The San Francisco Unified School District announced Thursday that it will not reopen schools in January after teachers and district officials failed to agree on a plan for both school personnel and students to safely return, authorities said. on Friday.
School authorities had initially reported that they would be offering classes in person again on January 25.
“This pandemic has forced us to live with great uncertainty and it is simply not over yet,” SFUSD Superintendent Dr. Vincent Matthews said in a statement. “I am disappointed that we cannot offer a guaranteed date when we can resume in-person learning for our youngest and most vulnerable students. We will continue to work hard to provide a safe in-person learning opportunity for our students and will meet as much as possible with our business partners to complete the negotiation. “
The district is scheduled to begin its winter break starting Monday. When school resumes on January 5, educators will continue to provide distance education, authorities said.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed issued the following statement on Friday:
“It is irritating that our schools will not reopen for in-person learning in January. I can’t imagine how difficult this is for our families and our young people who haven’t been in the classroom since March and are falling behind every day. We should not create a false choice between education and a safe return to the classroom. As a society, we have a responsibility to educate our children, and safety is rooted in that responsibility. We can do both. We must do both.
Right now we are on a wave that requires us to stay home and stop the spread, but when we get through this difficult time, we must be ready to get our students into the classroom at the time our public health officials say we can. We cannot create unrealistic standards for in-person learning that are not even recommended by the Department of Public Health. I understand the concerns of some of our teachers who are in the vulnerable population and we must listen to them. But let’s be honest: San Francisco public health officials have been among the most conservative in the country in terms of reopening. When they say that our schools can begin to open again, our children should be in the classroom the next day.
And we have data that shows that our children and teachers can return to the classroom. Under the direction of the Department of Public Health, our city’s 78 community centers and the city’s 91 private and parochial schools have been open for in-person learning for months and have not experienced an outbreak. Even now, during this latest increase, the worst we’ve ever had, there have been no outbreaks. None of this is easy, but by following health protocols we can create safe environments that help us mitigate the spread of this virus and provide our children with the much-needed learning environment.
The City has been providing staff and resources to assist with the reopening of our public schools, and we will continue to do so. But to open our schools next year, SFUSD and our educators have to do the work and planning now. That means working during the holidays to do this. The City stands ready to help move this process forward. We cannot give up on our children returning to school safely. Nothing matters more. “
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