SL teachers call for suspension of classroom instruction til Jan.
SAN LUIS, Ariz. – Elementary school teachers here who belong to the Red For Ed movement want the return to classroom instruction to be postponed until as late as January.
About 70 of the teachers gathered Friday morning on Cesar Chavez Boulevard in front of the Gadsden Elementary School District administrative offices in a rally prompted by concerns that a premature reopening of campuses could lead to a new spike in COVID-19 cases.
Miriam Hurtado, coordinator in San Luis for Red For Ed, said teachers are appealing to the district to resume in-person teaching “only when it becomes safe. What would it serve to return to classes and then have to go back to closing (campuses)?”
Red For Ed began more than two years ago as a movement to demand that the state put more money into teachers’ salaries. This year it has taken up the campaign statewide to delay school reopenings until the coronavirus no longer presents a risk to students, educators and other school staff.
The Gadsden district, consisting of eight campus serving students in pre-kindergarten through the eighth grade in San Luis and Gadsden, closed in March along with schools across the state as COVID-19 cases began to spike in Arizona. At present, most Gadsden students are studying online at home, with only about 100 students coming to school campuses to take the same internet classes.
Hurtado said resuming classroom instruction would only increase the likelihood of spreading the virus.
“It would be very difficult (to prevent it), because children want to socialize with their friends and they would be exposed, no matter what safety precautions were taken.”
She said the consensus of most teachers in San Luis who are part of Red For Ed is that school reopenings should be delayed until January.
Gadsden Superintendent
Raymond Aguilera said that proposal could, in fact, be considered by the district’s governing board at its monthly meeting on Monday.
He said he agrees with the teachers that the incidence of COVID-19 has not sufficiently diminished to allow schools to reopen safely. He and board members Luis Marquez, Gloria Torres and Rosa Varela attended Friday’s rally by teachers in front of the district administrative offices.
“We know (coronavirus) cases are continuing and we want to avoid them,” said Marquez, the president of the board. “We can’t return to regular classes until parents feel it is safe to send their children (to school), nor until teachers feel confident in teaching classes without the risk of anyone getting COVID-19.”
“We can’t ignore the fact that the pandemic can’t be controlled completely,” he added, “and we don’t want to have problems by not making the right decisions. If we can avoid just one (person) from getting infected, that’s all we can do.”