The teachers working at the West Contra Costa Unified School District have filed a Cal/OSHA complaint alleging that the district’s COVID-19 policies are inconsistent.
Filed on Aug. 31 with the state’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health, the complaint focuses on testing and outbreaks, as well as teachers’ ability to send home students that are exhibiting symptoms, according to reporting by the San Francisco Chronicle.
The district has been struggling to contain the virus. There have been more than 200 confirmed cases among students and staff, and 25 classrooms have closed since the beginning of the school year.
The concerns laid out by teachers prompted their union to file the complaint, citing examples of schools not regularly testing students, failing to sanitize classrooms after positive cases are reported, or not notifying staff who may have been exposed to the virus.
Examples include principals at two West Contra Costa Unified elementary schools who sent students exhibiting symptoms back to class, after teachers tried sending them home. Other instances include a high school where students claimed to be vaccinated without proof, and a high school failing to provide contact tracing for a teacher after an exposure.
"It’s a disaster," Hillary Ogro, a third grade teacher at Verde Elementary School in Richmond, said of the district’s evolving protocols.
Tony Wold, the district’s associate superintendent of business services, said that West Contra Costa Unified is committed to working with students, educators, and its community, and that the district switched testing providers last week, to get faster results and manage outbreaks better.
But the change caused confusion. An employee who serves as a liaison between the school and students’ families told Ogro that no students at Verde were tested last week because nobody had submitted the forms.
"It’s great to see what’s not working and make changes," said Marissa Glidden, president of United Teachers of Richmond. "But the same issues still exist with filling out the form, ensuring that undocumented families can access it, and explaining to families why it’s so important that these tests happen."
Superintendent Kenneth Hurst abruptly canceled a school board meeting Tuesday where they planned to vote on a vaccine mandate that would require all staffers and vaccine-eligible students to be vaccinated. It is unclear whether the school board will reschedule a vote.
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