Despite acknowledging the unknown long-term effects of COVID-19, the San Jose Unified School District is forcing most of its teachers back into the classroom next week for the start of the upcoming school year.
Under a new agreement reached between the district and the San Jose Teachers Association, nearly 1,600 teachers will head back onto campus for the first day of school on Aug. 12. But unlike most years, they’ll be teaching their lessons in an empty classroom to students on the other side of a computer screen — without being given the choice to work from home.
A few other Bay Area districts — including Palo Alto Unified and Santa Clara Unified — have considered such a move, as did Los Angeles Unified School District, but San Jose Unified appears to be alone in going through with it.
The California Teachers Association, which has been lobbying to keep teachers out of classrooms until it’s safe, said some other districts and teachers’ unions across the state are still negotiating the issue, however.
While record numbers of Californians are getting infected and hospitalized from COVID-19, San Jose Unified teachers feel like the district is caving in to political pressure from parents and knowingly putting teachers in harm’s way.
“It screams disrespect,” said Jodi Disario, a drama and English teacher at Willow Glen High School with underlying health conditions. “We work very hard to do what’s best for our students, and we don’t feel like someone is working very hard to do what’s best for us.”
And although he didn’t single out San Jose Unified, Gov. Gavin Newsom made it clear Monday when giving a daily update on the coronavirus pandemic that he doesn’t believe teachers should be forced back into their classrooms.
In response to a reporter’s question, Newsom said, “I don’t believe anyone should be forced to put their life and health at risk. Period. Full stop.
“If people feel their lives are being put at risk and their health is being put at risk, it is incumbent on us to call that out.”
San Jose Unified leaders say that they are working to make accommodations for teachers and staff who have medical, childcare or family needs. But many teachers say that’s not actually the case.
A high school teacher with a newborn and 2-year-old said she found out Monday that her request to work from home had been rejected. The teacher, who asked not to be named out of concern of retaliation, is struggling to find childcare for her two children, but the district said that was not an adequate reason to allow her to work from home.
Instead, the district effectively told her she could either show up in person or take a leave of absence for up to 12 weeks and lose a portion of her pay. Anything longer than 12 weeks would be unpaid.
The district is allowing teachers to bring their preschool through high school-age children with them to their classrooms, but this teacher’s children are too young.
“We feel like our district does not trust us to be professional,” the teacher said. “And it seems like the district’s decisions are being pushed largely by parents putting pressure on administrators or the school board — not taking into account the needs and feeling of teachers.”
Particularly galling for some current and former San Jose Unified educators and parents was a recent post made on the San Jose Unified Facebook page.
In the Sunday morning post, the district wrote, “we do not know the long-term health problems that could come from getting COVID-19. We do not know because this is a new virus. Do not be foolish. COVID is playing to win.”
About 200 people commented on the post — nearly all of whom ridiculed the district for forcing teachers back into the classroom and thus exposing them to other people potentially carrying the virus while acknowledging the unknown long-term health effects of COVID-19.
“Forcing teachers to come to school and bring their children with them is risking unnecessary exposure. This is foolish and tone-deaf,” one person commented.
“Shame on your district! You acknowledge the sheer magnitude of the power of the virus while sending faculty and staff with children in tow marching to their death,” another wrote.
San Jose Unified Deputy Superintendent Stephen McMahon said the district’s intention in bringing teachers back is to provide the “best quality instruction possible” by having technology and support readily available for them.
“We want to make sure we do start with the highest possible delivery system for instruction, which is the classroom,” McMahon explained at a recent school board meeting. “The tools are going to be there, the WiFi system is going to be tested, and we can provide immediate support because we know where you’re at.
“There are a lot of strategic advantages to being at your work location.”
McMahon said the district is working tirelessly to ensure safe working conditions for its staff, including social distancing requirements, individual classroom assignments and routine cleaning of common areas and high-touch surfaces such as door handles and printers.
But many teachers are still fearful of sharing common areas and bathrooms, coming into contact with significantly more people on a daily basis and inevitably increasing their chances of infection and bringing it home to their families — some pointing to the example of top Santa Clara Unified educators being quarantined after a 45-person meeting last month where one person tested positive for the virus.
“It’s just impossible to sanitize every time someone goes through an area like our staff room — the only place to make copies and get out mail. It’s shared by 84 staff members and now potentially their children too,” Disario said.
Patrick Bernhardt, president of the San Jose Teachers Association, said the union leaders sought greater flexibility around the ability of teachers and staff members to work from home but inevitably were unsuccessful.
“I don’t think parents care where teachers are teaching from so long as they’re doing it well,” Bernhardt said. “But the district felt very strongly that teachers should be in the classroom.”
