Parents organizing in California to demand school campuses reopen. Will leaders listen?
Mike Creedon of Davis sits with his first grader during his online classes. Getting a child so young to sit in front of a screen for school lessons is challenging. And then his son starts sinking down in his chair, and before Creedon knows it, he’s on the floor.
Like thousands of others across California, Creedon’s children, ages 6 and 9, have been out of school since March. Recently, he’s heard national, state and his local county health officials say students should return to school soon. But his children are still sitting in front of computer screens learning math and language arts lessons.
Creedon, an airline pilot and military reserve, reduced his options to accept work in order to help his children. He said he isn’t confident that Davis Joint Unified School DIstrict will return to a full, in-person learning schedule in the fall.
“What sticks out to me the most is the damage we are doing to these children,” Creedon said.
Kimberly Buchholz, a parent to a third grader and a first grader in the Sacramento City Unified School District, said her children loved school before they were confined to learning from their teachers on Zoom.
“The current structure is traumatizing my children,” she said during a school board meeting. “You are failing your mission. You are failing the children of Sacramento.”
Parents across California are well aware of the calendar. The school year is more than halfway finished and, in many districts, there is dwindling hope that students will return to campuses before summer, let alone in the fall.
And while public health officials, state and local policy makers, and teachers unions have largely driven the debate over school reopenings, parent groups have organized across the Sacramento region and California, establishing coalitions to demand school campuses reopen.
A newly-formed statewide group, Open Schools California, has parent groups all over the state: in San Diego, San Francisco, Davis, Sacramento and Elk Grove. Many mobilized after Gov. Gavin Newsom revealed his “Safe Schools for All” plan that eyed February as the month to try to reopen classrooms.
Along with calling for campuses to reopen, parents want more transparency from school districts and a seat at the table to discuss reopening plans.
“Reopening planning should be the first item of every school board agenda until all students are learning in person,” said John Meyers, a parent of three Sacramento City Unified children. “We want the district and staff to be prepared to reopen the moment public health agencies allow them to do so.”
The state requires counties to be below 25 new daily COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents to reopen schools for students in transitional kindergarten to sixth grade and 7 new daily cases per 100,000 residents to reopen schools for grades seven to 12.
Both Sacramento and Yolo counties are inching closer to reopening schools as daily infection rates continue to drop. Sacramento County averaged 21 new infections per 100,000 residents last week and a test positivity rate of 6.5%. Both were the lowest for the county since early November, and were roughly half as high as peaks reached in December and January.
And while county health officials will likely begin vaccinating teachers in mid-February, school districts are waiting for infection rates to drop to the red tier of coronavirus spread for two weeks to bring students back for in-person instruction. It’s difficult to predict how long it may take for case rates to drop below 7 per 100,000. And school officials are also holding onto reopening plans and agreements that were already in place before the state released new guidance, meaning some plans may need to be updated.
That doesn’t sit well with families who say enough COVID-19 safety measures are possible to open school campuses, even before all teachers are vaccinated.
Several months ago, calling for reopening schools and businesses may have been seen as a partisan move. And it could get you labeled as someone who thought COVID-19 was a hoax.
“I have been surprised,” Creedon said. “I thought I was gong to have to be wading in with Trump supporters and COVID deniers, and what I found is mostly progressive people. Mostly liberals. It’s people who never before would dream of private schools and school choice and now they are all for it.”
Many parents in the region have tried to be patient, but with schools closed for nearly a full calendar year, families have reached the point of rallying in front of district offices, paying for digital billboards and organizing a reopening protest in front of the state Capitol.
Parents rally for schools
At a rally outside Elk Grove Unified’s district office last week, parents and students grew loud during a call-and-response chant:
“If you can go to your dentist, you can open your classroom! If you can pay taxes, you can open your classroom!”
Sean Mitchell, a parent of three students in the district, said some parents objected to being unable to take part in Elk Grove Unified’s reopening plan.
Mitchell said he is done with feeling in the dark when it comes to the district’s decisions. With virtual board meetings taking place across the state, live public comment is often limited.
Mitchell led the rally, mobilizing dozens of other parents to start a non-profit organization that will serve parents in the district long after the pandemic. For now, he said the mission is to demand school reopenings.
“It’s like a dangled carrot,” Mitchell said. “We wait for weeks, and now we have vaccines, and we wait more, and then there could be more changes.”
Mitchell said he struggles to believe the district will reopen in the spring.
Elk Grove Unified spokesperson Xanthi Pinkterton said there are still health requirements to adhere to and that school schedules can be complex. To make plans for the fall, school districts would have to wait for more guidance and the latest metrics to decide how to move forward.
“We understand the frustration and want to do what’s in the best interest of each and every child,” she said.
The district has multiple committees, school board meetings and surveys in which hundreds of parents use to communicate their concerns with the district.
Some parents in Elk Grove and neighboring districts share frustrations and pin the blame on the same players across the region, including teachers unions.
