State Deal Encourages Schools to Reopen As Negotiations Between PUSD, Teachers’ Union Continue

Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders announced a multibillion-dollar deal Monday aimed at enticing schools to resume in-person instruction for young students by April 1, but union demands for COVID vaccinations of teachers and reduced transmission rates make it unlikely some local districts, including the Pasadena Unified School District, will meet that date.

The deal — which still needs formal legislative approval — would create a $2 billion incentive pool, with money doled out to schools that reopen campuses for students in pre-kindergarten through second grade, as well as high-need students of all ages. The money will go toward safety improvements, such as ventilation systems and protective equipment.

The proposal does not order schools to reopen, but schools that fail to do so by April 1 will lose a percentage of their funds for every day they miss the deadline.

The money would be available to schools in counties that have an average daily new COVID case rate of less than 25 per 100,000 residents, which covers the vast majority of the state. Los Angeles County and other Southern California counties meet that goal, although all remain in the most restrictive “purple tier” of the state’s COVID reopening roadmap.

Under existing state guidelines, schools in counties that meet the 25 cases per 100,000 residents threshold are authorized — but not required — to resume in-person classes for students in pre-kindergarten through sixth grade.

Under the proposed legislative incentive package announced Monday, schools in counties that advance out of the state’s “purple” tier and into the less-restrictive “red” tier — with a new COVID case rate of 7 per 100,000 residents and positivity rate less than 8% — would be required to open all elementary grades and at least one middle or high school grade to qualify for the incentive funds.

The legislative package also includes another $4.6 billion in general funding for all schools to help districts make up for learning time lost during the pandemic, possibly by extending the school year into the summer.

Despite the encouragement from the state, negotiations between the PUSD and United Teachers of Pasadena over how to go about returning to in-person learning will have to be resolved before Pasadena’s public schools will resume welcoming students back to campuses, PUSD Board President Scott Phelps said.

The school district and the teachers union had reached an agreement late last year regarding classroom safety protocols.

“We believe that we, in the fall, had negotiated language in our memorandums of understanding with our teachers’ union,” he said. “They had conditions in them we believe have been met. So we believe we can open safely, we being the board and the administration.

“Since then, requirements by the county and the state have changed. They change the ground under your feet all the time and they saved them. And so, even though we feel we can reopen, we want to talk to them,” Phelps said. “However, when they heard that we wanted to talk to them about setting a date, they got very afraid… We got like 84 pages of public comment about how scared they were and how we shouldn’t reopen.”

The PUSD’s bargaining team would be willing to speak with UTP on a daily basis, if need be, Phelps said. “But so far, they aren’t willing to talk to us about it because they’re scared. Understandably, they’re scared about getting COVID.”

PUSD Board Member Michelle Richardson Bailey said she did not yet believe it was yet safe to restart in-person instruction, regardless of the proposed incentive program announced Monday by state officials.

“If you jingle money in front of people they will respond,” she said. “In light of that, I won’t support schools reopening until it is safe for everyone.”

Phelps said he believed it was possible the PUSD may set a reopening date in the coming weeks.

The district plans to continue a hybrid learning model that will allow students to continue distance learning if their parents are not comfortable sending them back to campus, he added.

“What is good about this bill that may help is it provides money for some of the things that the teachers’ unions have been asking for since last year, statewide, which is funding for contact tracing and testing of everybody on a certain cadence,” Phelps said.

A joint meeting between the PUSD Board of Education and the Pasadena City Council to discuss prospects of school reopenings was scheduled for 3 p.m. Monday.

The Los Angeles Unified School District was also unlikely to meet the April 1 reopening date. LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner has set a target date of April 9 for reopening elementary schools, but the powerful teachers’ union — United Teachers Los Angeles — has not agreed to that date, which it says is subject to labor talks.

The union is demanding that all teachers and school staff be vaccinated before they return to in-person instruction. It also does not want campuses to reopen until Los Angeles County moves out of the “purple” tier.

Union officials argue that while the countywide transmission rate has dropped below the 25 per 100,000 residents threshold, many neighborhoods the LAUSD serves are lower-income, and have rates that are three times as high.

UTLA’s membership is voting this week on a proposed statement of opposition to reopening campuses, saying in-person instruction cannot resume until the county is in the “red” tier; all school staff returning to in-person work “are either fully vaccinated or provided access to full vaccination”; and safety measures are in place at schools such as protective equipment, social distancing, ventilation and “a cleaning regimen.”

Beutner has supported the union’s call for vaccinations before a return to classes. Teachers and other school staff in Los Angeles County became eligible for COVID vaccines on Monday, with the LAUSD even operating a vaccination site dedicated to education workers at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.

Even with LAUSD expected to receive about 40% of vaccine doses in the county set aside for education workers, it was unlikely that all elementary school teachers would be vaccinated in time to meet Beutner’s proposed April 9 date for school reopening, much less the state’s new April 1 date.

The Los Angeles Times reported Monday that the state plans to earmark enough vaccines to the LAUSD by the end of next week to get its staff inoculated and reopen elementary schools. Beutner has previously put that number at 25,000 doses.

But even if the district does receive enough doses, it still wouldn’t meet the union demand that schools remain closed until the county emerges from the “purple” tier. Los Angeles County’s COVID case rates have been dropping dramatically following a winter surge, but it was unclear when it might be able to advance to the “red” tier.

As of Monday, the county’s adjusted rate of daily new cases was 12.3 per 100,000 residents, still above the 7-per-100,000 level needed to move to the “red” tier. The case rate is updated weekly, with the next update scheduled for Tuesday. Newsom said Tuesday’s update will likely move seven counties across the state from the “purple” tier to the “red” tier, but he did not specify which counties would be advancing.

Newsom reiterated Monday that vaccinations should not be considered a prerequisite for schools to reopen. But he has ordered that a minimum of 10% of all vaccinations received by the state, a minimum of 75,000 doses per week, be set aside for teachers and school staff. He also said the two vaccination sites in the state that are operated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency — including one at Cal State Los Angeles — will be reserved this Thursday and Friday for school staff and teachers only.

Doses administered at the FEMA sites are in addition to the state’s allocation of doses.

Although the LAUSD teachers’ union is balking at an immediate return to classes, other Southland school districts are moving ahead with reopening efforts under the current state guidelines allowing in-person instruction for students up to sixth grade.

As of Monday, 26 school districts in Los Angeles County have had “COVID Safety Plans” approved by the county Department of Public Health. The plans outline all safety measures taken by the districts to prepare for the resumption of in-person classes.

Just because a district’s safety plan is approved doesn’t mean the district will automatically reopen. LAUSD is among the districts with an approved safety plan.

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Teachers, District Reach Agreement on COVID-19 Classroom Safety Protocols