Teachers union votes to defy Washington school district and refuse in-person classes
Kindergarten teachers in a Washington school district who’d agreed to return to the classroom Wednesday have changed their mind, saying school officials didn’t address their COVID-19 safety concerns.
The Renton Education Association voted to keep its members from returning to in-person teaching despite the agreement it made with the Renton School District, KIRO reported.
The union says the district failed to address safety concerns voiced by school nurses, special education teachers and high-risk staff members, according to the news station.
“Unfortunately, we learned over the weekend that our labor partner … took action to instruct its members to not return to in-person learning on March 3rd, even though REA had already ratified (approved) an agreement that committed educators to return in-person on that date,” the school district said in a statement on its website.
The district says it did increase protocols to combat the spread of COVID-19 and that the union’s vote to block teachers from returning to the classroom is “illegal.”
“Despite our substantial efforts to work with REA, including increased health/safety protocols and prior agreements, REA continues to threaten an illegal work action to prohibit teachers from returning to our classrooms,” the district said.
The REA did not immediately respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News.
The district plans to have substitute teachers, administrators and support staff teach kindergarten students in person starting Wednesday.
However, the union’s decision has left the district “without sufficient substitutes prepared with appropriate [PPE] to properly serve … special education and inclusive preschool students,” so those students will not return to classrooms on Wednesday as planned.
The Renton School District and its 15,500 students have been doing remote learning for a year and elementary and secondary students are scheduled to return to in-person learning in phases later this month.
Renton has reported 4,972 COVID-19 cases and 60 deaths as of Tuesday, King County Public Health says. Washington has reported 321,881 cases and 4,969 deaths as of Monday, according to the Department of Health.
Other unions voice concerns
This is not the first time unions and school districts have clashed in Washington over returning to in-person instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Seattle Education Association filed three unfair labor practice complaints against Seattle Public Schools Sunday after the district deemed about 700 educators as “essential” to get students back in the classroom, a move allowed because of a loophole giving the superintendent the right to decide who needs to be on-site in buildings, The Seattle Times reported.
“SEA’s bargaining is critical to make sure all possible protections are in place to keep our students and educators safe,” said Jennifer Matter, president of the Seattle Education Association, according to the Times. “Putting additional students, some of them medically fragile, in classrooms when the district isn’t even providing adequate protection for those few students and staff in-person now, is risky, irresponsible, and reckless.”
Second-grade students in the Bellevue School District returned to classrooms in January for partial in-person learning, but their regular teachers were not in attendance, KING reported. The week of Jan. 22, teachers voted to keep classes online until they all had the opportunity to be vaccinated, according to the news station.
“We want to make sure we don’t contribute to overloading the hospitals and making our cases go up,” Kyle Reimergartin, a second-grade teacher, told KING. “A lot of educators are really worried about their own families.”
Gov. Jay Inslee continues to push for more in-person learning, The Associated Press reported. About 20% of the state’s public school students are spending time learning in a classroom.
