Sacramento City Unified combines classes; some schools to return four days a week

Many elementary schools across Sacramento City Unified will welcome students back for in-person learning for four days a week beginning May 18, according to an announcement by the district.

The announcement comes after the district and Sacramento City Teachers Association met to discuss how to increase in-person instruction for the district’s 40,000 students. The district also announced its commitment to reopen for full, in-person instruction in the fall.

The decision will be implemented at roughly 20 schools in the district where spacing availability makes it possible. In those schools, students who have been attending classes two days a week on alternating days will be combined into one group attending four days a week. Those schools will still follow the original memorandum of understanding between the district and the teachers union, requiring students to remain six feet apart in the classroom.

“Unfortunately, not all of our elementary school site classrooms have the capacity to combine cohorts under current parameters as part of our labor agreements,” said the district. “We will continue to meet and work with SCTA in our efforts to update our agreements with current physical distancing guidelines of three feet between students.”

Principals at those schools will check classroom capacities to ensure students can remain distanced to be able to implement the combined in-person classes.

Students in the district who are attending school in-person are currently on campus two days a week, making Sacramento City one of the only school districts in the region with students on campus so few days.

“We have heard from many parents over the last few weeks that the current schedule of in-person instruction of two days per week, three hours per day is not enough,” read a statement from the district. “We also recognize that our students benefit from additional in-person support. We know that with health and safety protocols in place, it is safe to bring students back for more time in the classroom, and we are ready to do so.”

The parent coalition SCUSD Students First called for the return to full in-person schooling.

“We are proud of SCUSD Students First’s role ... in encouraging SCUSD to increase in class learning for students while we maintain our demand that the Board and Superintendent provide full time, 5 days a week classroom learning,” read a statement from SCUSD Students First.

In a letter to the district’s legal team, the SCTA shared concerns that implementing the changes in some schools and not others would be inequitable.

“Given all the uncertainty that our community has experienced over the past year or more, we believe our school district should be providing some measure of stability and predictability for our community.”