Newsom urges swift school reopenings
Gov. Gavin Newsom urged schools across the state to take a more aggressive stance in getting students back into classrooms, saying $2 billion in grants for districts to reopen should be enough to address lingering anxiety and roadblocks.
“We have the capacity to get these kids safely back to inperson instruction,” Newsom said Tuesday at a Palo Alto news conference. “It’s about the children. It’s about their emotional wellbeing.”
The visit to a Peninsula school came a day after Newsom announced a deal with legislators to provide $6.6 billion to state schools to navigate reopening and the impact of distance learning on students.
Of that, $2 billion is allocated for districts that reopen for inperson instruction by April 1, with specific students in seats by then, depending on whether a county is in the state’s most restrictive purple tier or the less restrictive red tier. Schools that reopen after April 1 will lose 1% of funding each day they remain closed, up until May 15.
Legislators are expected to vote on the measure Thursday.
Newsom opened the news conference after reading to students in one of the classrooms at Barron Park Elementary School, which has returned to inperson learning.
“I’ve got four kids at home, so it’s familiar but the setting was not as familiar — being here in a classroom safely reading to kids, plexiglass, appropriately distanced, ventilation, doors open, windows open, proving that we can get our kids back in school, not just here but all across the state of California, for that matter, all across this country,” he said. “It’s an imperative and we have example after example of success.”
Not every school district has the same resources as Palo Alto, Newsom said.
“No one is naive about that, and that’s exactly why yesterday we announced the $6.6 billion commitment with the
Legislature ... to provide support for districts that need more sanitation, need more ventilation, need more peertopeer support, more staff support.”
Newsom declined to say whether he would consider ordering reluctant schools to reopen, but said he would continue to “work in a collaborative spirit.”
It’s unclear how many local districts will be able to meet the criteria to get the reopening grants, which include bringing back all elementary students who want to come back, vulnerable students in all grades and students in at least one additional grade in middle or high schools.
San Francisco school officials said the funding does not change the timeline for reopening, which includes getting classrooms ready and requires a deal with the teachers union on what the school day will look like.
Oakland officials said they are moving toward the goal of starting the reopening process this month.
“Gov. Newsom made clear that he and the state Legislature want to see students back in class for inperson learning by the end of this month,” said district spokesman John Sasaki. “For several months now, the district has been working towards an
opening of our campuses this spring. We have taken countless steps to ensure that campuses, staff and students are ready for this transition.”
Despite the state funding, many of the state’s 6 million public school students likely won’t go back into schools this spring. Newsom said, however, he is optimistic about reopening most of California by August, with enough vaccine available to all state residents.
“We will not only open our schools for inperson instruction but a vast portion of our business sectors as well,” he said. “I am confident we can get our kids back safely for inperson instruction (this fall).”
Legislators backed the school reopening plan in a pair of hearings Tuesday, setting it up for passage later this week. But despite an optimistic pronouncement by Assem
bly Member Phil Ting, DSan Francisco, that the framework “can take all the excuses off the table,” it was clear that it would be far from enough to get many students across the state back into classrooms.
Even some of the lawmakers who said they would support the measure expressed doubt that it offered enough resources for inperson instruction to resume in their own districts. Several criticized an approach that they said would be a boon to wealthier schools already on their way to reopening, while leaving behind their lowincome communities of color.
“I’m once again worried about being at the end of the list,” said Assembly Member Cristina Garcia, DBell Gardens (Los Angeles County).
Inequitable access to vaccines remains a major issue. Legislators representing Latino and Black communities that have been hit harder by the coronavirus said families are afraid to send their children back into classrooms before their own households were protected from exposure.
And while the bill does not include a requirement that teachers get vaccinated before schools can reopen, there appears to be little desire in Sacramento to push back on the demands that have proliferated in local negotiations.
“I’m not asking any teacher to return to the classroom without being vaccinated,” said Assembly Member Patrick O’Donnell, a Long Beach Democrat and former teacher. “I wouldn’t return to the classroom without being vaccinated — and I’ve had COVID.”