Los angeles students are a critical step closer to a return to campus from mid-April under a provisional agreement reached on Tuesday between the teachers’ union and the LA Unified School District, signaling a new chapter in an unprecedented year of closings of schools forced by the coronavirus.
The agreement, which must be ratified by members, establishes safety parameters for returning to campus and presents a markedly different schedule that still depends heavily on online learning. The school day would take place in a format called a hybrid – meaning that students would conduct their studies on campus for part of the week and continue their online studies at other times.
Families would have the option of keeping students in distance learning full-time.
In a statement, UTLA President Cecily-Myart Cruz said the agreement provided safeguards and guarantees.
“With all of our major safety protocols in place, this agreement reflects a uniform health and safety plan that we can be proud of as educators and that puts us on the path to a safe return, in LAUSD and in all of our schools,” Myart -Cruz said.
District officials provided a joint statement from the Myart-Cruz and LA Supt schools. Austin Beutner.
“As we both said some time ago, the right way to reopen schools should include the highest standard of COVID safety in schools, the continued reduction of the virus in the communities we serve and access to vaccination for school staff,” they said. in the demo. “This agreement achieves that set of shared goals. It is our shared commitment to the highest standards of safety and the spirit of trust and collaboration that we will take back to schools. “
Under the agreement, members of United Teachers Los Angeles, which represents teachers, nurses, counselors and librarians, would not have to return to work until they had access to the COVID-19 vaccines and obtained maximum immunity – a period of up to six weeks. This period of time – plus the time required for vaccination appointments – is the main driver of a district agenda with a view to restarting elementary school on April 19.
The union has not signed a specific return date.
Secondary schools would open in late April or early May, according to a district source who was not authorized to speak officially.
Another condition for the return is that the county of Los Angeles enters the “red layer” of the state, which would mean that the county is one step ahead of the “purple layer”, the worst level of generalized coronavirus infection in the community. This parameter appears to be within reach, as the county is expected to leave the purple layer and enter the red layer within a few days.
If approved, the agreement would bring a measure of certainty for the rest of the academic year for families from 465,000 in kindergarten through 12th grade in the country’s second largest school system.
But education on campus will not resume as soon as many families would like, and the school day will be remarkably different. Campuses have been closed in Los Angeles since March 13, 2020.
The Times learned of the details of the deal based on conversations with sources on both sides of the negotiations. Here’s what appears to be in the contract:
At the elementary level, students would attend five days a week, both in the morning and in the early afternoon. The staggered schedule would allow for smaller classes, according to state recommendations to keep students at least six feet away.
Elementary and secondary education would be resumed with even more marked changes. Students would attend two days a week on a staggered schedule. But, instead of moving from one class to another, students would remain in their advisory classroom – similar to a homeroom base – all day.
From their orientation class, students would do distance learning essentially as they are doing now; they would be switching online from home to online from a classroom under the supervision of a teacher. Students would then “switch” from one class to another online – as they are now doing at home.
Consultant teachers would have their own class schedules – which they would conduct at school, but not necessarily for the students in front of them. To avoid mutual distraction, students would receive noise-canceling headphones.
During a period of the day, the headphones would be turned off and the teacher and students would work together on assignments and activities that are not part of the core academic work. These activities would include a focus on students’ social and emotional well-being.
Most of the time, however, high school students will not take face-to-face classes, even when they are on campus.
The approach to high school day has evolved from trying to combine strong security protocols with the more complex programming of elementary and high schools. Keeping students in their counseling class divides the school into small, stable groups. If a student is infected in a group, only that group will have to be quarantined at home.
It would also have been a challenge to reconfigure the master schedule for a secondary campus – and to get students to adapt to new teachers – so close to the end of the school year.
Educators will not be required to teach students in the classroom and Zoom at the same time.
Under the agreement, the district will commit to making “reasonable accommodations” for teachers when a doctor finds that they are in a high-risk category related to COVID-19. Teachers who continue to work remotely for health reasons will be accompanied by a personal substitute.
Other safety protocols would also be followed, including the mandatory use of masks.
A COVID-19 Compliance Task Force will be formed at each school. He would address health and safety compliance issues as they arose.
A return in late April would result in LA Unified losing a substantial portion of the state funding available to districts that reopen to kindergarten through second grade by April 1st. learning loss caused by the pandemic.