Sacramento City Unified scrambles to staff independent study program for remote learning
A week into the school year, hundreds of Sacramento City Unified School District families wishing to have their students learn virtually in 2021-22 amid the COVID-19 pandemic are still waiting for the district’s independent study program to launch.
The families of more than 2,100 of the district’s 40,000 students have expressed interest in the long-term independent study program, called Capital City, according to a presentation during a school board meeting Sept. 2, the first day of school.
Exactly 1,600 students had signed up for the program as of Wednesday, but only 401 had been assigned to a teacher, according to a letter sent to parents that evening by instructional assistant superintendent Chad Sweitzer.
Capital City has 15 full-time teachers, seven of them recently hired, Sweitzer wrote. It needs 23 more “and is hosting mass interviews next week.”
The district, in the meantime, has placed those remaining 1,199 registered students into shorter-term independent programs, an interim solution while it interviews and hires teaching candidates.
“I do feel that we left our parents who expressed and are committed to independent study — exclusively, long-term independent study — I feel like we left them behind,” school board member Leticia Garcia said in last week’s meeting. “Everything happened so last-minute, that I just don’t know how our parents were supposed to know what to do.”
According to the district website, students enrolling in Capital City will be temporarily placed into “short-term independent study” — the same program used for students placed into quarantine — at their home school site for a period of no more than 15 school days.
For those registering for Capital City on the first day of school, that would extend through Sept. 23.
The district on Sept. 2 began processing registration “from the parents who have told us, ‘We’ve made the decision, we’re committing, we want to move to Cap City,’” Christine Baeta, the district’s chief academic officer, said during last week’s meeting.
“As we move teachers into Cap City, parents will expect that they’ll hear from Cap City and we’ll be able to say, ‘We have your teacher.’ And our goal is to make sure that that can happen sooner than that 15 or 14 (school) days.”
One parent, Anthony Mistry, told board members that the district’s independent study plan came “unacceptably late.” The district held an informational webinar for parents the evening of Aug. 31, only about 36 hours before in-person classes started.
The last-minute announcements led to confusion among teachers as well.
“I have to attend parent forums in order to find out what my responsibilities as an employee (are), or what the district’s telling parents,” Julie Del Agua, a teacher, told board members during public comment last week.
The district’s plan originally said teachers at home school sites would provide the short-term independent study packets to students. That appeared to catch teachers off-guard. Dana Grimes, who teaches third grade at Sutterville Elementary, said in the meeting that she had “not been notified or asked to help with materials for these important student requests” as of the first day of school.
By the end of last week’s meeting, district leaders said the district office would, instead, take responsibility for providing those packets.
David Fisher, president of the Sacramento City Teachers Association, called the situation “chaotic.”
“It’s hit-and-miss,” he told The Sacramento Bee in an interview Wednesday. “They don’t know what the guidelines are. You’re getting conflicting messages.”
District, union disagree on independent study plan
An impasse between the already short-staffed district and the teachers union — which continues to express concerns about COVID-19 health and safety protocols on reopening campuses — kept formal details about the independent study program from reaching parents and teachers until just a couple of days before the start of the school year.
Over the summer, California lawmakers passed AB 130, which, among other provisions, requires schools to offer students either an independent studies or virtual learning academy option. AB 130 was signed into law in early July.
“Sacramento City Unified is trying to create what is essentially a new program/remote school, based on a new law, in a matter of less than two months, while simultaneously reopening schools and creating new wrap-around supports for the 39,000 students who have not been on campus for 18 months,” district spokeswoman Tara Gallegos said in an emailed statement to The Bee.
Fisher, the teachers union president, said SCTA received the district’s first written proposal for its independent study plan on Aug. 19.
“That’s way too late when you’re trying to staff a program of about 2,000 students,” Fisher said.
The union countered with its own proposal the following week, but it also tied in components, unrelated to independent study, that would have prevented last week’s return to on-campus learning.
For instance, the SCTA proposal called for Sacramento City Unified campuses to return to a full distance-learning model if Sacramento County exceeds a COVID-19 rate of 25 daily cases per 100,000 residents. The county has been above that case threshold every day since July 26, according to the local health office.
The teachers union’s late August proposal also called for the district to impose a standard keeping six feet of physical distance between students and staff.
The union contends that these are critical health and safety protocols. But AB 130 doesn’t permit district-wide returns to distance learning, and the district doesn’t have the physical space to keep six feet of distance between students while maintaining in-person instruction five days a week, which is also required under AB 130.
“This would mean that our district would be unable to welcome back all students for in-person instruction and put our district in violation of state law,” the district wrote in an Aug. 28 letter to parents.
The union’s proposal includes language saying its provisions are subject to state and county health directives, as well as federal guidelines. Fisher said Thursday this means the proposal was calling for six feet of distancing between staff members outside of classroom settings, not students in class, and that the union understands the district could not currently return to distance learning above 25 cases per 100,000 due to AB 130.
The two sides didn’t reach an agreement, “so the District will offer an independent study program that meets the minimal state requirements under AB 130,” Sacramento City Unified officials wrote in another Aug. 28 statement.
The district split its response into two counterproposals: one addressing the independent study program, and the other focusing on health and safety protocols. The latter proposal, among other changes, crossed out the SCTA provisions on distance learning and physical distancing.
Neither side is content with an independent study program that only meets the minimum state requirements.
Fisher said the two sides are set to negotiate again this Thursday.
The district in its Aug. 28 statement also stressed the importance of returning most students to on-campus learning: “We know that schools are safe havens for our students, and many depend on them for meals and other critical services that support their academic learning as well as their physical and mental health.”
Board members, superintendent acknowledge problem
District Superintendent Jorge Aguilar during last week’s meeting acknowledged and apologized for the lack of transparency, particularly for parents.
Aguilar said the district “didn’t provide our families with details about the program we had envisioned because of that (negotiation) process.”
“I recognize and I acknowledge that that information would have been informative for families about their decision to enroll,” the superintendent said. “For anyone who we caused extra stress and extra anxiety by the confusion of the independent study and the implementation of it, I apologize and I take responsibility.”
One board member, Lavinia Grace Phillips, said she believed the district made mistakes and should own up to them.
“I watched kids walk into school this morning, and it was fantastic to see them, but I felt like we weren’t ready,” Phillips said. “Taking ownership of certain things allows us to learn from our mistakes.”
Del Agua, one of the teachers, told board members they didn’t “understand the stress and mental harm you are causing to your employees.”
“I don’t know how much longer I can take it,” Del Agua said. “I have pulled my oldest son from the district because of that.”
This story was originally published September 9, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
