Classes five days a week for students announced
Some educators voice concerns that they are being ‘forced’ back
The Berkeley Unified School District announced it expects to return to the classroom five days a week, but some teachers are saying they are being “forced” to return to dangerous school settings.
Some teachers and members of the civil rights organization By Any Means Necessary staged a news conference Tuesday calling on the district to stop what they called “the harassment of teachers and staff with underlying medical conditions.”
Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School teacher Yvette Felarca said that the district has stated its intention to revoke previously approved accommodations for teachers or staffers who had underlying health
conditions, or situations at home that prevent them from returning to in-person learning. The district, she said, now is requiring a doctor’s note stating what effect a COVID-19 vaccination would have on her current medical condition.
“This is blatant harassment,” she said.
Other teachers talked about their fears of bringing the coronavirus home to an at-risk loved one. Special education teacher Linda Clark said she has had COVID-19 already twice and now has reduced lung capacity. She is afraid of contracting the virus again.
“Quite frankly, I am terrified,” she said of returning to the classroom.
School district spokesperson Trish McDermott said the district is following federal guidelines for teacher accommodations.
“The district is following the federal ADA interactive process for all employees who have requested accommodations. We work with individual employees to make accommodation arrangements, as reasonable,” she said in an email.
The district announced Monday that it would give parents the option of returning to in-person learning for five days a week for elementary school students — one of the first districts in Alameda County to do so. Other districts have returned children to the classrooms, if they chose to go back, but with hybrid models of partial inperson instruction, partial at-home online learning.
Superintendent Brent Stephens announced the five-day plan was a result of positive conversations with the unions, the Berkeley Federation of Teachers and Berkeley Council of Classified Employees partners.
Alameda County returned to the red tier Tuesday, prompting Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin to issue a statement on the necessity of reopening schools and noting the physical and psychological toll the pandemic has had in the community.
“Based on the guidelines developed by the California Department of Public Health, schools located in a red tier jurisdiction are eligible to safely reopen for in-person instruction. The authority to reopen schools rests with the Berkeley Unified School District, and I strongly encourage the district to welcome students, teachers and staff back into the physical classroom,” the mayor said.
The district is planning a phased reopening, with students in prekindergarten through second grade expected to return March 29, depending on teacher and staff vaccinations. The district proposes to have other elementary grades, middle school and ninth grade back in the classroom by April 12, and then high school grades 1012 on April 19.
Elementary school parents are being asked to enroll their child in either five-days-a-week in-person learning or distance learning by Thursday; the district said their choice is “binding enrollment” and the student will remain in that model for the rest of the year.
Students will be kept 6 feet apart in classrooms if possible, or 4 feet apart if not possible. School staff ers are being tested for COVID-19 every two weeks and have the opportunity to be vaccinated, according to the district.