Dear Orange County Board of Education,
In a matter of days, those of us in the education profession rose to the challenge of changing our entire style of teaching, some with very little resources, in order to give students the best education we could while providing for our own families. Throughout this entire time educators flexed our resiliency muscles and summoned every resource we could to continue to provide our students with learning experiences while those with greater authority figured out how to respond to the pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus. Much of what we learned as teachers, students, and families had nothing to do with math, science, language, history, or art. We learned a lot about what it takes to pull together as a community and deal with a worldwide crisis. We learned to deal with ambiguity. We learned what individuals can do to protect ourselves and each other. We are still learning about this deadly virus. We know a lot more now than we did in March when the world shut down. Some of what we know is hopeful - there are many doing research to find cures, treatments, and vaccines. And some of what we are learning is not so hopeful - sadly, many healthy young people have succumbed to Covid-19. As we begin to create plans to reopen our schools, it's important that we put health and safety first. It's important to mitigate the spread of the virus in our communities. Having healthy families and students will foster a healthy economy. We do that by doing the basics: Wearing a mask, having good sanitation methods and social distancing in places where we have tight quarters. As a profession we want our kids to have the healthiest and best conditions to work in, we want to help the mental health of those of our kids who have lost family members to covid, we want to spare them the grief related to such a virus, we want to spare them the anxiety of bringing something home, and we want to provide an environment that is free of that worry. In order to do that, we must listen to our medical professionals and scientists who are on the front lines. We do this by realizing that following the temporary guidelines so we can go back to normal. We do this knowing that our working conditions as a district will directly impact a students’ learning and health. We need to do this together because this is about health and not politics. We should not be opening school unless there is an objective standard that follows the infection rates of the area and the current science that is guiding the medical professionals in our hospitals. We stand in solidarity with those in Orange County who desire to prioritize the safety of our communities and the health of our neighbors. We prioritize life! Orange County Board of Education, we urge you to make that your priority! Our community deserves and needs that! Tamara Fairbanks and The Newport Mesa Federation of Teachers Executive Board
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