The president of the state's largest teachers union says school administrators in the state have to listen to educators who are facing pandemic-related challenges in the classroom.
Education Minnesota president Denise Specht said this comes after she talked with a group of union members in the last week.
"Fifty percent of them said that their district, their employer, is not following the prevention guidelines," she told Vineeta Sawkar on the WCCO Morning News.
"We need a layered approach to mitigation," Specht said. "That is what's going to help to keep our schools open."
This comes as a number of Minnesota schools and changing course mid-stream and moving to on-line learning as increasing COVID cases continue to lead to staffing shortages.
Specht says union members are telling her they they are going through the most challenging time of their careers, with some classrooms in peril of going unstaffed with so many teachers out sick with COVID.
"This is happening every single day, this is very unsustainable," she said. "It is coming to a point where schools are just saying 'we can't do this any more. We cannot cobble together this puzzle every single day and say that it's good for students or staff.'"
Specht says just about every teacher she talks to agrees that in-person learning is better for them and the students.