March 1 Return to Classrooms Cancelled

Santa Rosa City Schools Superintendent Diann Kitamura acknowledged Wednesday that the goal of returning students to the classroom by the target date of March 1st is not feasible.

This is primarily due to union negotiations that are focused on vaccinations for teachers. The Santa Rosa Teachers Association initially stated that teachers would have to receive both doses of the vaccine before returning. However, some teachers are moving on from that and are considering going back with only one shot.

This still poses some challenges. There is no official guidance anywhere that states teachers must have some part of the vaccine before returning. Thus, Laurie Fong (the school board president) is grappling with the union's demands.

In addition, schools cannot reopen without the teachers present.

Shocker, I know. But, if teachers will not go back without some form of the vaccine, they can't be forced to return. Therefore, we might have a teaching shortage on our hands.

We might also have issues with balancing out the teachers that are willing to return. Simply explained, if the majority of teachers from one area are willing to go back while none from another area are, some of the teachers in the majority may have to transfer to teach where there is more demand.

Whether elementary teachers can sign up for the Sonoma County Office of Education vaccination clinic next week will have a significant impact on the updated timeline for school reopening. We will have an updated timeline at the next school board meeting on Wednesday.

Hopefully we only hear good news. I can only imagine how difficult it must be for those young kids to be spending their formative years on Zoom.

Source: https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/march-1-return-to-classrooms-for-santa-rosa-city-schools-is-off/

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