S. F. schools unveil website detailing how to reopen

San Francisco families can now see how close the city’s school district is to meeting the requirements to reopen classrooms to students.

The summary: The district isn’t very close.

The district rolled out a pandemic dashboard Tuesday detailing what it will take to reopen schools, broken down into nine categories showing whether the requirements have started, are in progress, almost done or completed.

“We haven’t been transparent with the progress we’re making,” said Superintendent Vince Matthews. “We don’t anticipate we’ll be able to bring students back before the end of the ( calendar) year.”

Currently, few of the individual tasks have been completed, with most “in progress.”

Under facilities, for example, the district has completed the requirement to have sufficient cleaning and disinfectant supplies, but the assessment of ventilation, building systems and other needs is in progress. Creating circulation plans of students, staff and family during the school day has started.

The district is almost done stockpiling a threemonth supply of soap, tissues, and other supplies and is also close to identifying the school sites that would be the first to open for highneeds students as well as those in preschool.

A key part of reopening will depend on negotiating with the teachers union and other labor organizations to set conditions for reopening. Negotiations are in process.

The district currently has set no dates on when the first students might start to return.

Also on Tuesday, the board unanimously approved the creation of a Black Studies curriculum and coursework, which would be available to all students for the 20222023 school year.

The measure comes amid a national reckoning with racism and police brutality, including the recent, highprofile killings of several African Americans. District staff would be required to raise the funding to implement the measure despite the ongoing issues related to the pandemic, officials said.

“It’s never the wrong time to talk about antiracist work,” said Susan Solomon, president of the local teachers union.

Board member Stevon

Cook, who is African American, authored the resolution.

“This country was built by a lot of beautiful, incredible people,” he said. “My ancestors were founders of this country. This is about telling a more fuller history of this country.”

To see the dashboard, go to: https:// tinyurl. com/ y4y9he4n.