20-1448 United Administrators of Oakland Schools (UAOS), Service Employees International Union - Local 1021 (SEIU), Oakland Education Association (OEA), Oakland Child Development Paraprofessional Association (OCDPA), American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees-Local 257 (AFSCME), Brotherhood of Teamsters, Auto Truck Drivers-Local 70 of Alameda County, Brotherhood of Teamsters, Warehouse, Mail Order, Retail Employees- Local 853 of Alameda County, American Federation of Teachers/CFT-Local 771 (AFT), Building and Construction Trades Council of Alameda County, California School Employees Association (CSEA).
Principal District Representative(s): Jenine Lindsey, Executive Director of Labor Relations & ADR
For the social and emotional welfare of our children, we need to open the schools full time in the Fall. I believe we can find a way to open safely for all students and faculty. Please be transparent as to what steps are being taken for the Fall and if this parent community can be of help in any way. Thank you.
I fully support return to in person learning for families that choose it. The schedule proposed by OUSD for afternoon in person learning is the worst possible schedule I can think of since most young kids have best concentration and focus in the morning. It is also a slap in the face to full time working families. The only people who will be able to make this type of schedule work are tech families where parents work from home full time, or where people have full time live in caregivers, or a parent who is not working.
Comment from a 3rd grader: "I want to go back to school because I feel that learning on a computer isn't as good as actual school. It's too much screens. We should go back to school. Reading on a screen at home is not good for learning. I miss getting recess with my friends, I miss being in my classroom and having the teacher and friends there to support me. At home, I feel like everything's gone black. I don't have friends or get excited to learn. I don't know if I'll get back into school."
Please bring students back to school five days a week, full days. Oakland is an outlier at this point. The data indicates that it's safe for students and teachers to be in school. At this point, our kids will get less than 20 days of in-person instruction for the entire school year. If every child was out of school, that might make sense, but many other children are in safely school. My children know their friends and family members at other schools are allowed to go in person and are begging us to move. They want to be in school! My hope is that the district embraces the science and lands on the right side of history. Keeping kids out of school is harmful and unnecessary, and this current situation doesn't instill confidence there will be a real plan for the fall. I hope the board commits publicly to providing students at all grades with full-time, in-person education.
It seems almost impossible to me (an OUSD parent) that we are debating going back to school full-time NEXT year, while most others have either gone back or are debating how to go back to the classroom THIS year. Especially with a new priority placed on teacher vaccinations, we need to get past the rancor, resist the urge to treat this as a platform to address other issues, and get our kids back into the classroom. It's been hard on everyone, certainly including teachers, but seriously, let's show our kids how to be visionary.
Thank you for your announcement that OUSD and OEA have reached a tentative agreement. Many parents have indicated, however, that their work schedules, combined with a lack of transportation, will not allow their students to attend school on a part time basis.“We will not rest until every Oakland child has access to five-days-a-week, full time in-person school; until children’s co-curricular activities and community life fully return." We look forward to hearing more details on the plan, but it appears those details will not be released until the plan is approved by OEA. As OUSD parents wait for that announcement, we urge you to plan towards a five days a week, full time in person school for the fall semester.
Can you please open up Schools five days a week. My eyes hurt 😢 almost every day, I get headaches and it does not feel good to have one. I barely know my classmates except the pepole in my pod. I can not learn please open up the schools 5 days a week. Thank you for reading this comment and I hope you take it to your heart. This is spoken by a fourth grader at Chabot Elementary School.
Thank you so much for your hard work in this difficult time. I am writing in to advocate for a more full-day learning schedule, even if it's only a partial week (ie. a few days a week). As an OUSD staff person, AND an OUSD parent, I am really confused right now on how I'm supposed to return on campus by April 14, but my kindergartener may only be attending school for 2, 2 hour or so chunks a week. I really need him in full day school, at least the days that I'm also on-site at my school site. Honestly, it also makes it feel less safe imagining kids at all sorts of other childcare arrangements the rest of the week (with who knows what safety protocols!) and then coming together for a few hours a week, than having 24-29 kids all together all day every day, with contract tracing easily possible for them, and no other childcare exposure risks.
I'd like to add another voice to the chorus of "we must open fully for the fall." Teachers, at risk family members, and pretty much anyone should be vaccinated by then. I know I'm not alone when I say our family would have no choice but to take our child out of the district if this is not an option.
