Los Angeles Unified teachers and other school employees represented by the local teachers union drew a line in the sand this week by voting overwhelmingly to refuse to return for in-person work if officials make it mandatory before all three conditions the union has asked for to ensure schools reopen safely are met, the union announced Friday, March 5.
Out of about 35,000 teachers, counselors, librarians, school nurses and other certificated staff represented by United Teachers Los Angeles, 24,580 cast ballots. Of those who voted, 91% supported a refusal to return to campuses, UTLA President Cecily Myart-Cruz announced during a Facebook Live broadcast.
UTLA is insisting that three things happen before students and staff return to classrooms: that the county advances out of the purple, most restrictive tier of the state’s reopening blueprint; that all school employees be fully vaccinated or offered access to full vaccination; and that schools have satisfactory safety conditions in place, such as personal protective equipment, physical-distancing protocols, proper ventilation and a daily sanitizing and disinfecting routine.
“This vote signals that members are prepared to refuse to accept an unsafe work assignment, but will instead remain committed to distance learning until the three safety criteria are met. … Our goal is to create as much stability and consistency for our students. No one wants to open only to have to close again, which is a realistic possibility if safety measures are not put into place first,” Myart-Cruz said.
With COVID-19 cases falling dramatically in recent weeks, school employees now prioritized for vaccines, and district officials saying they’re ready to reopen schools with the proper health and safety measures in place, public pressure has been growing for the teachers union to agree for its members to return to campuses. Gov. Gavin Newsom helped prod that effort along by vowing to deliver 25,000 vaccine doses to LAUSD in the next couple of weeks and offering financial incentives to schools that returned to campus.
Since mid-February, districts in L.A. County have had the option of providing in-person instruction to students in transitional kindergarten through grade 6, as the rate of new COVID-19 cases continued falling. While a number of districts have started to reopen schools, LAUSD has not committed to any date for a general return of students. (The district on Thursday resumed limited in-person services to some of its high-needs and most vulnerable students, as well as child care services, after suspending them during a surge in COVID-19 cases in December.)
Both Superintendent Austin Beutner as well as UTLA officials have noted that neighborhoods hardest-hit by the pandemic — whose residents tend to be Black, Hispanic or low-income, and whose children attend LAUSD schools — continue to see higher case rates than the county as a whole. And that, UTLA officials say, mean it’s not yet time to reopen schools.
But there’s also been mounting pressure by families, business leaders and members of the local health care community to get students back into classrooms. Advocates of school reopenings cite learning losses and the mental toll of prolonged social isolation that young children and adolescents are experiencing.
They also cite research suggesting that schools generally are not super spreaders of the virus if proper mitigation measures are in place, and guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that teachers don’t have to be vaccinated before returning to school.
On the other hand, UTLA officials say they worry about the rise in COVID-19 variants that are thought to be more easily transmitted, and some parents are skeptical the district will be able to keep campuses as clean as they need to be to maintain proper hygiene.
Alicia Baltazar, a parent of a fifth-grader in Wilmington who also spoke during the broadcast, said parents want more nurses and janitors on campus to ensure proper sanitation, among other things before schools reopen.
Baltazar is part of a group aligned with UTLA called Reclaim Our Schools L.A. — which this week released a report it asked the union to prepare that criticized the media for what it felt has been biased reporting on the school reopening debate — pushed back on the notion of learning losses the past 12 months.
“Okay, so our children are not learning what you think they should be learning right now, but they are making leaps and bounds when it comes to technology. … They’re learning how to budget as they’re seeing their families go through … job losses and things like that. They’re learning survival,” she said.
In the meantime, UTLA continues to be in negotiations with the school district on how to reopen schools. The superintendent said this week he believes a deal can be struck in time to reopen schools by mid-April, though Myart-Cruz tamped down expectations by saying that progress is being made but that “we are not there yet.”