We want to reopen schools because we know that the pandemic is negatively affecting many students socially, emotionally, and academically. This cannot happen at the expense of the health and safety of our teachers or our students. We need to reopen in a way that makes sure everyone in the building is safe and taken care of.
Physical Reopening Bargaining Session #4
Today, March 10th, we continued to negotiate physical reopening. Summit presented their second proposal which includes:
- Teachers can volunteer to work in-person BUT this proposal also includes a lottery to backfill positions if there are not enough volunteers. Teachers with accommodations from Human Resources are exempt from the lottery.
- Specific dates at which the number of students/staff on campus will increase
- Several of the safety protocols that we had proposed
- Eating and drinking happens inside the workspace (explicitly allowed)
It does not include:
- voluntary return
- a stipend/hazard pay
- time for learning specialists and teachers supervising students to collaborate
Summit also included the following timeline:
| Phase 1 (10%) | Phase 2 (25%) | Phase 3 (50%) | ||
| Teacher Return Date | March 31 | April 14 | April 28 | |
| Student Return Date | April 1 | April 15 | April 29 |
Unite Summit will continue to advocate for our biggest teacher need: a voluntary return to the school building. As we have heard from teachers across the schools, a voluntary process which allows teachers to return the building is the only way to make sure teachers feel safe and comfortable being in the building and at their best to support their students online and in the classroom.
Teachers cannot be required to return to campus without a signed Memorandum of Understanding (an agreement about short-term circumstances). If you have input or feedback to offer, please complete our survey (if you have not), reach out to your bargaining rep, or reach out to unitesummitteachers@gmail.com.
California Charter Educators United Rally
On Wednesday, March 10th, four charter unions around California came together in a rally with keynote speaker Dolores Huerta. Over 200 attendees shared a space of solidarity over the common struggles we are fighting in our schools over job security, increase in teacher voice, and greater support for students.
Please check our instagram soon for video clips from the rally!
@unite_summit