Tentative deal struck for return to campuses
Schools would start reopening next month if teachers union, school board ratify agreement
Starting in mid-April, Los Angeles Unified’s youngest learners and students with disabilities would be able to return to campuses for in-person instruction, while students in middle and high school can return for additional support services at the end of April, if a tentative agreement reached Tuesday between the district and teachers union gets ratified.
Students in preschools, elementary schools and students with disabilities would return to campus first in a hybrid schedule, with students attending a morning or afternoon session in small cohorts.
Secondary students, meanwhile, would continue with daily online instruction, along with the opportunity to return to campus for “peer interaction, social-emotional learning and lessons for college and career exploration,” ac
cording to a statement released by the district and teachers union.
Three conditions would have to be met for schools to reopen: Los Angeles County must be in the red tier of the state’s reopening guidelines, all staff must have access to the COVID-19 vaccine and schools must remain clean and safe.
“As we have both stated for some time, the right way to reopen schools must include the highest standard of COVID safety in schools, continued reduction of the virus in the communities we serve and access to vaccinations for school staff,” Superintendent Austin Beutner and United Teachers Los Angeles President Cecily Myart-Cruz said in a joint statement. “This agreement achieves that shared set of goals. It’s our shared commitment to the highest safety standards and spirit of trust and collaboration we will take with us back to schools.”
The deal, reached after months of negotiations, comes nearly a year after schools were shuttered. If ratified by the school board and union members, it would remove one of the last major obstacles to getting students and staff in the nation’s second-largest K-12 system back into classrooms.
If the tentative agreement is ratified, it would remain in effect through June 30.
Here’s a summary of the deal:
• Daily in-person instruction for elementary school students in a hybrid morning/afternoon model, while maintaining the option for students to remain in online-only instruction.
• Full-day, in-person instruction for preschool students.
• Maintaining current teacher assignments whenever possible.
• All students and staff will be tested for COVID-19 prior to their return to campus, and weekly COVID testing will be provided thereafter.
• Masks and social distancing for students, staff and visitors at schools.
• Schools will be kept clean and safe. L.A. Unified has already invested more than $120 million to upgrade air-filtration systems, procure adequate stocks of personal protective equipment and add extra custodial staff.
• Social-emotional supports for all students.
• Additional professional development for teachers.
• Meals will be provided for students at schools, whether they are receiving in-person or online instruction.
• Students who don’t wish to return to campus can opt to continue with distance learning for at least the rest of this school year.
Tuesday’s announcement of a deal had been highly anticipated.
The district and teachers union initially gave themselves a deadline of Jan. 24 to reach an agreement on hybrid instruction, but negotiations stalled for weeks.
Beutner previously said unclear reopening guidelines from the state were hampering negotiations, and in February he invited state and local officials to join him in a 60-day challenge to reopen campuses. That would have made April 9 the date for welcoming students and staff back to school. Beutner later said April 9 likely wouldn’t be the actual reopening date, as it falls on a Friday. In more recent remarks, he’d been saying that he was eyeing a midApril reopening.
According to state guidelines, L.A. County could move into the less restrictive red tier as soon as this week, based on falling coronavirus case rates and a newly adjusted state metric that lowered the threshold required based on how many vaccines were administered in underserved communities.
The agreement that has been reached between the district and teachers union should help avoid more labor strife.
UTLA had announced Friday that 91% of its members who cast a ballot in a vote last week supported the idea of refusing to return to in-person work if conditions sought by the union to ensure a safe return to schools weren’t yet met. More than 24,500 ballots were cast, according to the union.
UTLA represents nearly 35,000 district employees, including teachers, librarians, counselors and school nurses.