Oakland teachers urge no vote on reopening deal
A group of Oakland teachers protested a plan to bring students back to classrooms starting at the end of the month, calling an agreement between the district and their union “reckless and foolish” unless staff, students and families are vaccinated.
The organizers of the Wednesday protest, which included the union reps from individual schools, rather than Oakland Education Association leadership, urged district teachers to vote against the deal, which would have the first students — in preschool through second grade — back in classrooms on March 30, with older elementary students and highneeds students across all grades phased in over the following two weeks.
In a narrow vote Tuesday, a majority of the 150 members of the representative council who voted recommended that all union members reject the tentative deal on reopening.
Any return in April “is a betrayal of the right of black, Latina/o, and poor and working class parents to keep their families safe,” the organizers said in the announcement of the event, which included a car caravan and speakers. Just five cars and a handful of teachers and parents participated in the planned protest.
The protesters’ demands exceed county, state and federal guidelines for reopening schools. Neither state officials nor the Center for Disease Control recommends vaccinations of staff or families be required before students and teachers return to inperson learning. Teachers and parents also oppose reopening until every ZIP code in Oakland reaches a low transmission rate, which is also not required either by ZIP code or for the city and county as a whole.
Many private, charter and public schools have reopened in the Bay Area, following county requirements and a litany of mitigation efforts.
The protesters, however, said reopening could harm families’ health as well as financial status.
“Additionally, if schools reopen five days a week, families lose pandemic unemployment assistance benefits whether or not they chose to send their children to school in person,” organizers said.
The union and district reached the tentative agreement over the weekend. It requires the approval of the school board — which is expected to vote on March 31, a day after the first students return — and union membership, with teachers able to vote from Wednesday through Saturday.
The executive leadership of the union supported the agreement with an 80% vote after the deal was reached.
If approved, it would reopen one of the state’s largest urban districts, with an estimated 13,000 students returning to classrooms in April, including highneeds students across all grades, including homeless students, foster youth, English learners, disengaged students and those with special needs. At least one middle or high school grade would be also back by April 19.
Oakland schools are expected to reopen before those in San Francisco, which will start welcoming students back on April 12.
Students would likely return part time with a hybrid model.
“Getting our students safely back to a more normal routine will go a long way to fostering their education and their mental, physical and emotional wellbeing,” board President Shanthi Gonzales recently told the Chronicle.
The deal offers teachers a $2,000 stipend for all 2,700 union members who return to inperson learning. That’s in addition to $800 for teachers who opt to return voluntarily in March since not all teachers will be fully vaccinated until midApril, according to a copy of the agreement obtained by The Chronicle.
A majority of elementary school families — representing 54% of 18,500 students — said they want to return to inperson learning, although the responses varied by race, district officials said. About 8% of families did not respond to requests to state a preference.
A majority of white, Black, Pacific Islander and multiple ethnicity families said they would like inperson instruction. A relative majority of Latino, Filipino American and lowincome families also responded positively to inperson learning, although they had a higher rate of nonresponse. A majority of Asian American families said they preferred to remain in distance learning.
The pandemic has disproportionately harmed communities of color and lowincome families, who’ve borne the brunt of job losses and higher case numbers and deaths related to COVID19.