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Berkeley Unified School District Superintendent Brent Stephens hosted a virtual town hall to discuss current reopening plans with community stakeholders.
What teachers, students, parents said about San Francisco Bay Area schools reopening
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A Bay Area child doing distance learning from home.Courtesy SFGATE reader
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many San Francisco Bay Area public schools have been closed for nearly a full year. And while we ve heard a lot about whether they should reopen from both politicians and teacher unions, we haven t heard nearly as much from actual teachers, or parents, or even students.
So, we decided to give them the floor.
Our call for reader emails Monday resulted in an overwhelming response we received more than 300 messages from teachers, district superintendents, parents, students, grandparents, doctors, college professors and community members.
This week, Berkeley Unified launched a new program to provide free, high-speed, fiber-optic internet for all students.
When public schools switched to remote learning, getting students online became imperative. The digital divide quickly became the focus of the conversation about educational equity: those lacking access to the internet or a computer could not learn.
Since schools shuttered on March 13, Berkeley Unified has distributed 580 hotspots to students who lacked reliable internet and 4,000 Chromebooks in an effort to address the digital divide. But as the pandemic has worn on, demand for internet access has grown.
“Students that may have had stable internet access or housing at the beginning of the pandemic are now losing those due to loss of family employment,” Valerie Kratzer, development coordinator at Berkeley Public Schools Fund, wrote in an email. “Every day now I receive requests for financial support to keep a family’s internet from being turned off or a re
A mass COVID-19 vaccination site is operating in the north parking lot of Golden Gate Fields. Feb. 4, 2021. Photo: Pete Rosos
Berkeley teachers would be prepared to return to school if they receive the COVID-19 vaccine, the Berkeley Federation of Teachers told the Berkeley Unified School District on Tuesday amid ongoing negotiations.
The counterproposal from the Berkeley Federation of Teachers (BFT) was made during labor talks about school reopenings in a hybrid model, and, if both parties agree, it could considerably speed up bringing kids back into classrooms.
But how fast is another question. Vaccine supply continues to be limited, and, although teachers are now eligible to be inoculated in Alameda County, residents aged 65 years and above are being prioritized for scarce slots.