Fresno Unified superintendent responds to teacher grievances as fight with union brews
Speaking in an online town hall on Thursday afternoon, Fresno Unified Superintendent Bob Nelson made his first public comment about the Fresno teacher’s union’s plans to file grievances against the district.
Teachers are asking for more time to prepare for their classes, which Nelson said he is sympathetic, but said an immediate solution is not clear.
“We continue to bargain in good faith with our labor leaders, and there is concern expressed by the Fresno Teachers Association about their need for prep time and making sure that teachers have adequate time to prepare,” said Nelson.
“What we’re trying to do is find a solution that doesn’t reduce instructional minutes for our kids, and that doesn’t disrupt schedules for families and doesn’t take supervision responsibilities and shift those burdens to site leaders or classified staff,” said Nelson.
In a news release issued on Thursday, the district said that the issue of prep time was brought to the district less than a month ago.
“We’ll work collaboratively,” said Nelson. “We want to try and provide the best support we can for our students, our staff, our teachers, and our families entirely.”
Nelson: It’s not a vaccine mandate (yet)
The main point of the town hall was trying to clear up some apparent confusion about COVID-19 protocols in schools and address questions and concerns around the “contentious” COVID-19 vaccine for Fresno Unified students.
Nelson said he wanted to make one thing clear: “There is no (COVID-19 vaccine) mandate for students at current.”
“There’s a discussion of a mandate for students,” said Nelson, “but no mandate for students would go into effect until after that vaccine received full FDA approval.”
Currently, youth ages 12, and up have access to the COVID-19 vaccine. Earlier this week, a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel approved the Pfizer vaccine for kids; the vaccine is expected to be available for 5 to 11 year-olds in early November.
Amy Idsvoog, FUSD’s executive officer of health services, said they are looking to add more vaccine clinics at several elementary schools in the coming weeks and months.
After the vaccine receives full FDA approval, Nelson said the district “would treat it the same as all the other vaccines that we expect when you come to school.”
Still, Nelson added that there are medical, religious, and personal vaccine exemptions available for those who can’t or don’t want to vaccinate their children.
Teachers and staff, however, are subject to a vaccine mandate, which went into effect earlier this month. Staff either have had to submit proof of full vaccination, proof of a first dose of a vaccine, or a medical, religious, or personal belief exemption form.
What are Fresno Unified’s COVID-19 protocols?
Nelson spent much of the evening reviewing the district’s protocols for when a student presents COVID-19 symptoms or a positive COVID-19 case. The protocols are also available on the district’s website.
If a student has COVID-19 symptoms, they will be sent to school health professionals for assessment, where they will either be examined for symptoms. If there are no confirmed symptoms, they will be sent back to class. If symptoms are present, they will wait in a COVID-19 isolation room until a parent or guardian can pick them up.
Then, the student will need a doctor’s note confirming an alternate diagnosis, a negative COVID-19 test, or to isolate for 10 days.
If a positive COVID-19 case is reported at the elementary level, the district will conduct contact tracing to notify parents and others who have been in close contact, defined as within 6-feet of the person with a positive test for 15 cumulative minutes or more in a 24-hour period. No quarantine or testing is necessary if asymptomatic.
However, if there is a second positive case reported in an elementary classroom, the district will again conduct contact tracing and, with parental consent, test students on day 5 following the exposure.
Any students that test positive or do not want to be tested must quarantine for 10 days.
The process is slightly different for secondary students, which Nelson said is because secondary students are “moving from class to class to class and they have a lot more contact with a lot more people over time.”
Once a positive case is reported, the district will start contact tracing and contact parents or guardians of close contact to ask for consent to test the student on day 5 following exposure. A negative test means the students can return to class. A positive test, or a student that does not take a test, requires quarantine and remote learning for 10 days.