I am a parent of a student at Oakland Tech and strongly support in-perso, full week classes for next fall and don't understand why the plan A seems to be for "hybrid" learning. There is no reason to believe that all staff and teachers who choose will not be vaccinated by next fall! In addition, the mini mesters that have been used at Oakland Tech, and I assume, at the other high schools does not seem to be successful at all, so I hope that it is NOT repeated next year. Our family is Latinx and I can't speak for all Latinx families, but I believe I am not alone based on what my family and friends are saying.
Please work towards the option for students K-12 to be back for full 5 days/wk of in-person instruction. If not spring then a MUST for Fall. Anything less than full time with full curriculum - should not even be considered. Do not let our kids lose another year of academic instruction.
We're a long-term Oakland family and supporters of OUSD, with two of our elementary children in an OUSD school. We are requesting that OUSD and the unions work towards a full on-campus, in-person return to schooling consistent with the CDC's and local health officials' guidelines. A slow, scaffolded reopening and continuation into Spring 2021 does not serve our OUSD students well. Thank you.
First, I am thankful to hear positive news of our communities welcoming children back into classrooms. They have missed so much in social learning, education and development. I support the safe return of K-5 kids back to the previous (full time) schedule. Short hours will merely leave kids feeling like they are in a spin cycle. I hope we can lean on science and the guidance from the CDC that getting kids back to school, in person, can be done safely.
Thank you for your efforts to bring our kids back to school. I would like to encourage OUSD to evaluate models that maximize in class time including hiring aides (many schools already have them) to manage DL while the teacher teaches to both groups simultaneously or having in-person kids matched with in-person teachers and DL kids matched with DL teachers (since all teachers will be going back but presumably not all kids, this would mean that a portion of teachers would be designated to DL children to accommodate the full need.
Pls allow the option for students K-12 back for full 5 days/wk of in-person instruction. The teachers get priority vaccines and a bonus. What will our kids get? Partial days of 2 hr for 2 days a week is not enough. Please give our students a more meaningful schedule for in person for the last 5-6 weeks of this school year.
First I'd like to thank you for asking my opinion as guaranteed by the 1st Amendment of the US Constitution.
Parents, please sign the petition to call for the immediate resignation of Donnie Barclift, Field Supervisor, Nutrition Services.
https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/petition-for-the-immediate-resignation-of-donnie
For the social and emotional welfare of our children, we need to open the schools full time in the Fall. I believe we can find a way to open safely for all students and faculty. Please be transparent as to what steps are being taken for the Fall and if this parent community can be of help in any way. Thank you.
I fully support return to in person learning for families that choose it. The schedule proposed by OUSD for afternoon in person learning is the worst possible schedule I can think of since most young kids have best concentration and focus in the morning. It is also a slap in the face to full time working families. The only people who will be able to make this type of schedule work are tech families where parents work from home full time, or where people have full time live in caregivers, or a parent who is not working.
Comment from a 3rd grader: "I want to go back to school because I feel that learning on a computer isn't as good as actual school. It's too much screens. We should go back to school. Reading on a screen at home is not good for learning. I miss getting recess with my friends, I miss being in my classroom and having the teacher and friends there to support me. At home, I feel like everything's gone black. I don't have friends or get excited to learn. I don't know if I'll get back into school."
Please bring students back to school five days a week, full days. Oakland is an outlier at this point. The data indicates that it's safe for students and teachers to be in school. At this point, our kids will get less than 20 days of in-person instruction for the entire school year. If every child was out of school, that might make sense, but many other children are in safely school. My children know their friends and family members at other schools are allowed to go in person and are begging us to move. They want to be in school! My hope is that the district embraces the science and lands on the right side of history. Keeping kids out of school is harmful and unnecessary, and this current situation doesn't instill confidence there will be a real plan for the fall. I hope the board commits publicly to providing students at all grades with full-time, in-person education.
It seems almost impossible to me (an OUSD parent) that we are debating going back to school full-time NEXT year, while most others have either gone back or are debating how to go back to the classroom THIS year. Especially with a new priority placed on teacher vaccinations, we need to get past the rancor, resist the urge to treat this as a platform to address other issues, and get our kids back into the classroom. It's been hard on everyone, certainly including teachers, but seriously, let's show our kids how to be visionary.
