During its Jan. 13 meeting, the Long Beach Unified School District Board of Education affirmed March 1 as its target school-reopening date, despite parent, teacher and board-member concerns.
The Board heard impassioned protests from several parents and teachers concerned about staff and family safety, given the current countywide surge in COVID-19 cases and deaths.
Many said LBUSD should wait until the fall start of the 2021-2022 academic year to reopen rather than open prematurely and risk more infections.
“What are we trying to prove?” one parent asked.
The Board also heard from several parents and staff protesting that some teachers are required to return to in-person collaborative teaching next week, serving 1,700 special-education and preschool students, many of whom are the children of essential workers.
One teacher said she is “terrified” to return while hospital emergency-rooms overflow with COVID-19 patients. “I feel we are being rushed into this and our well-being is not being considered,” she said.
A school nurse questioned why nurses can work from home but other staff are not given the same flexibility, adding that morale is down and staff are taking medical leaves as a result.
Dr. Christine Kelly, president of the Teachers Association of Long Beach (TALB)– a union of 3,700 members– criticized LBUSD’s call for in-person collaborative co-teaching (CCT) to resume on Jan. 19 for special-education and preschool students.
“Protect our teachers, staff and families,” she said. “Postpone opening the CCT program until the surge calms down and we can get our teachers and staff vaccinated.”
LBUSD employees will start to be vaccinated on Jan. 25, Assistant Superintendent Dr. Tiffany Brown said, adding that LBUSD will continue to monitor COVID-19 cases at its open schools.
“Every class that remains open means another family can go to work who doesn’t have another option for childcare,” Brown said.
Superintendent Dr. Jill Baker said parents of LBUSD elementary students are being notified on Thursday, Jan. 14 of a forthcoming survey asking them whether they want their children to return to school when the health department allows or stay at home for learning.
Baker also said that, per Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Safe Schools for All plan announced Dec. 30, 2020, LBUSD schools will need to set up weekly testing procedures at its schools, which it currently doesn’t have.
Though the State will provide funding and a provider, LBUSD has to arrange the infrastructure and logistics for testing students and adults on its campuses weekly, she said.
Newsom’s plan specifies 28 or less infected out of 100,000 tested as a “safe” level, Brown said. The State’s previous number was 7 out of 100,000 and Long Beach’s current rate is 100 out of 100,000, she added.
Dr. Juan Benitez, a board member representing LBUSD District 3– covering south Long Beach and the port– said his community has a high number of immigrants, non-native English speakers and people of color who are disproportionally affected by the virus. Though they are passionate about schools, they have concerns, he said.
“The Governor’s plan to reopen is going to take more than just money,” Benitez said, adding that the eight elementary schools in his district are in the most impoverished neighborhoods of Long Beach.
“There’s still a lot of fear, a lot of mistrust, a lot of concern,” Benitez said of his constituents.
Benitez cautioned the board to convey an accurate picture of what returning to school will look like and that it’s not as simple as “waving a magic wand.”
“Coming back to school is not going to be like it was 11 months ago,” he said, referring to testing and other safety procedures and regulations that have to be implemented and followed.
Board Member Megan Kerr agreed that State funding doesn’t answer the confusion and concern because the community is expressing different positions that “are all true at the same time.”
“It’s a constant reassessment, not a static decision,” she said of reopening schools.
Brown agreed that the matter is complicated by different beliefs and perspectives within the community and there won’t be a cut-and-dry directive that all students will have to return to in-person schooling once LBUSD starts phasing it in.
“There will be choice attached to what we offer,” Brown said. “We will continue to have virtual options as we make that transition.”
Brown said LBUSD schools are actually already ready to reopen, prepared with personal-protective equipment, health-screening checklists and guidelines and sanitation and cleaning practices.
“We continue to be ready to open our buildings,” Brown said. “Our schools continue to be ready to receive students.”
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