that threaten the long-term health and safety of students and educators, we believe we must take all precautions and preventative action to protect students, educators and our communities. 

And now, with the cases of children who have been infected with COVID-19 in childcare right here in California, in Texas, as well as the students in Georgia, we can NO LONGER SAY, kids aren’t transmitters. Granting waivers would further exacerbate the racial and economic inequities that exists in our schools and communities. Let’s not forget 30% don’t have access to technology—Wi-Fi and computers. 

This waiver guidance certainly expands on the footnote that was in the previous guidance, however, we cannot ignore the science-based directives that have put counties on a watch list. 

Educators want desperately to be back in classrooms and schools with their students doing the work they love, but there is too much at stake to ignore science, facts and safety. 

Unfortunately, many local districts and communities don’t have the necessary resources or capacity to maintain even the most basic prevention measures of six feet physical distancing and limiting contacts, much less the other important preventative actions such as personal protective equipment (PPE), testing and tracing, or adequate ventilation and cleaning supplies.

 It is clear that communities and school districts have not come close to meeting the threshold for a safe return to in-person learning. If any waiver is considered, per the guidance, the decision must be made with parents and educators.” - E Toby Boyd, CTA President

Trump “Orders” Schools to Reopen, Teachers say, Not so Fast !

By Dana Goldstein and Eliza Shapiro  NYTimes.

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Many of the nation’s 3.5 million teachers found themselves feeling under siege this week as pressure from the White House, pediatricians and some parents to get back to physical classrooms intensified — even as the coronavirus rages across much of the country.

On Friday, the teachers’ union in Los Angeles, the nation’s second-largest district, demanded full-time remote learning when the academic year begins on Aug. 18, and called President Trump’s push to reopen schools part of a “dangerous, anti-science agenda that puts the lives of our members, our students and our families at risk.”

Teachers say crucial questions about how schools will stay clean, keep students physically distanced and prevent further spread of the virus have not been answered. And they feel that their own lives, and those of the family members they come home to, are at stake.

…..

Now, educators are using some of the same organizing tactics they employed in walkouts over issues of pay and funding in recent years to demand that schools remain closed, at least in the short term. It’s a stance that could potentially be divisive, with some district surveys suggesting that more than half of parents would like their children to return to classrooms.

Big districts like San Diego and smaller ones, like Marietta, Ga., are forging ahead with plans to open schools five days per week. Many other systems, like those in New York City and Seattle, hope to offer several days per week of in-person school.

Now, as teachers listen to a national conversation about reopening schools that many believe elevates the needs of the economy and working parents above the concerns of the classroom work force, many are fearful and angry. They point out that so far Congress has dedicated less than 1 percent of federal pandemic stimulus funds to public schools stretching to meet the costs of reopening schools safely.

The message to teachers, said Christina Setzer, a preschool educator in Sacramento, is, “Yes, you guys are really important and essential and kids and parents need you. But sorry, we don’t have the money.”

Earlier in the shutdown, Mr. Trump acknowledged the health risks to teachers over the age of 60 and those with underlying conditions, saying at a White House event in May that “they should not be teaching school for a while, and everybody would understand that fully.”

But this week, as the administration launched a full-throated campaign to pressure schools to reopen in the fall — a crucial step for jump-starting the economy — it all but ignored the potential risks teachers face. More than one-quarter of public schoolteachers are over the age of 50. 

Teachers say many of their questions about how schools will operate safely remain unanswered. They point out that some classrooms have windows that do not reliably open to promote air circulation, while school buildings can have aging heating and cooling systems that lack the filtration features that reduce virus transmission.

Read more:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/11/us/virus-teachers-classrooms.html?https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/11/us/virus-teachers-classrooms.html?

This is Not the Way to Reopen Schools.

Michelle Golberg 

Trump Threatens to Turn Pandemic Schooling Into a Culture War

The president might sabotage parents’ best hopes for getting their kids back to school.

This is almost certainly not why Trump is eager to have school resume. Rather, school closures and staggered schedules are a crushing weight on the economy. To millions of parents, they’re an intimate daily reminder that the president’s incompetence has ruined our lives. But to open schools in a reasonable way, the government needs to do two things: control the pandemic, as most other developed countries have done, and give schools money to adapt. This administration has so far failed to do either.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/10/opinion/sunday/school-reopenings-trump.html?