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

Pasadena Now has learned that United Teachers of Pasadena and the Pasadena Unified School District have reached an agreement on a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that would allow teachers to return to the classroom on certain days once conditions improve. 

Complete details of the agreement are expected to be announced on Monday, Nov. 16.

According to a copy of the MOU obtained by Pasadena Now, the district would institute a hybrid learning model that allows for learning in school facilities, and another utilizing distance learning on Tuesdays through Fridays.
Mondays would still be a distance learning day for most students.

The UTP model includes six feet of social distancing in classrooms, which would be disinfected daily, along with rugs and carpets. 

Under terms of the MOU, students would not be allowed to share supplies, and a plexiglass station would be set up for students requiring one-on-one classroom instruction. 

Per the agreement, middle and high school students would attend five hours of in-person learning. 

“Understandably, the teacher’s union has been concerned about certain procedures for safety,” said Board of Education Vice President Scott Phelps. 

UTP representatives did not respond to requests for comment regarding this story. 

The teachers’ union had been bargaining on safety protocols that would allow teachers to return for in-person instruction after the state moves from the restrictive purple tier, which prohibits in-person learning. 

In September, UTP President Allison Steppes told Pasadena Now that talks would have to be completed before teachers agreed to return to classrooms. 

“Before any such action would take place, the UTP bargaining team would need to negotiate with the district in returning any of our bargaining unit members to their respective school and worksites,” Steppes wrote in an email to union members that was obtained by Pasadena Now.

The city’s Health Department revised its emergency order on Sept. 8 to allow K-12 schools to offer limited in-person learning and services for students with specific needs.

The order was later revised again to allow preK-second grade students to return with a waiver. So far, a half-dozen private schools have had their waiver applications approved and have been allowed to partially open.

But the new MOU may not matter if the state continues to trend in the wrong direction, along with most of the country.

Last week, state officials announced that more than 1 million Californians have been infected with COVID-19, which the World Health Organization declared a pandemic on March 11.

“We’re forgetting,” said Daisy Dodd, infectious disease specialist with Kaiser Permanente in Pasadena, “we’re mingling together, people are sick of being locked up and not being able to interact, so they’re having larger gatherings and they might not necessarily be taking the proper precautions, the masking, the distancing, and, you know, the hand-washing.”

Lax attitudes about fighting the virus have sent efforts at prevention in the wrong direction, officials have said.

Over the past week, Pasadena recorded an average of 19.6 new infections each day, according to city medical data.

For the first time since the tier system was implemented, no counties advanced last week to a less-restrictive level. Three counties, including San Diego County, regressed to the most-restrictive “purple” tier from the less-onerous “red” level.

Five other counties moved backward from the “orange” level into the “red” tier, while three others slipped out of the least-restrictive “yellow” level and back into the “orange” tier.

For one week, Los Angeles County hit the threshold to advance to the “red” tier but failed to maintain low infection rates for a second week. Counties must meet the guidelines for two consecutive weeks to move up the color-coded ladder.

The surge has left Pasadena unable to allow businesses to reopen and local students to return to school.

“The trendline has to change and move in the other direction in order for us to make progress towards the other tier,” Pasadena Public Health Director Dr. Ying-Ying Goh told the City Council last week. “I hope every day we can move in that direction, but it requires the cooperation and actions of everybody in L.A. County.”

Last week, several cities, including Chicago, announced they were on the verge of issuing new Safer-at-Home orders. New York City announced it was on the verge of closing schools again if the infection rate reached 3 percent.

The 14-day test positivity rate in California is already at 4 percent according to state officials. 

“I am worried,” said Dr. Mark Ghaly, the state’s director of Health and Human Services.