Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said Wednesday the county will expand vaccine eligibility to various essential workers in the next two to three weeks, including teachers.
The governing body of the Chicago Teachers Union agreed on Monday to allow its 28,000 rank-and-file members to vote on a tentative deal with the third-largest U.S. school district to gradually reopen classrooms amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Local educators are pushing back on the idea, arguing the state has not yet done enough to prioritize the health and safety of teachers and students. We want our kids back in school, said Tammy Scorcia, president of the Alhambra Teachers Association, the union that represents teachers in Alhambra, Monterey Park and parts of San Gabriel and Rosemead. But we also want to make sure that our teachers are vaccinated.
She argued the governor s comments were irresponsible and didn t take into account the realities of classroom learning with young students. The district has 19 schools, from K-8 through high school.
Tammy Scorcia, president of the Alhambra Teachers Association, at a food distribution event on Feb. 6, 2021. (Libby Denkmann/LAist)
(Bloomberg) Two major U.S. school districts made progress toward getting children back in the classroom this weekend after tensions among parents, teachers and school districts about coronavirus safety measures threatened to boil over. On Sunday, Chicago announced a tentative agreement with teachers on a timetable to restart in-person classes later than the city had proposed, avoiding the prospect of an imminent strike. Unions representing San Francisco United School District employees announced a preliminary deal to resume in-person class. The city had sued its own school district to try and force the schools to reopen, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.Despite the progress, in some cities local officials are still pitted against teacher unions on how and whether it’s safe to have teachers and students in the classroom after, in some cases, almost a year of remote learning designed to thwart the spread of coronavirus. Philadelphia’s teachers’ union has told m