Fresno-area teachers say school district is ‘rushing’ to reopen. ‘Do I have a choice? No.’

Elementary students in Fresno County’s fourth-largest school district are going back to campus next week — but some teachers and parents say they have been shut out of the conversations leading up to the decision to reopen.

Teachers in the Sanger Unified School District were required to return campuses on Monday. Some said they didn’t feel safe returning amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“We pretty much are told what to do it would’ve been nice if the district surveyed us to get our opinion,” said Adriana Salas, a second-grade teacher at Wilson Elementary School.

The district, which has nearly 700 educators and 12,600 students, did not ask teachers if they wanted to return, Sanger Unified Superintendent Adela Jones said. Teachers are expected to show up unless they have a medical issue or live with someone who is more susceptible to COVID-19.

“Do I have a choice? No. Am I going to be ready for my kids? Yes,” Salas said. “That’s what we do all the time, we bite our tongue and you do it.”

Jones said the district met with “all the teachers from every single elementary school ... to answer their questions and ... reassure them of all of our safety protocols.”

During a Sanger Unified Teachers Association meeting last week, nearly 200 teachers were surveyed and 81% said they did not feel safe returning to in-person teaching and would rather wait until January to return, according to the union’s Facebook post.

Parents and teachers The Bee spoke with said they felt the district is “rushing” the reopening of school, but Jones said she doesn’t agree. “As far as waiting until after January, I don’t know what will be different in January that people will feel would be better,” Jones said.

Parents who have children enrolled in Sanger Unified were surveyed only after complaints were made to the district and The Bee raised questions about parent and teacher involvement in reopening plans.

On Sunday evening the district sent out a survey to parents that asked only one question about schools reopening: Do you want to return to in-person instruction or continue distance learning?

“If they (Sanger Unified) really wanted parent input they would have sent a detailed survey out earlier, not at the eleventh hour,” said Stephanie Alvarado, the Sanger Unified Teachers Association president.

Parents can fill out a form on the district’s website where they can submit questions or concerns. Jones said she is aware some parents haven’t felt they’ve been heard and that’s why the district held virtual town halls last week where parents could ask questions.

“We’ve definitely heard from our parents who felt that their voices wasn’t heard in the implementation of the plan,” Jones said. “It’s just really messy and that’s just the part that’s been the hardest of how divisive this is making everybody in the sense of trying to do what’s best for our kids and not everybody agrees with that.

Sanger Unified parent Christy Tchaparian attended two town hall meetings last week and said the district did answer her questions.

“But do I feel like I was heard? Maybe not,” she said.

Trustees will discuss reopening plans during a 7 p.m. Tuesday board meeting. The board voted on the reopening plan in June and it’s been evolving as guidelines change and they continue to gather input, Jones said.

The meeting will be streamed live. Those who want to speak during public comment must fill out a request form by 6 p.m. Tuesday. The form can be found here. People are allowed to speak to the board in person but have to leave the meeting afterward.

What does the hybrid-model schedule look like?

Transitional kindergartners, kindergarteners, and first graders will return to campuses on Nov. 2. Second and third graders will return Nov. 9. Fourth, fifth, and sixth-graders will return on Nov. 16 and all other grades will return on Jan. 11.

According to Sanger Unified’s proposed plan, students will be split into two groups. Each group of students will be on campus four days a week either in the morning or afternoon between two and a half hours and two hours and 45 minutes depending on the grade. The rest of the day students will work independently from home and Mondays are all online.

The district has a reopening task force that consists of 125 teachers, staffers and parents, Jones said. The task force along with different teacher groups give guidance on the hybrid schedule.

“After being in distance learning they were finding students were really struggling doing their asynchronous work independently,” Jones said. “They wanted to implement the AM/PM model so they (teachers) would see their student every day and less independent time they (students) would have to do work at home.”

So far, about 15-18% of students in the district will continue distance learning, Jones said.

There are many Sanger Unified parents who are also teachers in the district, Alvarado said, “so when my child is done with class are they supposed to come over to my class and hang until I’m done teaching for the day? I mean, how is that OK?”

“I think it’s hard enough for people to do their jobs without having their own child there to worry about as well,” she added.

This is the third week Sanger Unified has had small cohorts of students on campus, and Alvarado said protocols are already being broken. Some students have told their teachers their parents have had fevers and been sick, she said, and if that’s the case students should not be going to school.

Teachers also don’t have all the supplies they need, Alvarado said, and although they have been ordered they won’t come in until the middle of November after some in-person classes have already started.

Salas’ second graders will be returning Nov. 10, which means they will only be in the classroom for seven days before the Thanksgiving break. After the break there’s three weeks of school before Christmas break.

“Why disrupt our whole routine, have kids go to different schools, and different teachers for those amount of days? Just start in January with a clean state,” Salas said. “I’m more concerned for the ones (students) that are leaving (to Taft or Hallmark). They are getting another teacher and their routines (will be) totally different.”

Other Fresno County districts like Central Unified and Clovis Unified have opted to wait until the New Year. Small numbers of Clovis students would be phased back into classrooms slowly over the next three months, with a near full return of elementary students by Jan. 19.

“The end of the trimester is in November, so we know there would be parents who would still want distance learning,” Jones said. “We thought that as the trimester ends that would be a good transitional time.”

Some teachers are eager to get back into the classroom.

Dolores Neal-Martinez has 18 of her kindergartners at Lincoln Elementary School. Nine of her students come on Tuesday and the other half on Wednesday from 1 p.m. to 2p.m.

“I get to see every child in my classroom once a week,” she said. “It’s an amazing celebration. I get to see them build relationships, make connections, and get to see each other.”

Neal-Martinez said she felt safe returning to campus because she read over Sanger Unified protocols. “The district is doing everything they can to keep students and staff safe.”

‘They gave us little choice in what to do’

Sanger Unified parents either have to send their kids back to part-time in-person in November or disenroll them from the school they’ve been attending.

“I’m really mostly upset about the choices they gave us,” said Chelsea Bonilla, who has a first-grader and third-grader at John Wash Elementary school. “They gave us little choice in what to do and it put us in such a bad position.”

Students who want to continue to learn remotely can re-enroll at Taft, which is an online school, or Hallmark, an independent study school where parents would need to homeschool their children, Superintendent Jones said.

Students are still connected to their home school, Jones said, and spots will be saved for students who want to stay home. Students can also return to campuses at any time.

“It’s more of a managing system than disenrolling kids,” Jones added.

A petition was created by a Sanger Unified parent Manuel Bonilla — who is also the Fresno Teachers Association president — and Chelsea Bonilla’s husband, asking the district to continue distance learning for now because the proposed hybrid model is disrupting students and putting the community at risk.

“I want to acknowledge our parents’ thoughts and feelings and recognize there is no right plan for everyone,” Jones said.

Tchaparian has two daughters in Sanger Unified and said the teachers her kids have are “amazing.” Both of her daughters won’t be going back to campus.

“Everyone wants kids to go back to school but when it’s safe and my kids are doing fantastic,” Tchaparian said. “It’s going to be devastating to turn this part of their life that’s been consistent upside down (and) for them to have to transfer to a different school.”

Jones said the district is looking into how students can stay with their current teacher, but it’s difficult because the number of teachers and students wanting to return or distance learn doesn’t always match up.

The district is going to make sure students who are distance learning stay with the students who are at their home school, Jones said.

The Education Lab is a local journalism initiative that highlights education issues critical to the advancement of the San Joaquin Valley. It is funded by donors. Read more from The Bee’s Education Lab on our website.

This story was originally published October 27, 2020 at 5:00 AM.