Los Angeles students is a critical step closer to returning to campus beginning in April under a preliminary agreement reached Tuesday between the teachers’ union and the LA Unified School District, marking a new chapter in an unprecedented year of the closure of the coronavirus.
The agreement, which must be ratified by members, sets out safety parameters for returning to campus and contains a clear other schedule that is still heavily dependent on online learning. The school day would unfold in a so-called hybrid format – meaning that students would study on campus during the week and be able to continue with their schooling at other times.
Families will retain the option of keeping students in distance education full-time.
In a statement, UTLA President Cecily Myart-Cruz said the agreement offers guarantees and reassurance.
“With all of our key safety protocols in place, this agreement reflects a uniform health and safety plan that we as educators can be proud of and that puts us on the path to a safe return, across LAUSD and in all of our schools,” Myart said. Cruz said.
District officials issued a joint statement from Myart-Cruz and LA schools Supt. Austin Beutner.
“As we have both said for some time, the right way to reopen schools should include the highest standard of COVID safety in schools, the continuous reduction of the virus in the communities we serve and access to vaccinations for school staff, “they said in a statement. ‘This agreement achieves the shared set of objectives. It is our collective commitment to the highest safety standards and the spirit of trust and cooperation that will take us back to schools. ”
Under the agreement, members of United Teachers Los Angeles, representing teachers, nurses, counselors and librarians, will not have to return to work until they have had access to COVID-19 vaccinations and reached maximum immunity – a period of up to six weeks. The period – plus the amount of time required to make vaccinations – is the general manager of a district timetable aimed at restarting primary schools on 19 April.
The union did not sign off on 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 on the record.
Another condition for return is that Los Angeles County enter the state’s “red level,” which would mean the province has improved one step from the “purple level,” the worst level of coronavirus infection in the community. It seems that the parameter is within reach, as the province is expected to leave the purple level and enter the red level within a few days.
If the agreement is approved, the rest of the academic year will bring some security to the families of 465,000 in the kindergarten to the 12th grade in the country’s second largest school system.
But it will not start teaching on campus again once many families want it, and the school day will look significantly different. Campuses have been closed since March 13, 2020 in Los Angeles.
The Times learned details about the deal based on talks with sources on both sides of the negotiations. This is what appears to be in the agreement:
At the basic level, students will attend a morning or early afternoon session five days a week. According to the diverse schedule, smaller classes can be applied, in line with the state’s recommendations to keep students at least six feet apart.
Middle and high schools would resume with even stronger changes. Students would attend two days a week according to a staggering schedule. But instead of moving from class to class, students stay in their counseling classroom all day – similar to a home base.
From their advisory class, students will mainly conduct distance education as at present; they would trade online-from-home for online-from-a-classroom under the supervision of a teacher. Students would then go “online” from class to class – as they do at home now.
Advice teachers have their own class timetable – which will keep them away from school, but not necessarily to the students in front of them. To prevent mutual distraction, students are provided with sound-suppressing headphones.
During one period of a day, the headsets would go off and the teacher and students would collaborate on tasks and activities that were not part of the core academic work. These activities will include focusing on students’ social and emotional well-being.
However, secondary students will usually not have personal tuition, even if they are on campus.
The approach to the secondary school day has evolved from the attempt to combine strong safety protocols with the more complicated scheduling of middle and high schools. By keeping students in their advisory class, the school is divided into small, stable groups. If a student in one group becomes infected, only the group at home will need to quarantine.
It would also have been challenging to reconfigure the master timetable of a secondary campus – thus adapting students to new teachers at the end of the school year.
Educators do not have to teach students in the classroom and on Zoom at the same time.
Under the agreement, the district will commit to providing ‘reasonable accommodation’ for teachers when a physician confirms that they are in a high-risk category associated with COVID-19. Teachers who work remotely for health reasons will be supported by a personal substitute.
Other safety protocols will also be followed, including the mandatory wearing of masks.
A COVID-19 compliance team will be formed at each school. It will address issues of health and safety compliance as it occurs.
A return at the end of April will result in LA Unified forfeiting a substantial portion of the state funding available to districts that reopen to kindergarten to second grade by April 1, but the district has qualified for other funding, which a boost of millions of dollars provides for efforts to address. learning loss caused by the pandemic.