Oakland teachers reach agreement on workday
Oakland teachers would be required to work just over six hours each day — including at least 2½ hours of live instruction for the oldest students, according to a tentative agreement reached Wednesday morning between district administrators and labor officials.
The tentative agreement comes five days into the new school year and, if approved by teachers and the school board, would dictate working conditions and other requirements during distance learning.
The two sides had been meeting for weeks to hash out an agreement, with disagreements over the teacher workday and time spent doing live instruction holding up the talks.
Union officials had initially proposed a fivehour workday with a twohour limit on live instruction.
The deal requires daily live instruction, varying by grade level:
• PreK and kindergarten: 80 minutes of live instruction four days a week; 60 minutes one day a week
• Grades 13: 110 minutes four days; 90 minutes one day.
• Grades 45: 120 minutes four days; 90 minutes one day.
• Grades 612: 150 minutes four days; 90 minutes one day.
The shorter day will occur on Wednesdays, which will also include time for teacher training and teacher preparation.
While state law requires a certain amount of instructional minutes each day, which varies by grade level, that amount can include both live and independent learning, including online videos, educational television programs and other assignments.
The agreement offers possible schedules for students at each grade level, starting with live morning class meetings or, for the middle and high school students, advisory time. The days would include time spent in fullclass sessions, small online groups or individual work offline.
Over the next week, instructional time will include districtprovided training for students on technology, health, personal safety and information about distance learning in general.
With no mandates on specific distance learning standards, each district must negotiate those details with its labor groups. In some cases, unions are calling for fivehour work days. In others, districts are calling for the previously agreed upon 7½ hours.
That means there will be significant differences in what the school day will look like for students across various districts.
San Francisco teachers reached a deal with the district last week, agreeing to a sevenhour workday, up from four hours required in the spring after schools closed in March.
That deal also requires teachers to provide at least two hours of live instruction or communication with students every day. That could include Zoom sessions with the entire class or small groups, individual reading assessments or oneonone instruction.
Many students across the state never interacted with their teachers in real time again after schools closed, getting and submitting assignments via email or other online applications.
Negotiations are ongoing in San Francisco and Oakland over what a return to classrooms would look like and what will be expected of teachers under a hybrid model, with a limited number of students at school on any given day.