“Sadly, reopening discussions often seem like a dance between the district, unions, and public officials, while families are on the sidelines,” Meyers said. “We strive to change that.”
But teachers unions say, more than anything, they want a safe return to campus. And the vaccine, among other safety measures already in place, will help get the community there. The thought of returning to a campus and risk getting COVID-19 scares many teachers who, like everyone, have witnessed the virus’ devastation.
“Teachers and school staff want nothing more than to be back in our physical classrooms and now we know more than ever that you can’t replace regular in-person learning,” said Brenda Borge, President of Natomas Teachers Association. “If we want to prioritize physical reopening of schools, we must also prioritize teachers and staff having an opportunity to receive the vaccine.”
Teachers have shared their concerns about teaching during the COVID-19 surge and beyond. Some say it’s been the hardest and most stressful time of their careers.
Davis Joint Unified board president Joe DiNunzio said the board has listened to the community’s needs and has followed the science and research.
“With recent Board approval of Hybrid models for secondary and elementary students, DJUSD is well-prepared for a return to campus in a hybrid model once external health and safety conditions are met,” read a statement from district Superintendent John Bowes. “We recognize that this will again be another big transition for our staff and students to undergo. However, we believe that having students, even for just a limited time on campus, will benefit their social and emotional health.”
Across the Yolo causeway
Parents in Yolo and Sacramento counties are well aware that students a short drive away in Placer and El Dorado counties have been back on campus for months. Many students across the nation are, too. And recommendations to reopen schools before vaccinating teachers are trickling in from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and from the nation’s leading infectious disease experts.
While Yolo County’s public health officer Dr. Aimee Sisson strongly encouraged the reopening of elementary schools in Yolo County, districts like Washington Unified and Davis Joint Unified remain closed.
“There is increasing evidence that elementary schools can safely reopen with minimal in-school transmission even during periods of high community transmission, if schools take a layered approach to COVID-19 prevention,” Sisson said. That includes face coverings, physical distancing, placing students into small groups, improved ventilation, and screening and testing.
But Davis Joint Unified added an additional reopening safety measure: the school board decided that “teachers and staff who are being asked to return have had access to both doses of an FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccine, and are provided with up to two weeks for recovery following the second vaccine.”
Creedon called this decision restrictive because Davis is “maybe the most well-positioned city in the country to move forward with reopening in regard to (COVID-19) testing.”
After Newsom said teachers could return to in-person teaching before receiving both doses of the vaccine, membership in Creedon’s Davis group exploded. More than 500 parents, in a district of 8,000 students, are now joining his call.
Local leaders are also cautious to not stipulate that vaccines are part of a school reopening plan.
“Elementary schools need not delay reopening until staff are fully vaccinated,” Sisson said. “Schools in California, other parts of the United States, and other parts of the world have safely reopened for in-person instruction using a layered approach to COVID prevention that did not involve vaccination.”
Creedon said parents are pushing back on the district’s plan to link reopenings to vaccinations.
“The school board and superintendent didn’t ask to be epidemiologists or infection disease experts,” he said, “We don’t expect them to be either. We want to listen to Dr. Sisson.”
For now, what worries Creedon even more is what school will look like in the fall. A return to campus in a hybrid model won’t satisfy many parents who complain of learning loss and children losing motivation.
“I will continue to push and hope,” Creedon said.
#OpenSchoolsNow
Drive along Highway 50 or down Highway 99 and you will see digital billboard ads calling for school reopenings.
The ad, written in the form of a tweet, reads: “Hey @GavinNewsom, #OpenSchoolsNow or get out of the way. Respectfully, every kid in California.”
Jonathan Zachreson, a Roseville parent and founder of the Reopen California Schools Facebook group, pays $140 per week to run 21 ads across the state. He plans to ask parents to chip in to help the ads run longer.
“Newsom has the ultimate power at the moment,” Zachreson said. “He can open schools with a single announcement, at least for the (districts) that meet the state threshold, which many do.”
One of the ads is in Folsom, just outside of San Juan Unified’s school district borders. Some parents in San Juan Unified are asking the district to discuss reopening plans and the impact of COVID-19 closures at the start of each school board meeting.
And a statewide virtual meeting is set for Wednesday to teach parents how to recall school board members who refuse to open schools.
While the momentum is growing among frustrated parents, many parents are still choosing to keep their children home during the winter and spring. The risk, they say, is too great.
In the Folsom Cordova Unified School District, 44% of elementary-aged students remain in distance learning. Many students in the Roseville Joint Unified High School District are still learning online, including Alexander Houston, a Woodcreek High School student who has a rare genetic disability that makes him at-risk for catching the virus. He mobilized students in his district to sign a petition when schools moved to a five-day, nearly traditional school schedule.
“I choose to stay home, because it allows me to protect my community,” he said. “I engage with my teachers and peers in a safe way, and take control of my own education.”