Thank you for your announcement that OUSD and OEA have reached a tentative agreement. Many parents have indicated, however, that their work schedules, combined with a lack of transportation, will not allow their students to attend school on a part time basis.“We will not rest until every Oakland child has access to five-days-a-week, full time in-person school; until children’s co-curricular activities and community life fully return." We look forward to hearing more details on the plan, but it appears those details will not be released until the plan is approved by OEA. As OUSD parents wait for that announcement, we urge you to plan towards a five days a week, full time in person school for the fall semester.
Can you please open up Schools five days a week. My eyes hurt 😢 almost every day, I get headaches and it does not feel good to have one. I barely know my classmates except the pepole in my pod. I can not learn please open up the schools 5 days a week. Thank you for reading this comment and I hope you take it to your heart. This is spoken by a fourth grader at Chabot Elementary School.
There is no valid reason for the failure to open classrooms in Oakland full-time, five days a week, immediately. Anything less is unacceptable.
Thank you so much for your hard work in this difficult time. I am writing in to advocate for a more full-day learning schedule, even if it's only a partial week (ie. a few days a week). As an OUSD staff person, AND an OUSD parent, I am really confused right now on how I'm supposed to return on campus by April 14, but my kindergartener may only be attending school for 2, 2 hour or so chunks a week. I really need him in full day school, at least the days that I'm also on-site at my school site. Honestly, it also makes it feel less safe imagining kids at all sorts of other childcare arrangements the rest of the week (with who knows what safety protocols!) and then coming together for a few hours a week, than having 24-29 kids all together all day every day, with contract tracing easily possible for them, and no other childcare exposure risks.
I'd like to add another voice to the chorus of "we must open fully for the fall." Teachers, at risk family members, and pretty much anyone should be vaccinated by then. I know I'm not alone when I say our family would have no choice but to take our child out of the district if this is not an option.
I am a parent of a student at Oakland Tech and strongly support in-perso, full week classes for next fall and don't understand why the plan A seems to be for "hybrid" learning. There is no reason to believe that all staff and teachers who choose will not be vaccinated by next fall! In addition, the mini mesters that have been used at Oakland Tech, and I assume, at the other high schools does not seem to be successful at all, so I hope that it is NOT repeated next year. Our family is Latinx and I can't speak for all Latinx families, but I believe I am not alone based on what my family and friends are saying.
Please start communicating about Fall now. If you are not planning to be fully open for HS, I want time to move to a district that will be open.
Pls allow the option for students K-12 back for full 5 days/wk of in-person instruction.
The teachers get priority vaccines and a bonus. What will our kids get? Partial days of 2 hr for 2 days a week is not enough.
Please work towards the option for students K-12 to be back for full 5 days/wk of in-person instruction. If not spring then a MUST for Fall. Anything less than full time with full curriculum - should not even be considered. Do not let our kids lose another year of academic instruction.
We're a long-term Oakland family and supporters of OUSD, with two of our elementary children in an OUSD school. We are requesting that OUSD and the unions work towards a full on-campus, in-person return to schooling consistent with the CDC's and local health officials' guidelines. A slow, scaffolded reopening and continuation into Spring 2021 does not serve our OUSD students well. Thank you.
First, I am thankful to hear positive news of our communities welcoming children back into classrooms. They have missed so much in social learning, education and development. I support the safe return of K-5 kids back to the previous (full time) schedule. Short hours will merely leave kids feeling like they are in a spin cycle. I hope we can lean on science and the guidance from the CDC that getting kids back to school, in person, can be done safely.
Thank you for your efforts to bring our kids back to school. I would like to encourage OUSD to evaluate models that maximize in class time including hiring aides (many schools already have them) to manage DL while the teacher teaches to both groups simultaneously or having in-person kids matched with in-person teachers and DL kids matched with DL teachers (since all teachers will be going back but presumably not all kids, this would mean that a portion of teachers would be designated to DL children to accommodate the full need.
I support kids in full-day school, 5 days a week. Two hours a day barely affords kids an opportunity to settle in and relearn conduct codes.
Pls allow the option for students K-12 back for full 5 days/wk of in-person instruction. The teachers get priority vaccines and a bonus. What will our kids get? Partial days of 2 hr for 2 days a week is not enough. Please give our students a more meaningful schedule for in person for the last 5-6 weeks of this school year.
First I'd like to thank you for asking my opinion as guaranteed by the 1st Amendment of the US Constitution.
Parents, please sign the petition to call for the immediate resignation of Donnie Barclift, Field Supervisor, Nutrition Services.
https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/petition-for-the-immediate-resignation-of-donnie