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Los Angeles students are a critical step towards a return to campus from mid-April as part of a tentative deal reached Tuesday between the teachers’ union and the LA Unified School District, marking a new chapter in an unprecedented year school closures forced by coronavirus.
The agreement, which must be ratified by members, establishes safety parameters for returning to campus and sets a markedly different timetable that still relies heavily on online learning. The school day would take place in a so-called hybrid format – meaning that students would study on campus for part of the week and continue their education online at other times.
Families would retain the option of keeping students away on a full-time basis.
In a statement, UTLA president Cecily-Myart Cruz said the deal offered guarantees and assurances.
“With all of our major safety protocols followed, this agreement reflects a consistent health and safety plan that we can be proud of as educators and that puts us on the path to a safe return, through LAUSD and in all of our schools, ”Myart -Cruz said.
District officials provided a joint statement from Myart-Cruz and the Los Angeles Superintendent of Schools. Austin Beutner.
“As we’ve both been saying for some time, the right way to reopen schools must include the highest level of COVID safety in schools, continued reduction of the virus in the communities we serve, and access to vaccinations for school personnel, ”they said in the statement. “This agreement achieves this set of common goals. It is our shared commitment to the highest safety standards and the spirit of trust and collaboration that we will bring back with us to schools.
Under the agreement, members of United Teachers Los Angeles, who represent teachers, nurses, counselors and librarians, would not have to return to work until they had access to vaccines against the disease. COVID-19 and would not have achieved maximum immunity – a period of up to six. weeks. This period – plus the time needed to get immunization appointments – is the main driver of a district schedule to restart elementary schools on April 19.
The union did not sign a specific return date.
Middle and high schools would open later in April or early May, according to a district source who was not authorized to speak officially.
Another condition for a return is that Los Angeles County enters the state’s “red level”, which would mean the county is one step better than the “purple level,” the worst level of infection in the state. coronavirus widespread in the community. This setting appears to be within reach, as the county should leave the purple level and enter the red level within a few days.
If approved, the deal would bring some certainty to the rest of the school year for families of 465,000 kindergarten to grade 12 people in the country’s second-largest school system.
But he won’t restart teaching on campus as soon as many families would like, and the school day will be markedly different. Campuses have been closed in Los Angeles since March 13, 2020.
The Times learned the details of the deal based on conversations with sources on both sides of the negotiations. Here’s what appears to be in the deal:
At the elementary level, students attended a morning or early afternoon session five days a week. The staggered schedule would allow for smaller classes, in line with state recommendations to keep students at least six feet apart.
Colleges and high schools would resume with even more marked changes. Students attended two days a week on a staggered schedule. But instead of moving from class to class, students would stay in their advisory class – similar to a main class base – throughout the day.
From their advisory class, students would follow distance education essentially as they do now; they would trade online from home for online from a classroom under the supervision of a teacher. Students would then “switch” from class to class online – as they now do at home.
Advisory teachers would have their own lesson schedule – which they would deliver from school, but not necessarily to the students in front of them. To avoid mutual distraction, students would be provided with noise-canceling headphones.
For one period per day, the headphones would come off and the teacher and students would work together on homework and activities that are not part of basic academic work. These activities would include a focus on the social and emotional well-being of students.
In most cases, however, high school students will not have in-person instruction even when they are on campus.
The day-to-day approach in high school has evolved by trying to combine rigorous security protocols with the more complex programming of middle and high schools. Keeping students in their advisory class divides the school into small, stable groups. If a student is infected in a group, only that group will need to quarantine at home.
It would also have been difficult to reconfigure the master plan of a high school campus – and get students to adjust to new teachers – so close to the end of the school year.
Educators will not be required to teach students in class and on Zoom at the same time.
As part of the deal, the district will commit to making “reasonable accommodations” for teachers when a doctor verifies they are in a high-risk category related to COVID-19. Teachers who continue to work remotely for health reasons will be supported by a replacement in person.
Other security protocols would also be followed, including the compulsory wearing of masks.
A COVID-19 compliance working group will be formed in each school. It would address health and safety compliance issues as they arise.
A return at the end of April would result in LA Unified forfeiting a substantial portion of state funding available for districts that will reopen Kindergarten to Grade 2 by April 1. But the district qualified for further funding, providing a multibillion-dollar increase for efforts to address the learning loss problem caused by the pandemic.
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