Orange County teachers union leaders ask that schools return to distance learning

Nineteen presidents of Orange County teachers union chapters sent a joint letter Thursday to local school district superintendents and school boards asking them to consider closing campuses and returning students to distance learning until Covid-19 infection rates go down.

Orange County has 28 school districts, with many teaching classes with in-person instruction.

“Currently, the school districts in our county follow different policies and rely on voluntary virus reporting,” said the letter. “Without consistently applied testing and tracing, our schools risk spreading infection throughout the county. No district is completely independent of the others; we have members and families working, living and learning in different cities. Regardless of where we work or live or learn, no one in our county is dispensable.”

The union leaders recommend that county schools remain in distance learning until the county moves out of the state’s purple tier, which is the most restrictive on the state’s monitoring list, based on rates of infection.

The union leaders cited the county’s high Covid-19 positivity and hospitalization rates.

“By shifting instruction to distance learning we can help flatten the curve before the rate of infection spikes beyond the capacity of hospitals and healthcare providers,” the letter read.