‘There is no excuse’: Sacramento community leaders demand distance learning plan for schools

Community leaders and business and labor representatives, along with Sacramento parents, stood outside the Sacramento City Unified School District office Tuesday morning to call for school leaders and the teachers union to work together in creating a distance learning plan, and preventing the cash-strapped district from going insolvent.

Representatives from the Sacramento Metro Chamber, the Hispanic Chamber, Teamsters, Region Business, Greater Sacramento Urban League and others demanded that the two sides meet regularly, stating that the district and teachers union had failed to develop a proper distance learning agreement, a plan to safely return to campus amid the pandemic, and a strategy to prevent the district from running out of cash in 2021.

“We have three pandemics,” said Richard Owen, executive director for United Professional Educators, which represents school administrators. “The first pandemic happened prior to COVID, and that was a learning pandemic. Let’s not kid ourselves that we were doing well prior to this pandemic. We weren’t. Our kids were failing prior to COVID.

“Now we have a second pandemic, and that’s COVID. That pandemic of course has accelerated the learning loss of kids that were already not doing well in this district. And the third pandemic we have is the relationship pandemic between the teachers union and district administration. They need to come together. They need to negotiate everyday to get this resolved and do it now.”

The district and Sacramento City Teachers Association have been at odds over how many live instructional minutes students should be receiving each day.

Some leaders called on the district and the teachers union to adopt another district’s distance learning program that both can agree on.

District officials said they are available to meet twice a week and would “welcome this opportunity to negotiate with SCTA to come to agreement on several pending issues,” including school closures and fiscal challenges.

The district and the teachers union are scheduled to meet Tuesday regarding reopening schools and a new contract.

Community leaders and parents at the press conference were clear that they were not calling for schools to reopen soon. Many of them stated they were well aware that the soonest students could possibly return was in January -- if at all this school year.

On Friday, the Sacramento City Teachers Association along with teachers unions at Twin Rivers Unified and Natomas Unified also called for school officials to hold off on bringing students back to campus until it was safe to do so.

But parents said that more pressure should be mounted on the school district and teachers union to adopt a stronger distance learning program and procedures as students stay home, vulnerable to falling behind.

Rebecca Marcus, a mother of two students in Sacramento City Unified, said she was set to have a special education assessment for her 9-year-old daughter in the spring before the pandemic closed down schools. When the meeting was canceled, she said she understood, as many meetings and events in the spring were rescheduled.

But Marcus’s daughter has still not received an assessment, and her daughter continues to face challenges this school year.

“There is no excuse,” she said. “Initial assessments are deemed essential, yet there is no plan underway to get things started. I am convinced ... that you can practice smart public health, and also assess our kids.”

Sacramento City Unified is allowing small cohorts of students to return to several campuses. Those hubs are prioritizing students with special needs, foster youth, students experiencing homelessness and children of essential workers. Students will be returning to six sites, with 40 students at each site.

Some business leaders expressed concern that if the district runs out of cash, it will negatively impact the city of Sacramento.

“We know firsthand how home ownership can create strong communities,” said Kellie Swayne, president-elect of Sacramento Association of Realtors. “We need to lead by example, we need to come together and show our children that we can find real solutions.”

Swayne said the stalemate was bad for families, neighborhoods and the entire Sacramento region.

“Families will leave our school district,” Swayne said. “That will not create strong communities, and it certainly affects housing.”

This story was originally published October 13, 2020 at 1:05 PM.