Elementary schools may open as soon as March 15 under a new agreement between SMMUSD and SMMCTA

By Sakura Amano, Staff Writer

Due to community criticism about the agreement with the teacher’s union that would see district schools opening in a Distance Learning Plus (DL+) model that would include primarily social-emotional instruction for in-person learning, SMMUSD officials requested that the Santa Monica Malibu Classroom Teachers Association (SMMCTA) return to the bargaining table to hash out plans for a more robust hybrid model that would see students on campus for core instruction and longer periods of time. A new agreement is said to be forthcoming so that elementary students may return to campus starting the week of March 15.  

During the Feb.18 school board meeting, SMMUSD Superintendent Dr. Ben Drati presented a plan for reopening based on the agreement with the union. However, loud parent disapproval was swift. Parent groups, like Open Up Santa Monica Malibu Schools, have been pushing for the return of in-person learning five days a week, and continued their campaign during the public comments section of the meeting. Though many parents expressed feelings of fear and are hesitant about allowing their children to attend in-person learning, others took a stand to advocate for those who feel unheard by the district in their struggles under the current distance-learning model. 

“Distance learning has been a failure that those with money can work around, while those without are left behind with no options and no recourse,” Lori Taffet, parent of Santa Monica third grader said. 

Drati announced at the meeting that after several months of negotiations, a tentative agreement between SMMUSD and SMMCTA was reached on Feb.12  regarding the reopening of schools. The two-part agreement revolves around the previously sanctioned distance learning plus model approved on Dec. 17, 2020 by the Board of Education (BOE). The plan, developed in accordance with California State and LA County Department of Public Health (LACDPH) guidelines, states that elementary school students can return to in-person instruction when COVID-19 infection levels have decreased to 25/100,000 new cases or fewer for five consecutive days within Los Angeles County, a metric reached on Feb. 16.

The in-person learning return date of secondary schools is still unknown, for it requires the daily case rate of LA county to reach 7/100,000 (the criteria that puts the county in the Red Tier under Governor Newsom’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy). 

According to Drati, the agreement also requires teachers and staff to be provided access to vaccines for 15 days prior to the implementation of the distance learning plus model. SMMUSD is in partnership with Saint John’s Hospital who began vaccinating district employees on March 1. Once open, school and district committees would meet to tweak the plans and ramp-up to more on-campus activities and test out possible models of school for the 2021 fall semester.  

SMMUSD and SMMCTA officials returned to the table March 2 to negotiate a hybrid plan for elementary students before schools had implemented the Distance Learning Plus plans developed by each school site.  

SMMUSD board members were hoping to announce that new agreement at the BOE meeting March 4, but Drati could not make any comments about it until the plan was ratified by SMMCTA, which is expected to happen this week. SMMUSD and SMMCTA officials stipulate that this new plan will allow for the quickest, safest possible return to campus.

“All of us have every intention of being back to campus in the fall semester. We will have ramped up and made our way here, and we’ve done this collaboratively,” Board member Richard Tahvildaran Jesswein said. 

With all of the uncertainty brought upon by this past year, many parents and students anxiously anticipate going back to in-person learning. 

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