Calls for stronger plans to reopen schools grow in Los Angeles

The Los Angeles Unified labor union partners on Monday joined Supt. Austin Beutner’s calls for stronger school reopening plans in response to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s “Safe Schools For All” funding plan. In a shared statement, representatives called for actions similar to those proposed by seven large, urban school districts, including L.A. Unified, last week. The statement comes on the first day of another school semester with distance learning, nearly a year after campuses were shuttered due to the pandemic.

The labor partners include unions representing teachers, police, administrators, construction workers and other school staff, such as teaching assistants.

The  groups asked for an “all-hands-on-deck” approach to reduce the spread of the virus in low-income communities and a deadline of February 1 for a vaccination timeline and plan. They also reaffirmed that Los Angeles schools will not reopen by Feb.1, as Gov. Newsom’s plan anticipates, or even by March 1.

’There is no chance the low-income communities we serve will meet the ‘Safe Schools for All’ initial target date of February 1st and many experts say even March 1st is unlikely, given current health conditions,” he wrote in a statement. “Sadly, local COVID numbers appear to be moving in the wrong direction in nearly every meaningful category — infections, hospitalizations and deaths.”