Gov. Newsom gave schools a deadline for reopening grants. Here’s why they’re waiting

Today is the deadline Gov. Gavin Newsom set for California school districts to apply for a portion of the $2 billion in grants he wants the state to set aside to help them safely return to in-person instruction.

But despite growing frustration with distance learning, districts and labor groups have said the plan falls short of what’s needed to safely reopen, and even if they do apply, it’s unlikely to result in many California students back in classrooms soon.

Furthermore, the proposal remains just that — a proposal — until the Legislature approves it, and lawmakers are wary about a plan that isn’t widely accepted by teachers or administrators.

“We would like to have schools reopened in the safest manner possible,” Assembly Budget Chair Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, said at a hearing last week. “However, I also don’t want to repeat the same mistake that we made in this last budget, where we gave districts resources to open up and we did not see that happen.”

Newsom announced his proposal in late December, giving districts a little over four weeks to come up with a COVID-19 safety plan and reach an agreement with labor groups about safety protocols.

Since then, teacher unions and district administrators have expressed concerns about the quick turnaround. They say it’s simply too risky to consider reopening while the state remains a COVID-19 hotspot and new variants of the virus begin to spread in the U.S.

Also, in order to reopen under guidelines Newsom recommends, county transmission rates need to be below 25 cases per 100,000 people — a metric few areas of the state are even close to meeting.

Sacramento County, for example, reported 45 new cases per 100,000 people on Wednesday. Los Angeles County recently reported 96.5 new cases a day per 100,000 residents.

The funding would provide schools with a base amount of $450 per student to provide optional, in-person instruction for, at a minimum, students in transitional kindergarten through second grade, those with disabilities, youth in foster care, homeless children, and those without the technology for distance learning.

The funds are intended to help schools buy the resources they need to safely reopen, including personal protective equipment and testing, which is a critical part of reopening.

Some say the money won’t cover what schools need to reopen under state guidelines. For instance, the state suggests schools in counties with the highest case rates, 14 per 100,000 people, conduct weekly asymptomatic testing of students and staff.

“There’s many schools that are just not going to be able to do that, feasibly,” said Assemblyman James Gallagher, R-Yuba City.

In conversations with members of the Assembly last week, Jessica Holmes from Newsom’s Department of Finance said the administration still believes the plan would be successful.

“I don’t necessarily agree that that it’s unlikely to result in school reopening,” Holmes told lawmakers. “Obviously, we recognize that there needs to be some changes to some of the details of the plan to make it more feasible. But we believe that it both can and will result in increasing both the safety of in person instruction and the availability of in person instruction.”

Problems with equity

Less than a week after the governor proposed the plan, the leaders of the state’s seven largest school districts sent a letter bashing the proposal for reinforcing inequities. The virus is more prevalent in low-income and minority communities, and under the state plan, more affluent districts with less community spread would be able to open ahead of disadvantaged students.

“There is little likelihood the low-income communities we serve will meet the proposed ‘Safe Schools for All’ deadline of February 1 and many experts say even March 1 is unlikely, given current health conditions,” the superintendents said on Jan. 6.

Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Austin Beutner said his district would submit a “draft application” to the state as a good-faith effort to demonstrate commitment to reopening. If the district didn’t apply by Feb. 1, it would potentially lose out on $70 million, he added.

“It’s important that all in our school community understand schools in Los Angeles Unified are prepared to begin in-person instruction as soon as health conditions allow and they also understand how flawed the state’s approach has been in establishing this process,” Beutner said in a statement.

It’s unclear how many districts will apply for the grants.

School districts submit application materials to their county office of education, which then certify eligibility to for the agency to the state’s Department of Education. Local health officers have the ability to disapprove of a plan, if they believe it would threaten the health and safety of the school or community.

Many districts, including Sacramento City Unified, are waiting until the Legislature takes action before submitting a plan.

Teachers call for vaccines to reopen

Labor groups also aren’t fond of the plan. That creates a tricky situation for districts, which need to certify that they’ve consulted with local unions in order to apply for the governor’s proposal.

The powerful California Teachers Association has been skeptical about Newsom’s plan, and has said for months it supports distancing learning for schools in counties with the highest rate of spread, not reopening.

“There are no shortcuts for stopping this surge and the new variants,” the union wrote in a letter to Newsom last week. “The virus is in charge right now and it does not own a calendar. We cannot just pick an artificial calendar date and expect to flip a switch on reopening every school for in-person instruction.”

Vaccines will be the game changer for school reopening, California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond said.

The rollout in California has been slow-going and state leaders say they’re hanging hopes on President Joe Biden’s plan to deliver a mass amount of doses within his first 100 days in office.

On Thursday, Politico reported that a frustrated Newsom had pushed back against the call for teacher vaccines during an online conversation with the Association of California School Administrators, saying “If we wait for the perfect, we might as well just pack it up and just be honest with folks that we’re not going to open for in-person instruction this school year.”

This story was originally published February 1, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Gov. Newsom gave schools a deadline for reopening grants. Here’s why they’re waiting."