One puzzle piece remains for Newsom, lawmakers

Every piece of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s high-priority pandemic proposals has fallen into place — except for reopening schools.

Lawmakers on Monday sent a $7.6 billion relief package to Newsom’s desk, which includes $600 stimulus payments for 5.7 million low-income Californians, $2 billion in small-business relief grants, $400 million in federal funds for child care providers, $35 million in retroactive pay for a controversial voter education contract and $1.4 million to address an uptick in violence against Asian Americans. Newsom said Monday he will sign the package into law today. Another $2 billion in tax breaks for businesses is expected to follow soon, bringing the total relief to $9.6 billion.

The stimulus package, along with the extended eviction moratorium passed in January, make up two of the three main items on which Newsom wanted lawmakers to act immediately. The third — reopening schools — remains stubborn, as evidenced by an Assembly hearing Monday in which lawmakers expressed both confusion and frustration at ongoing efforts to bring kids back to campus.

One major point of uncertainty was whether the school reopening plan three Democratic assemblymembers introduced Thursday — in opposition to the governor’s — would actually require staff to be vaccinated before returning to campus. Assembly budget committee consultant Erin Gabel said that it would not — a position that, ironically, is not dissimilar from Newsom’s.

Lawmakers also expressed frustration at local districts controlling campus reopening — although both their plan and Newsom’s would preserve local control by allowing districts to opt out of reopening deadlines.

• Assemblymember Phil Ting, a San Francisco Democrat: “This year, local control has been a complete failure. We have seen the whole ‘trust us’ model from the districts fail.”

Nevertheless, several districts are moving to reopen as pressure mounts to get kids back in the classroom. Los Angeles Unified announced plans Monday to resume some in-person services next week for students with special needs, and Sacramento City Unified said Monday it plans to bring kids back to campus in early April. And the San Francisco school board is pausing its effort to rename 44 schools to focus on reopening campuses.