Blaming Matyas is wrong

An open letter to the Vacaville Teachers Association:

It is absolutely saddening to hear that in your letter to the editor addressing the community, you put the blame on Dr. Matyas for not providing vaccinations for our teachers.

It is quite simple what is required to get the vaccinations provided for our educators — and that is a return to in-person-work date. Playing chicken and the egg with our children’s futures is not acceptable. Blaming Dr. Matyas for bureaucracy is just simply a joke at this point. There is no bigger obstacle to our children’s return to school than the Vacaville Teachers Association and any member of the board aligning interests for monetary support and against

science and what’s best for our community.

Families in our communities aren’t just facing “hardship and childcare” challenges. Families from lowerincome households are suffering tremendously. These families include the essential workers who have returned to work — vaccine or no vaccine.

While school is not childcare, families do not need to find care when children are in school. It’s ridiculous to think that daycare would be “on tap” for times like this. Right now, care isn’t even available in most cases because it is so maxed out. Childcare centers are full, charter lotteries for Kairos are through the roof. I wish there were more schools like Kairos in our community.

I am one of the more fortunate ones. I have a job that provides me to work at home. I have the means to not only provide daycare, but private school for my child. I only wish that this luxury could be provided to all so we could be done with this issue, and families who wanted their children to be in person could.

This district has been afforded millions upon millions of dollars for COVID. All there needs to be is a return to inperson-instruction date. I implore you to make this happen — for the sake of your union teachers who want to return to work and for the sake of our most vulnerable population, our children.

Do the right thing by our community and our children and come to the table not by holding hostage these agreements, but by providing a plan to return to in-person instruction. The community and families will go above and beyond to support you in getting vaccinations.

— Theresa Neff/Vacaville