More data sought for school waiver

CHICO » The Chico Unified School District’s application for the elementary school waiver will have to wait until the next board meeting.

The Chico Unified School Board of Trustees unanimously voted Wednesday night to have the district update its survey data from each elementary school before going forward with an application. The move leaves the door open for the elementary school waiver but still requires more feedback.

The waiver allows schools in the most restricted category of reopening to open elementary schools for inperson instruction. Butte County is still in the Purple category.

Survey results done with parents and teachers were presented at the meeting. Though the parent survey showed that a majority of parents were in favor of in-person instruction if a waiver were to be granted, only 38 percent of parents participated in the survey.

“You have to take into consideration the number of parents who didn’t respond,” said Elizabeth Griffin, board president. “We have to find out what that group of people is thinking. We would not be doing justice to all of our parents if we just ignored the other percentage.”

The lowest response rate came from Chapman Elementary with 16 percent of parents responding.

The district received a total of 1,933 responses from parents.

The staff survey received a participation rate of 68 percent with 263 responses. The district received 263 responses out of 385 total staff members.

Staff results from every elementary school, with the exception of Chapman Elementary, received results of 50 percent or higher in favor of teaching in-person if approved by the Butte County Public Health Department.

A total of 45.8 percent of staff at Chapman were in favor of teaching in person.

The district will now cycle back to each elementary school to determine if parents and staff members are on board for in-person instruction. Based on the responses, each school will then determine to move forward with the waiver application, instead of the district applying for the waiver on behalf of every elementary school.

If a school wishes to apply for the waiver based on feedback from teachers and staff, the district will work with the school site.

The district will also need to work with the Chico Unified Teachers Association if a waiver were to be approved since working conditions will change. The state requires that the district consults with any teachers unions about reopening schools under the waiver.

“If we change the working conditions from the contract we agreed to we have to come back to the table and negotiate,” said Jim Hanlon, the district assistant superintendent of human resources. “There’s no way to implement a waiver without talking about working conditions.”

Working conditions include making sure class sizes are smaller to help enforce social distancing or requiring a teacher who may not want to come back to the classroom teach inperson classes.

“There’s no way to guarantee that 100 percent of the time kids are going to be six feet apart,” Hanlon said. “If we have smaller groups it’s much easier to make that happen.”

The next school board meeting will be held Oct. 7.

Contact reporter Sharon Martin at 530-896-7778.