Commentary
Additional Steps Urgently Needed to Protect Students, Teachers from COVID-19
Why hasn’t OUDSD School Board President Shanthi Gonzales called a special meeting this week to discuss reopening? Why is staff unilaterally creating enrollment policies?
The first day of school is August 9. This was always going to be a challenging start to a school year, especially given our lack of proper planning, but with the resurgence of COVID-19, reopening schools to 20,000 unvaccinated children needs to be done in a safe and equitable way.
Currently, the Oakland Unified School District is set to reopen for full, in-person school in days. Masks will be required in classrooms and every classroom has an air purifier. Classes are being fully enrolled so there will be no social distancing.
It has been announced that there will be 10 regional COVID-!9 testing sites, which means there will be no regular testing at all school sites. With full classes and no regular testing, it will be impossible to do contact tracing or to quarantine. Many questions remain unanswered such as recess, lunch, choir, band, sports, volunteers….. which, at this point, is unacceptable.
With the Delta variant of the virus and no vaccine for our students under 12 we must, at a minimum, have COVID-19 tests one to two times a week at all of our school sites.
All of our families have the option to select distance learning instead of in-person instruction, but currently OUSD is telling families that if they opt for distance learning that they will lose their placement at their school.
OUSD is also telling families that many of our programs will not be offered in DL, including dual immersion. That is unacceptable: we must have a distance learning program that is equitable and accessible to provide families with a true option.
No families should be penalized for choosing distance learning.
The school board has neither voted nor been involved in these decisions. The board has not met since June 29 and our first meeting isn’t scheduled until August 11, two days AFTER school starts. And even the yearly school board retreat for planning has been pushed back to August 21.
Why hasn’t OUDSD School Board President Shanthi Gonzales called a special meeting this week to discuss reopening? Why is staff unilaterally creating enrollment policies?
This is an emergency and we need all hands on deck in order to keep our community as safe as possible and OUSD has COVID-19 Relief dollars to fund whatever fixes we need. Where is the urgency?
I will introduce legislation at the August 11 school board meeting to guarantee that families do not lose their school placement if they opt for distance learning. I will also work to add dual immersion and other programs to our DL offerings as needed. If it’s still needed, I will also introduce a resolution directing OUSD to provide COVID-19 testing at all of our school sites at least once a week.
Please email the school board and the superintendent to at least demand that:
- Students don’t lose their school placement for opting for distance learning.
- There is dual immersion offered in distance learning
- OUSD provide weekly COVID-19 testing at every school
- That Board President Gonzales call a special meeting immediately to address the many issues surrounding the beginning of the school year
Please attend the August 11 school board meeting, which is currently scheduled to be in person for the first time in 18 months.
Here’s the link to the video of the 6/30 welcome back information session for families
