Plans to throw open the schoolhouse doors next week in Oakland are now somewhat up in the air.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports six elementary schools and 10 preschools will not open as planned on Tuesday after many teachers at those schools chose not to return to campus right away.
The school district and teachers’ union came to an agreement last week that would reopen classrooms for preschool through second grade students on March 30, with some older grades returning by April 19.
But the agreement required that individual teachers volunteer to return for those first two weeks.
KRON4 reports that only 38% of teachers say they will be back in their classrooms next week.
That means some schools do not have enough staff returning to support reopening the classrooms and will have to wait until April 19, when the agreement mandates that teachers return.
While teachers in Alameda County have been eligible for a vaccination since early February, the opt-in stipulation was added to recognize that it will take some time for all teachers to be fully vaccinated.
The news could mean teachers lose out on a $2,000 incentive included in the reopening agreement, which said that all teachers who return this spring would receive the stipend if enough of them returned to bring back all priority students by March 30.
It will certainly be disappointing to some families of younger children who have struggled with remote learning for over a year.
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