Lodi Unified board, teachers settle on reopening plan
Agreement will guide district once San Joaquin County returns to red tier
Although no firm dates for returning to campus have been determined, the Lodi Unified District Board of Education unanimously approved a memorandum of understanding with the district’s teachers union on Tuesday that sets in-person instruction protocols addressing health and safety.
“It’s really exciting that the district and teachers worked together to get kids back in the classroom,” board member Ron Freitas said. “This was a huge, huge step, and I think it showed great trust and great respect on both sides and I’m very excited this was done. Of course the pandemic, having a mind of its own, decided this wouldn’t be implemented as soon as possible, but I want to voice my support for getting this done.”
The MOU, first approved by the Lodi Education Association last week, provides for students to return to campus for in-person instruction in stages.
For example, the district originally planned for special day classes to return to campuses today, with elementary school students returning on Nov. 30. Middle and high school students were slated to return Jan. 4.
Due to Gov. Gavin Newsom demoting San Joaquin County and 27 other counties back to the purple tier of his Blueprint for a Safer Economy, the district’s planned schedule for returning to campus has been put on hold.
School districts will be allowed to have students return to campus when their counties return to the red tier and stay there for three weeks.
Once Lodi Unified reopens, a hybrid learning
model will be implemented where half the students on each campus go to class on select days of the week, according to the MOU.
Special day class students would be on campus Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, with distance learning on Wednesday.
Elementary school students, as well as those at Henderson, Elkhorn, Houston, Lockeford, Joe Serna and Independence, would be in class twice a week with distance learning the remaining days.
Middle and high school students, as well as the Valley Robotics and Lincoln Technical academies, would also be on campus two days a week and have distance learning for the remainder, according to the MOU.
Full-week distance learning will be provided to families who do not feel comfortable sending their children back to school.
Elementary school teachers will continue to serve all students assigned to their classes, including those who choose the distance learning option.
Teachers will be allowed to use their sick or personal time if they do not want to return to campus, and the district will consider transfers to remote work depending on availability of assignments and provided teachers present proper health documentation.
Teachers who are also caregivers for those with underlying health conditions or are impacted by COVID-19 will be considered for remote work on a case-by-case basis, the MOU states.
If San Joaquin County is assigned to the yellow tier for reopening, the district
will implement a full return to in-person instruction. However, if the county is demoted to orange or red, the district will return to partial in-person instruction. If the county is assigned to purple again, the district will implement full distance learning, the MOU states.
“I also want to express admiration for both sides working well together to come to an agreement,” board member Susan Macfarlane said. “As long as we are in purple, it does make me extremely nervous to put students in the classroom or work for a waiver to put students in a cohort, especially when we’re locking things down or beginning to lock things down with numbers rising. I would like to see students back in the classroom or small groups, but that is an MOU for another day.”
Board member Courtney Porter called the MOU “forward thinking” and was pleased the language covered all tiers of the state’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy.
“We know exactly what we’re doing from here on out,” he said. “We’ve got everything in place, we know what we’re going to be doing going ahead, and I want to congratulate the teachers negotiation team and our negotiation team. I’m glad it was resolved, and kudos to everybody that worked hard to get this done.”
Michelle Orgon, president of the LEA, said that all the teachers in the union want to return to campus, and the MOU would provide that in a manner that is safe for both employees and students.
“As Mr. Porter pointed out, this does carry us through the different levels,” she said. “We do know that there are going to be bumps and hiccups in the road and things we didn’t think about, and we appreciate already having conversations with the superintendent over some of those.”