Later this week, a framework to finally reopen public school classrooms in San Francisco will go before the school board for approval.
The agreement came after months of negotiations between the San Francisco Unified School District and the teachers’ union.
Schools will reopen for in-person learning only after San Francisco moves out of the purple tier and all on-site staff receive vaccinations, conditions that are not likely to be met for weeks, if not months.
The agreement is being blasted by some health experts and parents for being too slow to get kids back in the classroom.
Over the weekend, hundreds of parents rallied at San Francisco school district headquarters demanding that their children be allowed back into classrooms.
“My son is in kindergarten and especially for this age range, distance learning is just a disaster,” said Francesca Gessner, who has two kids in the district. “His teacher has been doing the best she can but he is tired of being on Zooms, we can’t work as working parents, and enough is enough.”
Dr. Jeanne Noble, director of COVID response at UCSF and the author of a letter urging schools to reopen, criticized the agreement.
“(It) doesn’t really seem to be taking seriously the recommendations from the CDC, the mounting evidence from across the country - and frankly across the world - that schools can reopen safely.”
Dr. Noble added that 15,000 private school students in San Francisco have been able to return to the classroom without any major outbreaks.
The teachers’ union says the speed of reopening will now depend on the city’s ability to quickly vaccinate school staff.
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