Fremont classrooms to stay shut for rest of school year.

Superintendent says the district ‘regrettably’ is walking away from further negotiations

FREMONT >> The Fremont Unified School District’s 35,000 students will stay out of classrooms the rest of this academic year and continue distance learning.

In a newsletter issued Wednesday, Superintendent C.J. Cammack said the district and the

Fremont Unified District Teachers Association couldn’t strike an agreement on how best to reopen campuses after months of negotiations, so the district is walking away from talks.

“Regrettably, FUSD has not been able to reach a successful agreement for a return to school with the teachers union,” Cammack said in his newsletter.

Cammack said the two sides have split on some key issues “including staffing, the scope of grade levels eligible for a full return and additional compensation for employees to return under a hybrid instructional model.”

As a result, the district said it will forgo the roughly $9 million in state assistance funds it could have gotten from the $6.6 billion pot that state legislators approved in March to motivate schools to reopen classrooms to at least some students.

In a previous newsletter, Cammack said the district was hoping to reopen by March 29 for preschoolers through second graders, followed in mid-April for third graders through sixth graders. More recent target dates in negotiations included a phased reopening beginning April 12 through April 19.

Cammack suggested it’s pointless to continue negotiating with only about 43 days left in the school year and no agreement in sight.

The district instead will “focus our action and efforts toward bringing more students on campus through the rapid expansion of our existing learning hubs,” Cammack said. The hubs offer a limited number of students an opportunity to learn online while on campus and interact with other students there.

Victoria Birbeck-Herrera, president of the teachers union, said during a special school board meeting Wednesday she hopes

the district will return to the bargaining table.

“It was very difficult today to have our highly qualified educators at the negotiations table with FUSD when FUSD turned their back on our students,” she said.

“We believed we were making significant progress towards an agreement to allow a return to in-person instruction for students whose families have chosen that,” Birbeck-Herrera said.

She claimed the district made last-minute changes in negotiations, requiring teachers to return to classrooms not only for elementary school students but also for secondary grade students, a “half-baked” plan.

The teachers have been asking for a one-time stipend to teach in hybrid models, saying that anyone “who will be providing hybrid instruction will be providing additional instruction

above their current workload.”

As of Wednesday, the union was asking for a $2,100 stipend per teacher, down from the $3,500 it sought as of Tuesday.

“It’s a shame that it’s going like this, because we really need to have the kids back in school. There’s a lot of strain on the families and the students,” school board President Larry Sweeney said in an interview Thursday.

He said the $2,100 stipend for teachers would have cost the district a total of about $8 million because any benefit they receive likely would have to be matched for district employees in other unions. He said people should read the several bargaining updates the district posted through the month.

“I think when people read how this has gone, they can draw their own conclusion as to why this has happened,” he said.

Cammack said he disagreed that the district has turned its back on students, adding it has made “goodfaith”

offers and counteroffers.

“The collective bargaining process is a shared responsibility of both parties. And in this case, we’ve met nearly 27 times since October to try and reach agreement, and the two parties have been unable to come to an agreement,” he said.

One parent, Rachel Wang, seemed to blame the teachers for the delays in negotiations.

“If you really, really have our kids’ benefit in your hearts, why do you keep raising all these unrealistic and ridiculous asks or requests or demands?” she said during the meeting.

Another parent, Cecilie Lee, said Wednesday in an interview it’s been “terribly frustrating” watching two of her young kids, one in kindergarten and the other in second grade, struggle with learning virtually.

Initially, she felt the board didn’t seriously consider plans for how to get kids back to school, but more recently she feels the teachers union kept “moving the mark” after the district

proposed “reasonable” plans for reopening.

“I’m just so mad,” Lee said.

“I will not send my children to FUSD if they’re not five days a week next year,” she said.

“I can’t be the substitute teacher again, or the secondary teacher. It’s created too much conflict in my home. Either I’m the home teacher or I send them to private school, or we move,” she said.

Many other school districts in the Bay Area have reopened with hybrid models, including Pleasanton Unified, Livermore Valley Unified, Mount Diablo Unified, Milpitas Unified, and Oakland Unified. New Haven Unified, in Union City and South Hayward, opted earlier in March to remain in distance learning.

A Fremont Unified survey in February showed that out of more than 10,000 responses, nearly 63% of families said they wanted their kids to continue distance learning only through the end of this school year.

While the district can

require teachers to return to school, Cammack said Thursday he didn’t feel that would “be what is in the best interest of students overall.”

“Every effort will be put forward on my part to have a full five-day a week return in the fall, and I am very confident that Fremont Unified will open in the fall with a full five-day return,” Cammack said.

“I remain confident that all our FUSD staff across the entire district will be fully committed to providing the best for their students over the next 43 days, just as they have done so well for the last year,” he added.

Cammack said the district will offer more information about the fall 2021 reopening plans during the April 21 board meeting.