March 1 return to classrooms for Santa Rosa City Schools is off

In a blow to thousands of families who have been navigating distance learning for nearly a year, Santa Rosa City Schools Superintendent Diann Kitamura acknowledged Wednesday the goal of returning students to in-person instruction by the district’s March 1 target date is not feasible.

A return in 11 days is impossible, Kitamura said, with Sonoma County’s largest school district hamstrung by union negotiations that are increasingly focused on coronavirus vaccinations for teachers. The district faces practical challenges as well, including the complex puzzle of matching students who opt to return to the classroom with teachers available to instruct them.

“Will we start in person March 1? No we won’t,” she said.

New timeline coming soon

But Kitamura, who since Jan. 13 has publicly pushed a schedule to bring back transitional kindergarten through third graders in a part-time in-person schedule, maintained the district remains on the cusp of announcing a renewed timeline for at least a portion of its 15,700 students.

“We did everything we could possibly do within our control to be ready March 1 and I would say that we are probably 90% there now,” she said. “It is still a priority of mine, even if it’s a month left of school, to get kids back.”

Kitamura acknowledged the news is likely to bring heartbreak to many families who have vented their dissatisfaction and disappointment with distance learning in months of school board meetings.

“I know there might be disappointment, but we have worked tirelessly to be ready and even though these few things are not within our control, to a certain degree, we are going to keep pushing forward,” she said.

Teacher vaccinations a ’sticking point’

Those things include ongoing negotiations with the 900-member Santa Rosa Teachers Association, which have snagged on a series of items, namely vaccinations, campus readiness and what teachers will be assigned what classes once they return to campus.

“The big sticking point is vaccines and we haven’t come to an agreement on that,” said Will Lyon, SRTA president.

Two weeks ago, the union put an offer on the table that called for teachers to receive both doses of the vaccine before returning. The district has not yet responded, he said.

In a survey approximately a month ago, teachers were firm in demanding full vaccination before returning. But Lyon said Wednesday that teachers may have moved on that. Some may be willing to go in with just one shot, or with one shot in combination with the county’s advancement from the purple to the red tier in the state’s color-coded coronavirus reopening plan, indicating a lessening of virus spread, he said.

“I think a lot has changed since then and I think some of our members have moved,” he said. “It’s possible that they will counter with one shot and we’ll take it.”

A vote of 50% plus one will ratify a deal, he said.

Vaccinations coming

Santa Rosa’s elementary teachers are tentatively scheduled to get the first dose of the Moderna vaccine next week through a clinic operated by the Sonoma County Office of Education. There is a four-week waiting period before the second dose — potentially pushing a target start date into late March or after.

The vaccination piece of the debate comes as Gov. Gavin Newsom and the head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have said that inoculations are not required to reopen schools so long as other safety measures are followed, including facial coverings and social distancing.

“Nothing — no report, no CDC, no public health, even the CTA parent organization — has said vaccine is the threshold. I’m grappling with that,” said school board president and former Montgomery High School principal Laurie Fong.

But forcing anyone’s hand is not on the table, she said.

“Sure you can. But they can also say ’Good luck in finding teachers.’ That has happened across the country. How do you do school without your teachers? You can’t. That is why we have to do this together,” she said.

Kitamura said she understands the push for teachers to be vaccinated, but also points to national guidance that says it is not a prerequisite for a return to the classroom.

“I get it. I understand why people would want to have the vaccines,” she said. “On the other hand, I have children who need to be back in school.”

Whether elementary teachers can sign up for the Sonoma County Office of Education vaccination clinic next week will have a significant impact on the updated timeline Kitamura hopes to present to board members and the public at an school board meeting Wednesday.

“And if I can’t I'll be very open and frank about that,” she said.

Campus readiness an issue

And the two sides continue to wrestle over campus readiness, stirring debate over whether schools and plans are ready for an influx of students and teachers to operate safely.

“Our members are going to spend four hours in a room with 12, 14 kids. They have been in those rooms, they know the HVAC won’t work, they know the kids won’t keep masks on,” Lyon said. “Have you met children? This is not a grocery store. The classroom is not a Costco, so the mitigation requirements are different from Costco and different from outdoor dining. It’s reasonable for teachers to put that in there.”

District officials are also tasked with organizing classroom rosters that will look nothing like the ones that existed before the pandemic. Approximately 10% of teachers have medical notes that allow them to continue teaching from home, while 30% to 35% of students are expected to stick with distance learning.

The deadline for elementary age families to make their final decision on distance learning or hybrid is Friday. Matching available teachers with students who choose a hybrid schedule must adhere to current contract requirements honoring union seniority and contract-mandated timetables.

Kitamura said teacher transfers might be necessary to “make all the rosters balance.”

“That could be a situation that delays us,” she said.

An update on rosters, too, could happen by next Wednesday, she said.

Lyon pointed to the start of the school year, when district efforts to transfer nine teachers to different assignments took three weeks to resolve. The return-to-school plan could mean scores of transfers, he said.

“It’s seniority-based. It’s a puzzle,“ Lyon said. ”It’s not cut and dry at all.“

Fong said that while she’s discouraged with where things currently stand, there is reason to hope.

“I expect everybody to do their very best jobs for kids. I expect that we put kids first — so many of them need to be back in school. We have heard all the stories,” she said. “I expect everybody to be reasonable and understand the landscape in front of us.”

“Rational people are doing good things,” she said. “Rational people are standing up for teachers, rational people are standing up for parents and students and rational people are dealing with the guidelines as best we can.“

You can reach Staff Writer Kerry Benefield at 707-526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @benefield.