Gov. Gavin Newsom Offers Plans To Reopen In-Person Schools

Speaker 1: 00:00 As the state hits record deaths from the coronavirus and scientists discover a more contagious variant governor Gavin Newsome has announced a plan for students to go back to the classroom. Speaker 2: 00:11 It's never too soon by definition to talk about getting our students back into the classroom. Speaker 1: 00:17 Starting next spring, Newsome proposes reopening schools and phases beginning with the youngest students and those who struggled most with distance learning. The Devin is also promising $2 billion in state aid for testing classroom, ventilation systems and personal protective equipment. Joining us to discuss the announcement is Richard Berrera the San Diego unified school board president Richard. Welcome. Thank you, Jade. Uh, what's your reaction to the governor's plans for a phased reopening of schools beginning in February? Speaker 3: 00:49 Uh, we're in, we're encouraged by it. We sent a letter to the governor in early November that was signed by the leaders of our district, but also the other large urban districts in California. And what we asked the governor to do is to come up with a set of statewide standards, aye. That would ensure the safe reopening of schools and what we've seen in the governor's plan that he announced yesterday, uh, were many of the core elements, uh, that we had, uh, advocated for in that letter and foremost among them is the critical importance of regular testing. So, you know, we developed a partnership with UCLA a couple of months ago that is designed, uh, to be able to provide testing for every student and every adult on campus every two weeks. And we believe that that level of frequency of testing is not only necessary, uh, to protect the health and safety of, uh, people who are on campus, but as also maybe the most important strategy to allow schools to open and to stay open and, and in the governor's proposal, he is, uh, acknowledging the critical need for testing at that scale. Speaker 3: 02:14 And so we were encouraged to see that the other encouraging, uh, part of, uh, what the governor is laying out is his intention and the state's intentions and prioritize educators to receive the vaccine. And so if we could, as we work through this plan, uh, if we could get to the point that we can vaccinate every educator who needs to be on campus, when students come back for in-person learning, and if we can be doing testing at the frequency, that's necessary to allow us to know who has the virus, uh, you know, when somebody comes onto campus, we think those two elements, uh, if we're able to be successful, uh, will be the most important steps forward and allowing us to, uh, get our kids back in our classrooms and to keep them there. Speaker 1: 03:07 Given there's a new, more contagious variant of the virus circulating in San Diego. Uh, do you have any reservations about the timing of this announcement and the proposal to reopen schools for in-person learning? Speaker 3: 03:20 Yeah, of course. You know, we're obviously in a situation where the viruses, frankly, out of control and we're not only seeing the, you know, case rates, uh, you know, explode, we're not only seeing, you know, positivity rates of people who are getting tested, uh, at my, uh, you know, levels that are much too high, but of course we're also seeing overwhelming of our healthcare system. And so, yeah, I mean, uh, Jade, a lot of this comes down to, if you are a teacher or a cafeteria worker or a bus driver or principal, you have to have confidence that if you come back onto campus or of course a parent, you know, the student, you have to have confidence that it's going to be safe. And right now all of the indications are going in the, in the wrong direction. So, so that's why we keep coming back to these critical, you know, strategies around vaccination and around testing. Speaker 3: 04:19 So if we are vaccinating the adults who will be on campus, and then if we're testing at, you know, uh, at a, at a high enough level of frequency that we can know and have confidence that we know who has the virus and who doesn't on campus, those are the best strategies to build confidence, you know, among our parents and educators, that it would be safe to return. So the governor has laid out his proposal and we appreciate that, but now we, you know, we need to work with the governor and we need to work with the legislature to make sure that the vaccination schedule is accelerated and to make sure that there's enough funding, uh, to provide, you know, the level of testing that's required, because if we cannot do those things, then, you know, you can understand why parents or educators would not have confidence that now is the right time to return to in-person learning. Speaker 1: 05:17 I mean, and that brings me to my next question, Kesha board and president of the teacher's union at San Diego unified said, quote, hospital morgues in San Diego are near, or at capacity ambulances are being turned away from hospitals. It doesn't make a lot of sense to incentivize the reopening of schools with predetermined timelines when our community spread is at such concerning levels. What's your reaction to that? Speaker 3: 05:40 I, 100% agree with Kesha statement, you know, it is, it is unfortunate that the, um, framing of the governor's plan is around this idea that, you know, schools need incentives, financial incentives to reopen look, what we need is to know that it's to be safe to reopen. And then of course we need the state to provide the funding that's necessary to pay for, you know, the things that, uh, you know, the governor went over, uh, ventilation of classrooms, uh, you know, masks, PPE, and testing. All of those things are critical and, and the vaccination schedule is critical as well, but, you know, without those things in place, you know, I, I, 100% agree with Kesha that, you know, just hoping that, uh, it's safe to return to the classroom in a time when the healthcare system is being overwhelmed by the virus. That's not going to get it done. That's not going to be what is necessary to get kids back in school and to, and to have our schools remain open. Speaker 1: 06:42 The reopening plans set a case rate that a County has to be under in order to reopen San Diego County, doesn't meet that metric. So, um, how confident are you that it will come spring? Speaker 3: 06:53 Oh, there's no reason for anybody to be confident in that, you know, you were talking about, uh, you know, getting below 28 cases per a hundred thousand right now, I think San Diego counties at about 38 cases, the public health experts that we talk to believe that, that those case rates will rise, you know, in, uh, in January as a result of holiday travel. So, you know, there's absolutely no reason to believe that our County or, you know, and then you think about counties like Los Angeles and others that have higher case rates, you know, uh, are going to be in position to reopen. So again, what we keep coming back to is, you know, let's not talk about these sort of arbitrary timelines. Let's talk about getting our educators vaccinated, uh, providing the funding for testing. Those are the strategies that are going to keep people safe. And, you know, and when this, uh, final plan is approved by the legislature, we hope that the focus is on, uh, those, uh, strategies rather than just setting arbitrary timelines that, you know, frankly, Jade, we've seen these kinds of timelines before, and they just haven't panned out and that's because nobody can predict what's going to happen with the virus. Um, but right now, you know, what, uh, public health experts are predicting is that the rates are going to get worse before they get better. Speaker 1: 08:16 And as we mentioned, the governor is proposing an additional $2 billion in funding to help schools with necessary upgrades and PPE to make them safe. Is that enough? Speaker 3: 08:27 We don't think so. At first of all, we're troubled by the fact that that $2 billion is coming out of the, um, the, uh, or, you know, already in place budget for education. You know, what folks call the prop 98 budget. Um, we can't Rob from Peter to pay Paul to do this. You know, we're going to need, um, a lot of resources to help our students with learning loss, to help our students overcome, you know, the social and emotional challenges that they've faced over the course of this pandemic. So we can't take money that's necessary for supporting students, uh, out of the pot and use that, you know, to pay for things that are really health and safety issues like testing and PPE and masks and ventilation that should come on top of the funding for, uh, uh, for schools. We also are skeptical that $2 billion is really enough to pay just for the testing that, um, that the, you know, that needs to be done at the frequency that the governor has laid out. We agree with his point about, you know, the need for frequent testing. We don't think $2 billion is enough to cover it. The state actually just got over a billion dollars from the federal government as part of the COVID relief package, specifically, you know, for testing and contact tracing. We believe the state should first tap into that, uh, you know, pot of funds and then look for other funds on top of the regular education budget, uh, to pay for, uh, you know, testing and the, and the other strategies that are necessary to keep people safe. Speaker 1: 10:03 I've been speaking with Richard Berrera the San Diego unified school board president Richard, thanks for joining us. Thanks so much, Jake.