To: SAUSD Board Members, SAUSD Superintendent, SAEA Executive Board*
From: [Your Name] We understand and empathize with the challenge you’re facing in balancing the pressures of returning our students and staff to schools for equity and educational benefits versus public health and safety concerns. We agree with educators and parents that the option of some in-person instruction is preferable to Distance Learning alone. However, when determining our priorities, we have the moral imperative to protect human life as the most essential duty of our jobs. We have an obligation to aim for ZERO avoidable deaths or serious illnesses from COVID-19 transmission at any of our schools. In order to do this we must apply the strongest safety standards for reopening. The numbers don’t lie: Santa Ana is one of the hottest COVID-19 spots in Orange County, with the following zip codes being the hottest: 92701, 92703, and 92704. This is due to high-density living, and these are the neighborhoods where many essential workers reside. Re-opening our schools in any model, even with some safety measures in place, means that teachers will be coming into those hottest COVID-19 spots, picking up the virus, and then bringing it back to their own households/zip codes. This is irresponsible, at best, and will cause unnecessary illness and death. It seems ridiculous to consider opening schools now when Broadway shows will remain closed until January 2021 and we’ve had to shut down indoor dining after a spike occurred due to that reopening. “Covid-19 has already disproportionately targeted people of color… The unsafe reopening of the schools during a pandemic will disproportionately harm communities of color. That is not by accident, that is by design. It is American racism at its worst… Forcing people of color to send their kids back to school before it is safe is not only racism, it is attempted genocide…. We cannot let greed and systemic racism force us back before it is safe. Our government predicts hundreds of thousands of us will die… Lawsuits will rain down and [your names] will be at the top of those class actions.” – Dr. Michael Flanagan, teacher, New York. Our students will come to school and then go home to their multigenerational households, which will endanger older community members. We have heard very little about additional safety measures to mitigate the spread. Masks and a face shield in an indoor location for long periods of time will not guarantee the safety of our students, nor our teachers. Most campuses do not have a nurse all week. No extra custodial staff has been secured. Parents do not know what safety precautions will be taken because it’s being “left up to the administration”. Making a decision at this meeting is irresponsible as teachers have not been surveyed during the recent surge in Orange County COVID-19 cases to determine if we will even have enough teachers to open. How many teachers cannot return to school due to preexisting conditions and/or being a caretaker for others who are older or have preexisting conditions? How can we be assured that there will be enough teachers on our campuses to ensure the lowest class sizes for safety? Will we have subs for teachers who cannot come to school for any given reason? Who will cover our in-person classes when teachers have to quarantine for 14 days due to exposure to COVID-19? With our current deficit in resources and leadership, we simply cannot open up our school campuses. Please use this time more wisely and turn to spending time and resources on ensuring our students have Wi-Fi and working Chromebooks, teacher training and effective tools (i.e., curriculum, hardware, etc.), and effective outreach to keep all students engaged. This must be in place in order to start our school year with Distance Learning, planning for a PHASE-IN model when it is safe enough to do so without endangering lives unnecessarily.
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