45% Of SMMUSD Teachers Would Quit Before Returning To Classes Under Red Or Purple Tiers
Written by 991KBU on November 23, 2020
Nearly half of the teachers on the local school district say they will refuse to return to classrooms … even under a hybrid reopening plan with very small in-person classes.
45 percent of the teachers in the Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District say no.
They will take leave … retire or simply just quit if the school district tries to reopen while L A County is still in the purple or red public health levels.
The school superintendent … Ben Drati … has been meeting with teachers to try to win support for a hybrid classroom program.
But even a limited hybrid program … for kids below grade III … bringing in only half of them at a time … is running into stiff opposition.
75% of the teachers say the district should only bring kids on campus for limited classroom activities … not for classes but for tutoring or one-on-one instruction.
At last week’s school board meeting … teachers stood up to implore the district to reverse its decision to reopen special education classrooms.
One teacher … who is the parent of a special-needs Child herself … said her son is not able to understand the concept of social distancing or wearing a mask.
The teacher and parent … Tashia Buccioni … said and we quite …
“It frightens me for myself and also for my extremely medically fragile students to bring them back on campus when they cannot wear masks and they cannot socially distance
“Bringing students on campus is adding the stress and the difficulty of putting their life and my life at risk.”
Buccioni was quoted in an article in the Santa Monica newspaper … the Daily Press.
Another teacher blasted the district for reopening special education classes without providing teachers with without appropriate Personal Protective Equipment … without N95 masks for teachers … and with a lack of ventilation in the aging school buildings.
Plus … teachers have criticized the district for beginning to open the doors to kids without any plans to test the teachers for COVID-19.
The teacher spoke at last week’s school board meeting … as reported by the Santa Monica Daily Press.
The teachers’ union survey showed just 10 percent of teachers surveyed said they are confident that safety measures undertaken by the district are sufficient..
But sixty-seven percent of surveyed teachers did not support resuming any in-person instruction while in the purple tier.
And with the county heading in the opposite direction … this discussion is largely academic at this time.
This story is based on this report from the Santa Monica Daily Press: https://www.smdp.com/smmusd-superintendent-provides-reopening-updates/199061
